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      04-19-2011, 02:10 PM   #1
SUB-ZERO
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White Angel Eyes

So...I don't care so much for the stock headlight color and was hoping to modify the headlight system to shine a bright white color. Having read about some melt downs for some who modified their headlights, I am obviously concerned about the components that I use to do this.

I have read that the LUX H8 are of high quality and do not pose any electrical issues.

What do you all recommend? I am looking for an OEM quality component that will work seamlessly with the M3's electrical system.

Thanks,
Angel
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      04-19-2011, 02:54 PM   #2
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OSS is by far the best solution in my opinion.
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      04-19-2011, 03:37 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cipher5 View Post
OSS is by far the best solution in my opinion.
if you mean best as in cutting open your headlights and possibly voiding all warranties associated with the headlight unit and other electrical components, then by all means yes, but OSS rings are the Orion V2 kit....so if you're a bit handy and tech savy, save yourself the time of sending your headlights out and order the rings directly form umnitza and install yourself. Same goes for the LS3 kit offered by bavarianx (the ls3 kits are not orion v2 rings). None of these kits will throw codes if installed correctly. Again, the hardest part about these kits is the install, you have to bake your headlights, pry them open, then reseal.

for an actual plug and play solution: IMO, the lux 8's are the best option, the lux 8 v3's are completely housed in the actual headlight housing, no error codes, and brightness is much improved over the stock's. Yes Lux8's can get washed out in sunlight, but I'm okay with that, and they are far better than the gp thunders (and/or other H8 halogen bulb options).

AiB's are another LED option, but reviews have been mixed regarding quality and brightness.

Eventually someone will chime in with HID AE's. Why I didn't want to go with HID's:

1) parts required to be mounted/stored outside of the actual light housing
2) IMO: the HID AE's are too bright, they wash out the xenons low beam lights.
3) there have been reports of some HID AE kits to cause yellowing of the rings due to the high temps.

OP: GL with your decision, hopefully there are a few members local to you with different AE set-ups so you can see in person how each looks like.
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      04-19-2011, 04:17 PM   #4
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Just buy a pair of $20 HPThunder 7500 or 8500 bulbs and call it a day. Straight stock replacement, same wattage and all. But they only last about 5K miles or so, but are cheap enough. Tried both, and couldn't tell the difference. Hoping the 7500s last longer.
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      04-19-2011, 05:17 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by elp_jc View Post
Just buy a pair of $20 HPThunder 7500 or 8500 bulbs and call it a day. Straight stock replacement, same wattage and all. But they only last about 5K miles or so, but are cheap enough. Tried both, and couldn't tell the difference. Hoping the 7500s last longer.
5K miles? Mine lasted at least double that...hmmm
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      04-19-2011, 07:38 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by geneatals View Post
Eventually someone will chime in with HID AE's. Why I didn't want to go with HID's:
1) parts required to be mounted/stored outside of the actual light housing
2) IMO: the HID AE's are too bright, they wash out the xenons low beam lights.
3) there have been reports of some HID AE kits to cause yellowing of the rings due to the high temps.
Correction
Higher colour temperature
If you're going to instal 12K or 20K bulbs then yes they will fade
Of you're using 4300K or 6000K it's not really an issue.

And you CAN install the HID kit inside the headlight
I did, nothing shows outside the headlight.
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      04-19-2011, 07:44 PM   #7
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please try and do some searching as well, there have to be over 1000 threads the exact same as this.

We make and sell the LUX H8 V3 angel eyes so please let me know if you have any questions
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      04-19-2011, 08:43 PM   #8
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Thanks all!
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      04-19-2011, 09:11 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by geneatals View Post
if you mean best as in cutting open your headlights and possibly voiding all warranties associated with the headlight unit and other electrical components, then by all means yes, but OSS rings are the Orion V2 kit....so if you're a bit handy and tech savy, save yourself the time of sending your headlights out and order the rings directly form umnitza and install yourself. Same goes for the LS3 kit offered by bavarianx (the ls3 kits are not orion v2 rings). None of these kits will throw codes if installed correctly. Again, the hardest part about these kits is the install, you have to bake your headlights, pry them open, then reseal.

for an actual plug and play solution: IMO, the lux 8's are the best option, the lux 8 v3's are completely housed in the actual headlight housing, no error codes, and brightness is much improved over the stock's. Yes Lux8's can get washed out in sunlight, but I'm okay with that, and they are far better than the gp thunders (and/or other H8 halogen bulb options).

AiB's are another LED option, but reviews have been mixed regarding quality and brightness.

Eventually someone will chime in with HID AE's. Why I didn't want to go with HID's:

1) parts required to be mounted/stored outside of the actual light housing
2) IMO: the HID AE's are too bright, they wash out the xenons low beam lights.
3) there have been reports of some HID AE kits to cause yellowing of the rings due to the high temps.

OP: GL with your decision, hopefully there are a few members local to you with different AE set-ups so you can see in person how each looks like.
Which angel eye kit from umnitza are you referring too when you say the oss ls1 and the bavarian ls3 are the orion v2s from umnitza? I am curious because if umnitza has the same angel eyes then I would prefer to do the install myself instead of sending my headlights in. Thanks in advance
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      04-20-2011, 11:40 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kmarei View Post
Correction
Higher colour temperature
If you're going to instal 12K or 20K bulbs then yes they will fade
Of you're using 4300K or 6000K it's not really an issue.

