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      06-06-2014, 09:02 AM   #1
darkrom
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Stop Wasting $ On Expensive Angel Eyes

So some of you will love this, some of you will hate it (looking at vendors mainly on this one) but I have to share what I've found.

I see people complaining about the stock angel eyes (yellow ones) being dull as hell. No problem I coded those from the stock 12v to 13.8v and wow what a difference. Now they were easy to see during the day time.

Here is a pic of the OEM light on my car at stock voltage.




Here is the same light setup coded for 13.8 volts instead of 12v. HUGE difference in person.





Ok so the mustard yellow was coded to actually visible light during the day, and a STRONG light at night. Awesome. I was happy for a while since this cost me nothing.


Then the time came where people were saying "yeah I want that white light not the yellow crap, better drop $200 or whatever on some LED lights, nothing is as bright as the name brand!"

WRONG.

I ordered some cheapo white halogen bulbs on amazon. I want to say I paid between $12 and $18 shipped for both bulbs.

Here are the no name bulbs I used on my own car.





Now for the good part....results.


Here is the left one with my awesome yellow stock glow.






Right one with the new cheapo bulbs.






Both at once.





Mandatory night shot with headlights OFF. This is 100% angel eyes with nothing but cheapo halogens.






Now keep in mind its hard to take pics of lighting, especially with a cell phone. In person these white lights legitimately look like HID/LED angel eyes to me, just none of the wasted money that comes with either, or the heat that comes with HID lights.

I hope this saves a lot of members some serious cash. Don't get ripped off.
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      06-06-2014, 09:23 AM   #2
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I agree 100%, installed some Mtecs from Amazon, nice white now I will have them coded for the higher voltages.

Btw your pics are huge!!!
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      06-06-2014, 09:27 AM   #3
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Huge pics are the best pics. Honestly I just didn't want to shrink them down. Shows better detail + I'm lazy while writing this all up while working.


Protip for easy coding ANYONE can do get an android app called BMWhat for $50 or so, then buy their adapter they sell for maybe $30. Boom $80 and you can do most of the coding you normally need to pay for and use a laptop etc, but its a simple GUI that anyone can handle. I used a cheap BT adapter before and it wasn't nearly as reliable as theirs, and didn't allow me to do certain things. Once I got theirs for example I was able to disable my headlight washers. The communication quality on my generic BT adapter wasn't good enough to allow that.


They totally are worth spending $80 total to do your own coding. I've coded my friends X5, and soon I'll do my other friends E92 M3. $80 to code 3 cars so far. Not bad at all. Takes less than 10 minutes even on my first time using the app. Yet another way to save money vs paying $$$$ for coding. The one feature it is missing that I REALLY want is to disable the idrive startup warning, but I'm working on learning to do that the old school way on my laptop. I'll get it eventually unless BMWhat gets that added in the next update or something.
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      06-06-2014, 09:28 AM   #4
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Yup, I have the higher voltage coded on. Night and day difference. Vastly prefer them to the aftermarket white/bluish ones, which frankly look eurotrash/ricey.
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      06-06-2014, 09:29 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TheSt|G View Post
Yup, I have the higher voltage coded on. Night and day difference. Vastly prefer them to the aftermarket white/bluish ones, which frankly look eurotrash/ricey.

I think the aftermarket ones like lux etc look quite nice, but they look exactly like my cheap halogens with the higher voltage... lol

I can think of a lot of things to spend the $200 on instead of angel eyes, at least when I can get the same thing done for all of $15.
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      06-06-2014, 10:46 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TheSt|G View Post
Yup, I have the higher voltage coded on. Night and day difference. Vastly prefer them to the aftermarket white/bluish ones, which frankly look eurotrash/ricey.
How long have you had them coded? Any issues with overheating in the harnesses or discoloration of the angel eyes themselves?

Quote:
Originally Posted by darkrom View Post
Huge pics are the best pics. Honestly I just didn't want to shrink them down. Shows better detail + I'm lazy while writing this all up while working.
Do you have any pictures without burn-in? I recognize this is unlikely, doesnt hurt to ask though.
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      06-06-2014, 10:50 AM   #7
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can you tell if there's any significant increase in heat due to higher voltage? that would be my only concern. halogen bulbs will have less life but with the savings it's great for the budget.
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      06-06-2014, 10:55 AM   #8
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No significant heat difference. Acording to my IR thermometer anyway. I will say with the OEM bulbs I coded this change right after getting the car. Months later everything was fine. Others have done this on E90s without issue.

All "potential issues" seem to be brought up by people selling LEDS or those who already spent their money on it.

