Alpine 8000K HID Angel Eye Kit Review with Pics

frankzlin79 · 08-14-2010, 01:37 PM

I received my Alpine 8000K HID Angel Eye Kit a couple of days ago and just installed them today. The kit comes with everything you see in the picture below. It also comes with two baggies of zip ties and screws. I'm not sure what the screws were for, as they are not necessary for an M3 installation. I ended up using all the ZIP ties. I also had to use some 3M double sided tape (my own) to tape the passenger side component (black rectangular box from the ballast wire) on the exact opposite side of the HID ballast. Alex's YouTube video recommended the gray ballast be taped underneath an OEM metal bracket on the car, which I did. I then got my 3M double sided tape and taped the other part of the ballast (the black rectangular block hanging off of the HID ballast wire) on the opposite side of the metal bracket. I then zip tied this black rectangular block to the metal bracket as well. Sorry, forgot to take pics of the installation for this part.

It took me and another forum member freakin' 1 hr 45 min to do the install, because we...umm...took our time. The hardest part for me was getting the OEM nut off of the power in the first step of installation. The nut was on fairly tight in my car and I ended up causes a nice sparkling orange firework display inside my engine bay when the ccwrench hit the car. But the only damage was burn marks on my wrench.

After that, the hardest part was putting the new HID bulbs. The HID bulbs are about 1" longer than stock or GP Thunders H11s. That made it tough to get into the housing. Once inside the housing, we probably spent another 15-20 min/side getting the HID bulb's teeth to lock into place. My wrists are nice and cut-up now. All the wires got tucked away pretty nicely and everything is secure with zip ties. No loose parts at all.

Don't let the high temperature of 8000K fool you and make you think it's going to be too blue. I am not a fan of blue lights. In real life, 8000K is a super bright and clean white. I'm glad I went with it rather than the 7000K or 6000K. The inner ring is obviously brighter than the outer ring. However, at certain angles from the side or in front of the car, the light output looks evenly distributed. Do not stare at the angel eyes for too long. I was seeing dark spots afterwards for a couple of minutes. It seems like the farther you step back from the car (say > 20 ft) the brighter they are.

Onto the pictures. I will update this post with night time pictures whenever I have time. Note, my HID bulbs for my headlights are Philips 6700K Flashstar Ultinon.

Here is a wiring diagram to see how the mess of wires are hooked up. The labels are self explanatory.

The remaining pics were taken at 1:00 pm on a sunny day.

Headlights Off

Headlights Off

Headlights On

Halos On. Headlights On. No Camera Flash.

Halos On. Headlights Off. No Camera Flash.

The night time pics are deceiving. The light output appears like a blob. But in reality, the rings are pretty defined. But don't stare too long, or you will go blind.

Cptn Mo 703 · 08-14-2010, 04:34 PM

Alex's Alpine HID kit FTMFW

frankzlin79 · 08-14-2010, 04:47 PM

Well this is not good. I go out for my first drive. When I return home, the passenger side halo is out, but the driver side is on. I checked all connections and everything seems tight. How could this happen so quickly? They were working fine when I took those pictures. Arrrrghhhh!

deamon · 08-14-2010, 05:32 PM

+1

frankzlin79 · 08-14-2010, 06:14 PM

I just got done talking to Alex on the phone. He suspected I had a bad ballast. So, he had me move the bad ballast (passenger side) over to the driver side and connect the ballast to the driver side power and driver side halo. The halo did not light up as expected because the ballast was bad.

I re-connected the good ballast back to the driver side power and driver side halo--the halo lights up.

Alex is shipping me a new ballast on Monday...hopefully I get it by Tuesday.

To be continued...

richardbb85 · 08-14-2010, 07:28 PM

good stuff

Nucking Futs! · 08-15-2010, 11:21 PM

Sorry to hear about the defective ballast.

Good to hear Alex took care of it even though it was on the weekend.

- Jimmy

Jameson@Alpine · 08-15-2010, 11:36 PM

Lookin' sweet! That replacement will be with you shortly!

xsilvor · 08-16-2010, 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankzlin79

I just got done talking to Alex on the phone. He suspected I had a bad ballast. So, he had me move the bad ballast (passenger side) over to the driver side and connect the ballast to the driver side power and driver side halo. The halo did not light up as expected because the ballast was bad.

I re-connected the good ballast back to the driver side power and driver side halo--the halo lights up.

