Bavarian Exclusive LS1 Angel Eyes Review

[BavarianMotorWorks]

Hey guys so back in March of this year I got my headlights back from BavX and installed them back on my car. I've been using them for a little over a month now so I'm going to finally write a review. For now I only have a few pictures to post and I'm by no means a great photographer but I'll try to best explain what I see in real life vs. what you guys see in my pictures. I don't have any direct sunlight shots yet but I'll try to get them soon. Keep in mind it is very difficult to capture these lights on camera and trying to make them look like what you see in real life.

So first off here are just a couple pictures...















QUALITY OF WORK: As you can see from the first two pictures I got the blackout done along with the amber delete. The blackout looks VERY OEM and you can tell they took great care to making it look perfect. No complaints here at all. The amber delete also looks great. They said they painted over the amber lens and I'm not sure how they did it but it also looks very OEM. The rings themselves are actually fitted over the original rings. Keep in mind that both the amber lens and the stock rings CANNOT be taken out. BavX really made the best of what BMW gave us. Now another great thing BavX did that shows how dedicated they are to detail is the gap in the new rings. As many of you know when you get a larger ring there is always a gap in the ring that does not light up and typically all you see there is the plastic ring. On many of the e92 OSS/LS3 lights you can see this gap on top of the ring. On our cars what BavX did was they flipped the larger ring around so the gap is on the bottom. Take a look at stock headlights and you will see a chrome piece of metal about an inch wide that is on the ring. They painted this chrome piece matte black also and it seems like they actually cut out the piece of plastic from the aftermarket rings that does not light up. The amount they cut out is as wide as the chrome piece you see in stock headlights. This is a very nice touch and all my friends didn't even know the original rings were behind the aftermarket ones. You REALLY have to get up close to notice. And lastly the seal. The reason no one else has touched our lights is because of the difficulty of getting them open. You have to actually cut through part of our headlights to get them open. BavX did a great job with the seal. I've been through many rainstorms already here in NJ and absolutely NO fogging of any kind. It's actually better than stock since even when I was stock I had a little bit of fog near the amber lens from time to time.

INDIVIDUAL LED's: These next 3 pictures were shot from roughly 15ft away. As you can see from this distance you can hardly notice the individual LED's. Keep in mind in real life you don't see the light bleeding as you do in the pictures. The rings look very sharp and distinct. It's not till you get 10ft and closer where you see the individual LED's like in the one picture above. Again for most of the time where you're driving all on lookers will see 4 evenly lit distinct angel eyes.

BRIGHTNESS: So as I said before these lights are definitely daytime visible. The reason this is true is because each individual LED is facing outward. Think of how Audi's LED lights are made. They have bigger LED's that make up their shape but are pointed outwards. On the LS1's each LED is smaller but there are over 200 of them. This system does not rely on a light source to travel through an optics ring like the stock lights do. As a comparison I have a friend with a B8 Audi A4. These are the new ones with LED's and side by side our lights were very very similar in brightness as I expected they would. His car looked like it was squinting and mine looked like it had it's eyes wide open. Also keep in mind that even though these are LED's they still do dim when the low beams are turned on. Even when dimmed they are still noticeable. With the low beams on you can make out 4 rings.

COLOR: Color is always the tricky subject. Especially when it comes to HID's and LED's. Everyone's opinion can be slightly different so I'm going to try to describe it as best as possible. My color scale in my mind goes like this: 4300k is mostly white with a tiny bit of a yellow hue, 5000k to me is pretty much a pure white no yellow or blue, 6000k is mostly white with a slight blue hue kind of like 4300k except the yellow hue is blue, 8000k is like 50% white 50% blue. I've actually never seen 8000k in person but would guess it looks like that. Now I would say the color of these lights fall around 6000k to 6500k. It almost depends I think when they are on full brightness (full power) it looks closer to 6000k. Take a look at the last picture where you can see the reflection off the housing. This is very close to what I see in real life. When you look directly at the ring you see a lot of white with a tiny bit of a blue/purple "aura" coming off of it. When you get up close and look at the reflection off the housing you see a small bit of blue/purple. Now color is all a matter of preference but I personally like it. I think it gives it a bit of contrast to my dark car and the small bit of blue/purple is reminiscent of when you look at the cutoff on some HID's and you get that flash of blue/purple color.


