HID Angel Eyes Post Mortem and DTEC v8 LED Install

[acivick]

Been a while since I've posted here but I figured I would post up some long term use info for my set of HID angel eyes, which looked great, but had some pretty serious reliability issues.

First some background. I've had the HIDs for about 4 years now. They are from Alpine (I believe they're v2). Since I've gotten them, I've had 2 or 3 ballasts give out, which I either had to have replaced or just dealt with it. The typical symptom would be intermittent failure of one of the sides (whichever one had the faulty ballast). Recently, I went on a cross country trip, travelling about 8-9 hours a day, and the one side that was still good ended up failing completely and I started getting an adaptive headlight error.

So I decided enough was enough. In the intervening time, LED solutions seem to have gotten a lot better, and I thought that I should be able to get almost comparable performance with a cleaner install and finally say goodbye to the HIDs. I eventually went with the DTEC v8 LEDs, which I purchased from E92 Lighting, based on some of the stuff I've read here and while I still have the adaptive headlight error (probably need to bring it in and clear the code, still hoping I don't have a motor issue), I have to say I'm pretty impressed. The v8's give the option from going anywhere from a pure white to very blue, which I liked, and I chose one of the lower blue settings. They were a cinch to install, especially when compared to the HIDs.

Here's a quick pictorial post mortem on the HIDs (all pics in direct sunlight):

How the HIDs look. Note the passenger side is out because of some failure. The driver side also has a wonky ballast, but it does light up when they turn on about 50% of the time. First one had low beams on, second does not.



After taking the HIDs out, I noticed there was some damage to one of the power connectors on the wiring harness. This was likely the culprit for the complete failure on the passenger side.


I also noticed that there was some discoloration and fogging of the glass of the bulbs. I'm not sure how this may or may not impact performance in the long run.

[acivick]

Now on to the DTEC's:
Here's a couple shots of them without any color modification (max white), first one without low beams, second with them on.



Then I started playing with the color. Second one is max blue.



The next two are a max white/max blue comparison, and a shot in the shade. It's actually a little bluer than what you see in the shade photo, but I think it gives you an idea.



And finally, a direct comparison between the LED (max white) and HID .



Obviously, the HIDs are much brighter, but I was surprised by how bright the LEDs were. It's probably better now, since I won't be blinding the people I am behind anymore. Well, I hope this was informative for anyone thinking about picking up a set. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

[ShocknAwe]

Actually the LEDs look much better than the HIDs, very clean and even illumination given the crappy engineering of our rings.

[saifsiddiqui]

Anyone here try the Version 9s? Ive been looking for a review on thr newest versions.

[ShocknAwe]

Originally Posted by saifsiddiqui

Anyone here try the Version 9s? Ive been looking for a review on thr newest versions.

http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showt...=926143&page=3

Click link and scroll down a bit.

[saifsiddiqui]

Woah that was a read but finally got a review from that lol. Thanks!

[ShocknAwe]

Originally Posted by saifsiddiqui

Woah that was a read but finally got a review from that lol. Thanks!

NP Happy to help!