Alex is shipping me a new ballast on Monday...hopefully I get it by Tuesday.

To be continued...

I bet driving around with one eye missing is driving you crazy

Were you able to remove the ballast without too much trouble? At least this will give you an opportunity to get it attached with a little more surface area for the double sided tape.

To anyone thinking of doing this mod, try to find yourself someone with freakishly small hands. It will shave half an hour off your install time

frankzlin79 · 08-16-2010, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sales@alpine

Lookin' sweet! That replacement will be with you shortly!

Thank you!

frankzlin79 · 08-16-2010, 05:02 PM

If I just had one halo lit up, that would attract cops. I wanted to avoid the situation where a cop might pull me over and say that my headlight is out (when in fact, officer, my headlights aren't even on!) Therefore, I turn on my main headlamps during the daytime to make things look even.

I was able to remove the bad ballast and hook it up to the driver side power and bulb in about 20 min. The pain was undoing all my nicely done ZIP ties. The major pain was having to push through the wires from the ballast that have the H11 connection ends underneath the front brace bar. This step of just routing these two connectors through probably took me 10 min. I found a way to secure the gray box of the ballast and the black rectangular part of the ballast with ZIP ties unto the car's front brace. It holds very strongly. I will take a picture of my install when I get the new ballast.

I highly recommend to anybody doing this install to get one of those wire grabber tools with the mini claw on the end. Anybody know where to buy one of these? Home Depot maybe?

Also, I don't recommend doing the install in 100 deg heat like I was doing. I was in the shade and still almost heat exhausted myself.

Trier Germany · 08-17-2010, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankzlin79

I just got done talking to Alex on the phone. He suspected I had a bad ballast. So, he had me move the bad ballast (passenger side) over to the driver side and connect the ballast to the driver side power and driver side halo. The halo did not light up as expected because the ballast was bad.

I re-connected the good ballast back to the driver side power and driver side halo--the halo lights up.

Alex is shipping me a new ballast on Monday...hopefully I get it by Tuesday.

To be continued...

Alex is the Man!!!! I had one of my 6K bulbs that was delaminated at the base and he sent me two new bulbs. I can't be happier with this mod My angel eyes look so F!@#$ awesome

thanks Alex!!!!!!!!!!!!!! awesome kit and great customer service

Chris

MMMorish · 08-17-2010, 09:52 PM

Are the rings defined at night or does it look like a blob of light?

frankzlin79 · 08-17-2010, 10:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MMMorish

Are the rings defined at night or does it look like a blob of light?

At night, your headlights should be on. And the rings are very defined, because they are brighter than the headlights.

At night, and your headlights happen to be off, then of course, the rings are very defined as well.

The halos are almost bright enough to be used as headlights. The light from the halos are actually so bright that they will project onto the ground and light up the ground.

Picture of one halo off. Headlights off. No flash on camera. Pic taken at 10:15 pm. (I have a pretty good camera and lens, so that's why this low-light picture comes out so bright.)

Picture of one halo on. Headlights off. No flash on camera. Pic taken at 10:15 pm.

So, I'm not kidding guys. The Alpine kit halo rings are insanely bright. The picture above speaks for itself. Remember, this is with just ONE halo on.

Remember, my passenger-side angel eye is currently out...waiting for a replacement ballast. But it kind of looks like my main headlights are on, but they are off in both pictures.

onefastdoc · 08-18-2010, 04:09 PM

Can someone post pics of the 6000K halos so we can see how they compare with the 8000K halos.

Thanks

outie · 08-18-2010, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by onefastdoc

Can someone post pics of the 6000K halos so we can see how they compare with the 8000K halos.

Thanks

I am interested in seeing the 6000k as well.

eclipsisNA · 08-18-2010, 09:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankzlin79

Well this is not good. I go out for my first drive. When I return home, the passenger side halo is out, but the driver side is on. I checked all connections and everything seems tight. How could this happen so quickly? They were working fine when I took those pictures. Arrrrghhhh!

Most likely, there's nothing wrong with your passenger side bulb or ballast. With the HID kits (including camaross's), sometimes the passenger side bulb won't ignite on start up of the car. My workaround is pretty simple whenever the bulb won't ignite:

iDrive--> Settings--> Vehicle/Tires --> Daytime Lights

Scroll down to the option that says something like "Daytime Lights", uncheck (or deselect) the option, then recheck it again. Repeat this until the passenger bulb comes on. Always fixes the problem for me.

frankzlin79 · 08-18-2010, 09:45 PM

I got my new HID ballast today. I hooked up the new one and everything works again. Thank you Alex!

