Angel Eyes – LED vs HID (Xenon)

[DaveDee]

Hi Everyone, thought this topic may be of interest as Angel eyes seem to be quite a common add on and quite easy to do. I’ve had both now and am running the HID’s I got from Alpine MSS, USA also had a set of AngeliBright version 3 -10 watt LEDs. As I’ve mentioned before my background is Electronic Engineering so this was a fairly easy install for me. There are pros and cons for both, so I’ll list what I found and would be very interested to hear of others with experiences of either.
LED Version.
Very easy to fit, although the AngeliBright was a bit of a pain with the heatsinks. This was a 10 watt LED mounted rear facing on an aluminium block and a bolt on heatsink. They plug straight in to the factory connector which goes to a small controller, then to the LED H8 assembly.
I did not like the wire harness that came with this model and had to completely rework it. The controller module failed on over temperature constantly and the wiring had to be extended enough to be able to place this at the bottom of the headlamp housing where it was much cooler. This fixed the problem. The wire quality was not what you expect; hook up wire rather than silicone coated high temperature wire. There was no in- line fusing on these which is a real worry if they fail short.
The manufacturer was very keen to co-operate and committed to improving.

PROS with LED
Relatively easy to fit, are completely enclosed in the headlamp enclosure and require no external connection to the battery supply. At 10 watts they run fairly cool and an LED has a very long life expectancy. They also draw very little power compared to the regular 35 watt H8 lamp and are around the same brightness.

CONS: with LED
Not very bright, not much more than stock if that. Look great around dusk but have fairly low output as a true daylight running light. It’s hard to get a good light output on the M3 due to the design of the headlights unlike other cars like Audi that have front facing individual LEDs

HID Version: More work fitting and require fitting of an external relay plus two ballasts. Wiring also has to be tucked under the Snap-On headlight cover cap. There is a “dummy load resistor” on these to stop lamp fail errors. It turned out this was wire wrapped and not soldered on my install and another one I did. The seller from Alpine MSS was co-operative on this and assured in future these would be soldered. Apart from that the kit was well presented and represented much better value for money than the LED kit at around $100.00 cheaper with many more parts. There is a YouTube install video for this which is very helpful except I totally disagree with not bothering to disconnect the battery or handling the HID bulbs with anything other than gloves.

PROS with HID
These are really bright. A 6000K (Nice crisp pure white) HID 35 watt lamp outputs about 2.5 times more than the 35 watt stock halogen lamp. They look really good and pass the acid test, that is when you pull up behind another car in full daylight even if it’s dirty you can see clearly the inner and outer rings.

CONS: with HID
Installation is more work and requires an external connection to the battery to power the external ballasts. External wiring needs to be routed under the snap on headlamp cap. They are so bright the inner rings tend to flare a bit at close range.
In my case I really prefer HID because of the brightness. The hard part with an M3 is the design of the lights is an inner fitting that takes the lamp and a conductive optical light path to the outer rings which is why the outer rings are often dimmer than the inner rings. The upside though is the appearance. I’ve heard very good reports about LUX LEDs but LEDs can never be as bright as HID at this time.
It would be good to hear some other opinions and experiences

HID Daylight and Dusk Below




LED Daylight and dusk below





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[THE TECH]

Yeah, LUX would have been a better comparison. From what I have read, the Angelbright have terrible reviews.

[DaveDee]

Originally Posted by THE TECH

Yeah, LUX would have been a better comparison. From what I have read, the Angelbright have terrible reviews.

At the time of install Lux were going through a bad patch hence AiB
If anyone has photos of a Lux install that would be great, especially a day an dusk photo

[aussiem3]

I recently installed LUX v3. I will post some day/dusk pics soon.

[sarddenso]

Thanks for the info.
And looks awesome in the pics!

I saw a 335 at a dealership with the super white angel eyes.
Do some cars come from factory like that now?

[THE TECH]

Originally Posted by sarddenso

Thanks for the info.
And looks awesome in the pics!

I saw a 335 at a dealership with the super white angel eyes.
Do some cars come from factory like that now?

Yes, the non-M cars have the new super bright LEDs.

[aussiem3]

First Pic: Day time - 11 am in Western Australia

Second Pic: Dusk - 6.30 pm

Bit disappointed with the output. The outer ring on the right hand side doesn't light up.

[DaveDee]

Originally Posted by aussiem3

First Pic: Day time - 11 am in Western Australia

Second Pic: Dusk - 6.30 pm

Bit disappointed with the output. The outer ring on the right hand side doesn't light up.

I take it these are LUX? Just downloaded the install instructions for Lux and can maybe see why the right outer is dim. There is an optical light pipe to carry the light to the outer rings in the headlight assembly. There are 3 tabs on the LED light assembly that lock it in place. If the tabs are fitted to the wrong slot and inserted the LED will not line up with the light pipe and the outer ring will be dim.
When they are inserted one of the LEDs should be facing the outer ring. Also found a full install for the Lux LED on youtube which seems quite comprehensive. Hope this helps

[aussiem3]

I had a bugger of a time trying to install the LUX. Eventually went to the dealership and one of the techs installed them for me (of course free of charge).
I checked and the globe wasn't sitting properly. Now all's good. Will post some pics later of both day and dusk. Thanks for the prompting me to check.

[BMW Fanatic]

Just noticed your guys' thread. Here's a pic of my LUX in direct sunlight. The sun does shine quite bright up here in Calgary so this is definitely a good comparison to any of the AiB, HID's or older version of LUX mentioned above.



You really can't beat them unless you get a set designed by OSS or AutoCouture in the states. But then again for the price LUX is unbeatable!

[SPQR M3]

I've got the LUX as well, installed them myself and could not be happier.

[andrew@southernBM]

1M Lux V3 compared to stock

[sarddenso]

Originally Posted by THE TECH

Yes, the non-M cars have the new super bright LEDs.

Why do M-cars not come with the superbright LEDs?