The way I see it if my bulb dies marginally faster than it would at 12v I'll spent the $15 every couple YEARS to replace it haha.

I wish I could show you guys in person. I really can't figure out how to get a good pic, the light is just too bright and looks all weird. I'm no cameraman sorry.
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      06-06-2014, 11:01 AM   #9
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ok cool. you'll never get a good light unless you can use the proper aperature and shutter speeds as well iso. too much work to get a perfect pic.
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      06-06-2014, 11:29 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by darkrom View Post
No significant heat difference. Acording to my IR thermometer anyway. I will say with the OEM bulbs I coded this change right after getting the car. Months later everything was fine. Others have done this on E90s without issue.

All "potential issues" seem to be brought up by people selling LEDS or those who already spent their money on it.

The way I see it if my bulb dies marginally faster than it would at 12v I'll spent the $15 every couple YEARS to replace it haha.

I wish I could show you guys in person. I really can't figure out how to get a good pic, the light is just too bright and looks all weird. I'm no cameraman sorry.
I'm not saying its a bad thing, but there has to be a significant heat difference. When the bulbs are dimmed they are only around 4v, versus at full power they are at 12v, which is about a 23 watt difference. you are introducing about 22 watts of extra heat into the bulb. Most of that is radiated outwards so you wont see a direct temperature difference on the bulb, but the surrounding temperatures of the housing, reflector and the lens increases.
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      06-06-2014, 11:41 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ShocknAwe View Post
How long have you had them coded? Any issues with overheating in the harnesses or discoloration of the angel eyes themselves?
No problems so far. They are running within stock parameters.
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      06-06-2014, 11:55 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LuxAngelEyes View Post
I'm not saying its a bad thing, but there has to be a significant heat difference. When the bulbs are dimmed they are only around 4v, versus at full power they are at 12v, which is about a 23 watt difference. you are introducing about 22 watts of extra heat into the bulb. Most of that is radiated outwards so you wont see a direct temperature difference on the bulb, but the surrounding temperatures of the housing, reflector and the lens increases.

While it is possible, I can't find anyone reporting problems. People have been doing this since at least 2006.
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      06-07-2014, 05:32 PM   #13
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Can you post some larger pics? I can't seem to see them............
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      06-07-2014, 08:08 PM   #14
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darkrom, just did this today based on your advice in the new england thread. They look great!!! I too have some cheap white ebay bulbs. Blindlingly bright!
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      06-07-2014, 08:47 PM   #15
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Originally Posted by other_evolved View Post
Can you post some larger pics? I can't seem to see them............
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      06-07-2014, 08:50 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LuxAngelEyes View Post
I'm not saying its a bad thing, but there has to be a significant heat difference. When the bulbs are dimmed they are only around 4v, versus at full power they are at 12v, which is about a 23 watt difference. you are introducing about 22 watts of extra heat into the bulb. Most of that is radiated outwards so you wont see a direct temperature difference on the bulb, but the surrounding temperatures of the housing, reflector and the lens increases.
Yes, not biased at all.
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      06-07-2014, 09:02 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by potxoli View Post
darkrom, just did this today based on your advice in the new england thread. They look great!!! I too have some cheap white ebay bulbs. Blindlingly bright!
Glad it looks good.

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Originally Posted by BaNaNaBoy69 View Post
Yes, not biased at all.
See thats the thing, I don't have anything against lux or anyone, I just don't like that people feel like they have no other options. Given the option to have my halogens or lux for the same price, I'd choose lux. However I don't view it as worth $180+ extra.
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      06-07-2014, 11:34 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by darkrom View Post
Glad it looks good.

See thats the thing, I don't have anything against lux or anyone, I just don't like that people feel like they have no other options. Given the option to have my halogens or lux for the same price, I'd choose lux. However I don't view it as worth $180+ extra.
For sure, same here. I haven't seen any aftermarket LED angel eyes that come close to stock BMW LED corona rings. I can't wait to code my corona rings to 13.8v!
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      06-08-2014, 11:29 AM   #19
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So why wait :P
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      06-08-2014, 03:18 PM   #20
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Yes, not biased at all.
Please re-read what I wrote above... Never once did I make any comment about buying a different product or the product we offer, I simply made a factual statement that there will be more heat and Nothing more than that.

Last edited by LuxAngelEyes; 06-09-2014 at 09:46 AM..
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      06-08-2014, 03:36 PM   #21
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Are there any documented cases of headlight failure from increasing voltage?
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      06-09-2014, 07:13 AM   #22
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Good luck with your fire risk and immanent headlamp failure
That's pretty dramatic, any documented cases of that? I've seen plenty of aftermarket angel eyes catching fire.
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