COMPARISONS: Now I've been fortunate to try many different angel eyes. I've tried GP Thunder 7500k/8500k, HID angel eyes, and LUX angel eyes. Each one has it pros and cons. Since all these options have been reviewed before I'll just briefly goes over them.

Gp Thunders are obviously the cheapest way to change your look. But because they are dimmer than stock and closer to the color of natural sunlight they perform very badly during the day. You'll most likely only see the inner ring lit up during the day and even then it won't be noticeable. At night it doesn't get much better. It dims just like stock and won't be as white anymore. It will still look a lot better than stock but it's still not a head turner.

I wouldn't recommend HID angel eyes to anyone. Again this is MY opinion but I think they are overly bright and well I guess the people that flashed their high beams at me thought the same. My personal friend's opinions were the same as mine they are too bright. The inner ring is VERY overpowered and bleed light like crazy. Even during the day it seemed too bright. Plus you have to wire two ballasts and route wires to give it power from the battery terminal. I really can't think of one pro for this option. Well it's a head turner just like the LS1's...but in a bad way.

LUX really is only great at night. Marc (guy who makes LUX) is a standup guy and tried to do the best with how BMW designed our headlights but the bottom line is it will be very hard to see the LUX during the day. If it's in direct sunlight you probably won't see them at all. Where they really shine is during the night. Because it's only 2-4 LED's that's being powered they don't really dim much if at all. They have a really nice color and standout at night. Also it's pretty much plug and play and after the redesign you can now store the power supply in the headlight housing again so that's nice. Only other con would be price since it is more expensive than HID angel eyes and GP Thunder.

Now while I was getting my HPFP recall done my dealer gave me a 2011 328i xDrive Coupe as a loaner so I had the chance for live with this car for a day and was able to compare them to my angel eyes. Surprisingly the new angel eyes also do bleed some light. No where near as bright as HID's and it's even for all 4 rings. This actually does not matter during the day because the sunlight actually "washes" away the bleeding effect. You can tell it's bleeding light though if it's dark out and you keep it on full brightness. It actually hurts to look at them. That's why when the low beams are on they dim considerably. They dim to the point where it is less bright than my LS1 after it dims. This also explains why my car looked brighter when I unlocked my car while walking towards it vs. doing the same for the loaner car. Again during the day this does not matter and that's why they look distinct when you see them on the road. They do have a really nice color to them. It's pretty much a pure white color (5000k). To be honest the LS1 actually have a more distinct look to them because the LED's are facing outwards directly at people.

CONCLUSION: Well I think that's about it. If I missed anything or if you have questions please ask. For the few who have this mod done if you disagree on something I said please let everyone know.

All I know is angel eyes were one of the first mods I wanted to do on my car when I bought it and realized after trying out many different options I was not happy. A great way to put it is that I know the LS1's aren't perfect (individual LED's and maybe could be slightly whiter) BUT it is good enough that I am now moving on to other mods and do not have to worry about angel eyes. That is saying something because I am usually very picky when it comes to these types of things. If you think about it it's a mod you use every time you drive your car. I have had so many people notice my car. As an example I have never had anyone give me a thumbs up, wave, or do a double take before this mod. Now in the past month I had 3 series owner acknowledge my lights. There was a 4 way intersection and we were across from each other at our own respective red lights. When mine turned green and I was making my left turn he flashed his lights as I crossed his car. When I picked up my car at the dealer I started up my car as two techs were walking into the bay area. One tech saw my lights and almost tripped over the other guy and started pointing at my car. Just today I pulled up behind this G37 coupe owner. He slowed down and moved into the right lane. As I passed him he stuck his hand out and gave me a thumbs up. So all in all I think this mod to me was worth every penny for something I use every time I start my car.

[outsider]

Great review. Really dig the pics you took as well. Car looks positively evil lurking in the shadows... lol

Would you mind taking a pic or two with them completely off just to see what the car looks like with the other changes done to the lights? (A wider angle shot showing both lights?)

I think this is probably the best option if you want the the best angel eyes you can get... but the process to get them done is what kills it for me.