And you CAN install the HID kit inside the headlight
I did, nothing shows outside the headlight.
I think there are a few members in this thread that may disagree:

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthr...ight=yellowing
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      04-20-2011, 11:43 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TZANIDO777 View Post
Which angel eye kit from umnitza are you referring too when you say the oss ls1 and the bavarian ls3 are the orion v2s from umnitza? I am curious because if umnitza has the same angel eyes then I would prefer to do the install myself instead of sending my headlights in. Thanks in advance
http://www.bavarianx.com/LS3_BMW_LED...70.ls3-bmw.htm

seems umnitza's site is down, but again, it's the orion v2 kit you are looking for from them
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      04-20-2011, 12:15 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by geneatals View Post
I think there are a few members in this thread that may disagree:

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthr...ight=yellowing
if you had read all the way to the end you would have seen this

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showpos...&postcount=106

which basically says the yellowing is due to UV light emitted by HID lights
and the UV goes up the higher the colour temp is



ironically, if you use 3500k, which look yellow, your angel eyes won't yellow
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      04-20-2011, 12:35 PM   #13
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^nice, so what kind of bulbs do alpine and camross use? as those seem to be the most popular hid kits here...
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      04-20-2011, 02:04 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by geneatals View Post
^nice, so what kind of bulbs do alpine and camross use? as those seem to be the most popular hid kits here...
actually what i am thinking of is to not use any of those kits
if you read any of the coding threads, there is another way :0

the main reason we buy camaross or the alpine kit
is that you can't just buy an HID kit from ebay
the reason is it will work fine when the headlights are on
as the angel eyes get about 10v in that setting which is enough to turn on the hid ballast
but when you tun on your headlight, the angel eyes only get 3.3v
which is not enough to turn on the hid bulb.
so you had to use the special circuit camaross makes or the alpine kit to side step this issue
but if you read the coding threads here or on e90post
you CAN change the voltage going to the angel eyes by changing by changing some settings in the ECU
i've seen this myself when shane did my car
i noticed it and asked him, he said yes you can have the angel eyes on full brightness(14v) all the time
so if you do that and buy the CATZ hid kit (which was one of the lowest UV in the above table) you should be good
and you can install the entire hid kit INSIDE the headlight
i have
so it would look stock, and you'd have HID angel eyes
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      04-20-2011, 03:10 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kmarei View Post
actually what i am thinking of is to not use any of those kits
if you read any of the coding threads, there is another way :0

the main reason we buy camaross or the alpine kit
is that you can't just buy an HID kit from ebay
the reason is it will work fine when the headlights are on
as the angel eyes get about 10v in that setting which is enough to turn on the hid ballast
but when you tun on your headlight, the angel eyes only get 3.3v
which is not enough to turn on the hid bulb.
so you had to use the special circuit camaross makes or the alpine kit to side step this issue
but if you read the coding threads here or on e90post
you CAN change the voltage going to the angel eyes by changing by changing some settings in the ECU
i've seen this myself when shane did my car
i noticed it and asked him, he said yes you can have the angel eyes on full brightness(14v) all the time
so if you do that and buy the CATZ hid kit (which was one of the lowest UV in the above table) you should be good
and you can install the entire hid kit INSIDE the headlight
i have
so it would look stock, and you'd have HID angel eyes
interesting, my brother knows how to and has coded my car already, maybe should try this, but I'm still concerned about the HID;s washing out the xenons

hmmm


thanx for the info
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      04-20-2011, 07:48 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by geneatals View Post
interesting, my brother knows how to and has coded my car already, maybe should try this, but I'm still concerned about the HID;s washing out the xenons

hmmm


thanx for the info
Do the voltage mod first
I've tested the gp thunder bulbs at 14.4v and they look a lot more white than on stock voltage
So either way it's a win win
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      04-20-2011, 08:23 PM   #17
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nice write up
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      04-20-2011, 09:13 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kmarei View Post
Do the voltage mod first
I've tested the gp thunder bulbs at 14.4v and they look a lot more white than on stock voltage
So either way it's a win win
wonder how that will compare to my lux's....hmmmm

guess I'll have to try it out..
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      05-01-2011, 06:26 PM   #19
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Well, I ended up getting the LUX kit and I couldn't be happier. Top quality product, easy install and looks amazing. IMO, best mod for under $500.

-SZ
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      05-02-2011, 03:02 AM   #20
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Well done OP.
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      05-02-2011, 11:34 AM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SUB-ZERO View Post
Well, I ended up getting the LUX kit and I couldn't be happier. Top quality product, easy install and looks amazing. IMO, best mod for under $500.

-SZ
To change the color of your lights? 500 bucks?
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      05-02-2011, 12:51 PM   #22
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Not just the color, the brightness, even distribution of light throughout the rings.

If you prefer the ugly yellow and uneven stock, then all the power to you. And LUX is well under $500, I think he was trying to aim at the OSS kit, which can cost well OVER $500 if you have to send your lights in and have it done for you.
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