Eclipsis: I tried shutting of the DRLs in iDrive and turning them back on a couple of days ago. That didn't fix the problem. The problem was really a defective ballast.

frankzlin79 · 08-18-2010, 09:53 PM

I don't think an accurate comparison will ever be possible. The picture of 6000K vs 8000K needs to be taken in the exact same conditions. Meaning, same angle, same time of day, and most importantly, same camera with the same settings.

The only way to get a good comparison is if somebody would put 6000K in one side and 8000K in the other and then took the pictures.

Alex@Alpine · 08-19-2010, 05:28 AM

Thanks for the review Frank, sorry for the defective ballast, it happens, it is mostly because the ground on the car is not good, in this video I show how to split the ground, this helps the system turn on much faster, and get more power...

Also, you can always change the fuse on my kit to a 30-40amp (no more then 40) it will flow more power.

Thanks again for the review Frank, if you ever need anything let me know!

Nucking Futs! · 08-19-2010, 07:20 PM

Glad to hear it was an easy fix!

I can vouch for the quality of the product! I took 2 mini-roadtrips (4-hrs each way) down to Houston & at one point, temps reached 107-degrees yet w/no probs. Besides the Volk Time Attacks, this is 2nd most noticeable mod on the exterior of the car (from a distance).

- Jimmy

frankzlin79 · 08-19-2010, 10:00 PM

I don't think it's safe to switch the fuse. That fuse was purposely matched with the wiring harness by the manufacturer. I don't want to risk a fire with an improperly matched fuse.

In the install video, I don't get about making this extra ground connection. I see that the wire got cut in the middle of the tube. One end gets attached to an OEM ground bolt. What happens to the other piece of the wire (it's now cut and connected to nothing)?