[Satalite]

Bro just got the LS3 rings too. They are by far of the best quality of work and installed correctly. I can't get over how bright they are in the daylight...

And if anyone is concerned with blue/purple color its impossible to take pictures to justify the color in person.

[Satalite]

Originally Posted by BimmerEngineer

Well David they look nice but are wayyy to expensive... But again as I've told other venders and many other people, nothing compares to the OEM stock yellow rings in brightness during daylight... except a HID kit and they dont work well..
Now, here's the other funny issue, everyone that says they've taken daytime pics are all taken on cloudy days so it's 40% darker than full daylight, just like your pics...

Take a simple pic of them on (keep your parking lights off) with the car running in direct sunlight.. It's kindergarden simple yet nobody else can seem to do it: Park car so front is facing into direct sunlight ( the whole front of yuor car should be lit up by the sun and then turn car on and lets see if those rings are TRULY daylight bright... Then with camera on, turn your headlights on and lets see what happens... Too purply for me... I prefer the audi superwhite\light blue look same as the LED rings on the new 2011 bmws.

the other thing is when we turn on the headlights in a BMW, the rings automatically dim 50%.... What do yours do now? FYI: the led rings on all the new 2011 3\5\7 X3 series cars dont dim at all... Give us what we've been waiting fo, a true daylight, direct sunlight pic....

Thx... John

Full out in the sunlight picture with iPhone. Before install.

[BavarianMotorWorks]

Hey John thanks for your feedback but I'm sorry to say you're wrong on almost all your points...well maybe except for the HID part they do not perform well.

To start did you even read through my whole review. I know it's long but all the info is in there. I never said I took any daytime pictures I said I would get them posted up when I get the chance to take shots in direct sunlight. Today just happened to be the day I decided to take pictures and write this review because I'm on vacation from work. And if you didn't know today was a very cloudy/rainy day here in NJ. So like I said I will try to take daytime pictures as soon as I can and post them up. I have nothing to hide.

As for your statement about color I already said it is all about preference. Just for your information my friend with the Audi actually really likes the color of my lights and doesn't think they are too blue/purple at all. He actually wishes his lights were slightly bluer. Have you seen an A5/S5 in person before? These actually have a bluer light than most Audi's. Have you actually even seen all of these lights in person before making these statements? Because I can tell you that I have run GP Thunder, LUX LED, HID angels, LS1, and compared DIRECTLY to Audi and the newer BMW LED angel eyes. I've even laid out Pro and Cons for all the stuff I've run INCLUDING my own LS1.

And just to correct more wrong info the new BMW LED angel eyes do dim when the headlights are turned on. So unless there was a serious malfunction in the 3 series loaner I got they do dim just like everything else. Did you miss the part about where I said my LS1 are brighter in it's dimmed state vs the BMW LED system in it's dimmed state?

Thx... Dave

[Riley1524]

Now, that's a review!!! Great info and comparisons of all the different AE options David!!! I would def. go with this setup, but I don't want to take my headlights out and ship them off. I'm waiting for my LUX amber kit to come in the mail and plan to snap some daytime, full sunlight shots. I'm sure your happy, I to have tried about 4 different light/LED options and all have sucked except the GP thunder 8500k V2 bulbs ( which are different than V1 in brightness by-the-way.) Thanks for the great review!!!!!

[escobar929]

in for daytime pics

[ronster]

Originally Posted by Riley1524

Now, that's a review!!! Great info and comparisons of all the different AE options David!!! I would def. go with this setup, but I don't want to take my headlights out and ship them off. I'm waiting for my LUX amber kit to come in the mail and plan to snap some daytime, full sunlight shots. I'm sure your happy, I to have tried about 4 different light/LED options and all have sucked except the GP thunder 8500k V2 bulbs ( which are different than V1 in brightness by-the-way.) Thanks for the great review!!!!!

Sorry for thread-jacking...

So Riley, are GP 8500k V2 bulbs H8? Are they visible in daylight? Do you know how they compared to mtec cosmo blue?

Cheers...

[Riley1524]

I don't want to jack David's thread either, but I can't say, being that I never will run mtec bulbs on my car and they are H8 halogen bulbs! The inner ring is very visible and the outside ring is also compared to other configurations I've tried as long as you run just the running lights. If you turn the headlights on, it dims halogen bulbs by 50%. You can't tell in this pic, but this was taken in full, bright sunlight. Still will be changing them out with my lux amber kit though>)

[BavarianMotorWorks]

Hey Riley thanks for chiming in. I didn't want to go too much into detail in my main review but the Gp Thunder 7500 and 8500 I tried were both V2 versions of the bulbs. Even with the 8500 installed the outer rings was just so easily washed out. It makes sense though that during the day the 8500 might appear brighter only because it is a bluer colored bulb. The 7500 is more of a pure white. Like I said before for the price it is not bad but everyone knows that. The best way I can put it is this. Some people call the Gp Thunders an upgrade and some people don't. The ones that call it an upgrade like the color change enough that they are willing to lose the outer ring visibility. The ones who don't see it as an upgrade prefer the stock look because both rings are visible even during the day.

Anyway I got around to taking some direct sunlight pictures. Just a couple things to note. I don't know why some pictures have a purple hue around the rings but that is not the way it looks like in real life. Now I also wanted to really wash my car before taking some better pictures but since some people are doubting how these look in direct sunlight I decided to just take them today. Luckily we have a nice sunny day today here in NJ.













The first 3 pictures are from various distances. The first one is about 10-15 ft away. The second one is from the end of my drive way. The third one I'm actually across the street and on my neighbors lawn. You can also see in the next two pictures how intense the sunlight is by looking at my bumper. You can see the sunlight reflecting off. Keep in mind in real life these are VERY visible in direct sunlight. And all 4 rings are very distinct and all evenly lit up.

-Dave

[Riley1524]

Looks Great!!!

[E92White]

Looks amazing !! Thank you for taking the time to do this review..

I really want to get this setup.

[Salazar]

Can those angel eyes be on without the corner lights being lit? Most pictures I see with the LS1 have the corner lights always lit.

[BavarianMotorWorks]

Hey Salazar thanks for reminding me to mention that.

These angel eyes work just like stock does. Meaning they fade in and out and run as DRL's just like stock. The only reason my corner lights were on were because I didn't want to leave the car running while I was trying to take my pictures.

I do not have any experience with DSLR's and actually this is one of the first times I've taken photos with my new Canon so I was trying to adjust white balance, aperture, etc. and out of the 100 pictures I took over the past two days I took the ones that I thought represented what they look like in real life.

Just for everyone's information my angel eyes are at full power for these pictures. Just for everyones's information if you have the car off completely and just turn the dial to city lights on the angel eyes will get the reduced voltage. The same as if you turned on your headlights or if you unlock you door and the angel eyes come on. However if you press the start button twice without the car turning on and go into accessory mode the angel eyes will get full voltage.

So yes while I am driving around during the day all you see are 4 angel eyes. I am however going to get my car coded so that my corners never turn on unless I use the blinker which I think will look great along with my silver corners I have now.

-Dave

[outsider]

More awesome pics... wow those things look awesome. Can you take a pic with them off completely? Would like to see how the housings look.

[BavarianMotorWorks]

I'll try to get more pictures when I get the chance. But the first picture is with the lights completely off. I'll try to get more from afar though.

-Dave

[Raine]

Looks awesome. Thanks for the pics.

[ronster]

Originally Posted by Riley1524

I don't want to jack David's thread either, but I can't say, being that I never will run mtec bulbs on my car and they are H8 halogen bulbs! The inner ring is very visible and the outside ring is also compared to other configurations I've tried as long as you run just the running lights. If you turn the headlights on, it dims halogen bulbs by 50%. You can't tell in this pic, but this was taken in full, bright sunlight. Still will be changing them out with my lux amber kit though>)

Thanks Riley for posting the pics... those look very nice & visible... for that price they can't be beat...

cheers...

[Tronic2010]

Originally Posted by Riley1524

Looks Great!!!

x2 looks super

[Satalite]

Originally Posted by Tronic2010

x2 looks super

I can definitely say these are bright enough turned on by themselves at night to light up a good bit of road!

[Bullitt]

Great review Dave.

It looks astronomically sick!!

[Simon_135i]

This will probably be my next mod... Just need someone to take off my front bumper and take out the housing...