08-14-2010, 01:37 PM	#1
frankzlin79 Lieutenant Colonel 265 Rep 1,696 Posts Drives: 2018 M3 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Houston, Texas iTrader: (5)	Alpine 8000K HID Angel Eye Kit Review with Pics (UPDATED with Night Pics) I received my Alpine 8000K HID Angel Eye Kit a couple of days ago and just installed them today. The kit comes with everything you see in the picture below. It also comes with two baggies of zip ties and screws. I'm not sure what the screws were for, as they are not necessary for an M3 installation. I ended up using all the ZIP ties. I also had to use some 3M double sided tape (my own) to tape the passenger side component (black rectangular box from the ballast wire) on the exact opposite side of the HID ballast. Alex's YouTube video recommended the gray ballast be taped underneath an OEM metal bracket on the car, which I did. I then got my 3M double sided tape and taped the other part of the ballast (the black rectangular block hanging off of the HID ballast wire) on the opposite side of the metal bracket. I then zip tied this black rectangular block to the metal bracket as well. Sorry, forgot to take pics of the installation for this part. It took me and another forum member freakin' 1 hr 45 min to do the install, because we...umm...took our time. The hardest part for me was getting the OEM nut off of the power in the first step of installation. The nut was on fairly tight in my car and I ended up causes a nice sparkling orange firework display inside my engine bay when the ccwrench hit the car. But the only damage was burn marks on my wrench. After that, the hardest part was putting the new HID bulbs. The HID bulbs are about 1" longer than stock or GP Thunders H11s. That made it tough to get into the housing. Once inside the housing, we probably spent another 15-20 min/side getting the HID bulb's teeth to lock into place. My wrists are nice and cut-up now. All the wires got tucked away pretty nicely and everything is secure with zip ties. No loose parts at all. Don't let the high temperature of 8000K fool you and make you think it's going to be too blue. I am not a fan of blue lights. In real life, 8000K is a super bright and clean white. I'm glad I went with it rather than the 7000K or 6000K. The inner ring is obviously brighter than the outer ring. However, at certain angles from the side or in front of the car, the light output looks evenly distributed. Do not stare at the angel eyes for too long. I was seeing dark spots afterwards for a couple of minutes. It seems like the farther you step back from the car (say > 20 ft) the brighter they are. Onto the pictures. I will update this post with night time pictures whenever I have time. Note, my HID bulbs for my headlights are Philips 6700K Flashstar Ultinon. Here is a wiring diagram to see how the mess of wires are hooked up. The labels are self explanatory. The remaining pics were taken at 1:00 pm on a sunny day. Headlights Off Headlights Off Headlights Off Headlights Off Headlights Off Headlights On Headlights On Headlights On Headlights On Headlights On Halos On. Headlights On. No Camera Flash. Halos On. Headlights On. No Camera Flash. Halos On. Headlights Off. No Camera Flash. Halos On. Headlights Off. No Camera Flash. Halos On. Headlights Off. No Camera Flash. The night time pics are deceiving. The light output appears like a blob. But in reality, the rings are pretty defined. But don't stare too long, or you will go blind. Last edited by frankzlin79; 08-18-2010 at 09:43 PM.. Reason: Add night time pictures.
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08-14-2010, 04:34 PM	#2
Cptn Mo 703 Lieutenant Colonel 116 Rep 1,603 Posts Drives: my feet Join Date: May 2009 Location: NoVa iTrader: (15) Garage List 2010 BMW e92 M3 ret ... [10.00] 2009 BMW e93 335i r ... [9.50]	Alex's Alpine HID kit FTMFW __________________ 2008 Alpine White e93 335i- Sold 2009 Black Sap. Met. e93 335i- Sold 2010 Melbourne Red e92 M3- Sold
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08-14-2010, 04:47 PM	#3
frankzlin79 Lieutenant Colonel 265 Rep 1,696 Posts Drives: 2018 M3 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Houston, Texas iTrader: (5)	Well this is not good. I go out for my first drive. When I return home, the passenger side halo is out, but the driver side is on. I checked all connections and everything seems tight. How could this happen so quickly? They were working fine when I took those pictures. Arrrrghhhh!
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08-14-2010, 05:32 PM	#4
deamon Enlisted Member 1 Rep 42 Posts Drives: 2008 m3 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: toronto iTrader: (0)	+1
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08-14-2010, 06:14 PM	#5
frankzlin79 Lieutenant Colonel 265 Rep 1,696 Posts Drives: 2018 M3 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Houston, Texas iTrader: (5)	I just got done talking to Alex on the phone. He suspected I had a bad ballast. So, he had me move the bad ballast (passenger side) over to the driver side and connect the ballast to the driver side power and driver side halo. The halo did not light up as expected because the ballast was bad. I re-connected the good ballast back to the driver side power and driver side halo--the halo lights up. Alex is shipping me a new ballast on Monday...hopefully I get it by Tuesday. To be continued...
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08-14-2010, 07:28 PM	#6
richardbb85 Lieutenant Colonel 104 Rep 1,653 Posts Drives: e92 m3 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: annandale, va iTrader: (0)	good stuff __________________ 2011 E92 Space Grey/black + Tech + Premi + Heated Seats
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08-15-2010, 11:21 PM	#7
Nucking Futs! Major 48 Rep 1,436 Posts Drives: E70 X5 M Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Dallas, TX area iTrader: (15) Garage List 2013 BMW X5 M [0.00]	Sorry to hear about the defective ballast. Good to hear Alex took care of it even though it was on the weekend. - Jimmy __________________ '13 E70 S63B44A '17 95B GTS
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08-15-2010, 11:36 PM	#8
Jameson@Alpine 98 Rep 792 Posts Drives: BMW Join Date: May 2010 Location: Los Angeles iTrader: (3)	Lookin' sweet! That replacement will be with you shortly!
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08-16-2010, 05:02 PM	#11
frankzlin79 Lieutenant Colonel 265 Rep 1,696 Posts Drives: 2018 M3 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Houston, Texas iTrader: (5)	If I just had one halo lit up, that would attract cops. I wanted to avoid the situation where a cop might pull me over and say that my headlight is out (when in fact, officer, my headlights aren't even on!) Therefore, I turn on my main headlamps during the daytime to make things look even. I was able to remove the bad ballast and hook it up to the driver side power and bulb in about 20 min. The pain was undoing all my nicely done ZIP ties. The major pain was having to push through the wires from the ballast that have the H11 connection ends underneath the front brace bar. This step of just routing these two connectors through probably took me 10 min. I found a way to secure the gray box of the ballast and the black rectangular part of the ballast with ZIP ties unto the car's front brace. It holds very strongly. I will take a picture of my install when I get the new ballast. I highly recommend to anybody doing this install to get one of those wire grabber tools with the mini claw on the end. Anybody know where to buy one of these? Home Depot maybe? Also, I don't recommend doing the install in 100 deg heat like I was doing. I was in the shade and still almost heat exhausted myself. Last edited by frankzlin79; 08-16-2010 at 05:09 PM..
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08-17-2010, 09:52 PM	#13
MMMorish Just call me J.J. McClure 156 Rep 2,834 Posts Drives: E92 M3 & C4 Corvette Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Toronto iTrader: (5)	Are the rings defined at night or does it look like a blob of light? __________________ MODS: Meisterschaft GT Racing Exhaust / BMC Air Filter / UUC SSK & DSSR (Modded)/ RPI Scoops / Passport SRX Hardwired / Custom Wrap 3M Clearbra / 20% Tint / 50% Windshield Tint / Key Hole Delete / Matted Out Accessories / VRS Type II Diffuser / Smoked Reflectors / Euphoria 6K LED Interior Lights / Rear Fog Light Mod / 6000K HID's / 6500K LUX H8 Angel Eyes / RDash License Plate LED Kit / LED Xenon Reverse Lights "M3 drivers have no friends"
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08-18-2010, 04:09 PM	#15
onefastdoc Lieutenant 115 Rep 424 Posts Drives: 2016 F80 M3 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: L.A. iTrader: (2)	Can someone post pics of the 6000K halos so we can see how they compare with the 8000K halos. Thanks __________________ *OneFastDoc* 2012 R35 GT-R Full Bolt On E85 (600whp) 2016 F80 M3 2008 E90 M3 sold 2007 E92 335i (369whp, 354wtq) sold
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08-18-2010, 09:45 PM	#18
frankzlin79 Lieutenant Colonel 265 Rep 1,696 Posts Drives: 2018 M3 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Houston, Texas iTrader: (5)	I got my new HID ballast today. I hooked up the new one and everything works again. Thank you Alex! Eclipsis: I tried shutting of the DRLs in iDrive and turning them back on a couple of days ago. That didn't fix the problem. The problem was really a defective ballast.
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08-18-2010, 09:53 PM	#19
frankzlin79 Lieutenant Colonel 265 Rep 1,696 Posts Drives: 2018 M3 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Houston, Texas iTrader: (5)	I don't think an accurate comparison will ever be possible. The picture of 6000K vs 8000K needs to be taken in the exact same conditions. Meaning, same angle, same time of day, and most importantly, same camera with the same settings. The only way to get a good comparison is if somebody would put 6000K in one side and 8000K in the other and then took the pictures.
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08-19-2010, 05:28 AM	#20
Alex@Alpine Colonel 1303 Rep 2,441 Posts Drives: E90 M3 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: United States iTrader: (50)	Thanks for the review Frank, sorry for the defective ballast, it happens, it is mostly because the ground on the car is not good, in this video I show how to split the ground, this helps the system turn on much faster, and get more power... Also, you can always change the fuse on my kit to a 30-40amp (no more then 40) it will flow more power. Thanks again for the review Frank, if you ever need anything let me know!
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08-19-2010, 07:20 PM	#21
Nucking Futs! Major 48 Rep 1,436 Posts Drives: E70 X5 M Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Dallas, TX area iTrader: (15) Garage List 2013 BMW X5 M [0.00]	Glad to hear it was an easy fix! I can vouch for the quality of the product! I took 2 mini-roadtrips (4-hrs each way) down to Houston & at one point, temps reached 107-degrees yet w/no probs. Besides the Volk Time Attacks, this is 2nd most noticeable mod on the exterior of the car (from a distance). - Jimmy __________________ '13 E70 S63B44A '17 95B GTS
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08-19-2010, 10:00 PM	#22
frankzlin79 Lieutenant Colonel 265 Rep 1,696 Posts Drives: 2018 M3 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Houston, Texas iTrader: (5)	I don't think it's safe to switch the fuse. That fuse was purposely matched with the wiring harness by the manufacturer. I don't want to risk a fire with an improperly matched fuse. In the install video, I don't get about making this extra ground connection. I see that the wire got cut in the middle of the tube. One end gets attached to an OEM ground bolt. What happens to the other piece of the wire (it's now cut and connected to nothing)?
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