Angel eye brightness upgrade

Hey guys,

So the other day I had a bulb warning. Turns out it was one of the H8 bulbs that feed my drivers side angel eye. I went to the store and was looking through the bulbs and the H11 is the same socket as the H8 except one of the 3 retaining tabs is bigger. The H11 line offers a whiter light illumination. Looking at the statistics of the bulbs....they are both 12.8 volt bulbs but only differ in the watt rating. Being that they are not far off load wise, I wanted to give it a try. So far I've had the H11 bulbs in both angel eyes and no warnings. So after two days I decided to increase the angel eyes to the highest brightness in the FRM2 module. I used the BMWWhatsAPP and increased all angel eye settings to "very bright". I know this can be done with WinKFP by changing the "Wert" values as well. Any how, here are a few pictures. One has a screw driver showing the tab I had to trim down with a dremel for it to fit in the housing properly. If you compare your H8 to the H11 you will see its 1 of 3 that must be trimmed. Another picture is of my car during the day (1:43pm). I noticed both sides are brighter but the outside circles show great improvement. I've gone down the LED road for $200+ and been let down by how the inside eye is bright but the outside one is way dimmer. Being that the H11 is only $30 for the set.....it's a great cheap upgrade. I will update the post if I experience any problems moving forward.

Sorry, didn't go through the first time.......Well for some reason the site won't let me post a pic of the bulb for visual reference. Sorry!

Hi Scrippy, assumingly the H11 is higher power, will be interesting to see how they handle the increased heat. Had that issue with my previous 550i. Hope your solution hold up better.

Ordered some Lux 160 the other day, only hoping I will not experience the outside ring too dim as you mentioned...

By the way the optics are designed, the inside light will always be brighter than the outside ring no matter what - there is too much light lost and scattered. There are a few solutions, such as replacing the rings or trap more light going into the outside ring and reflecting it back towards the front.

The bulb is probably 55W vs the 35W H8 halogens, which is why it is appearing more white. There will be more heat generated as the bulb requires 55W from the source and I would be careful about the amount of excess heat inside the headlight as well as the extra load on the wires

WingZeroX5 wrote  

By the way the optics are designed, the inside light will always be brighter than the outside ring no matter what - there is too much light lost and scattered. There are a few solutions, such as replacing the rings or trap more light going into the outside ring and reflecting it back towards the front.

The bulb is probably 55W vs the 35W H8 halogens, which is why it is appearing more white. There will be more heat generated as the bulb requires 55W from the source and I would be careful about the amount of excess heat inside the headlight as well as the extra load on the wires

You are exactly right. I'm aware of the fact the outer ring is always duller by design. That's why I was surprised by what I'm getting with the H11's. You are correct on the heat, too I've been watching this to see if I discolor or burn any of the internal plastics in the light. So far so good.

Be careful of heat and yellowing. I would keep a close eye to make sure nothing starts to melt or deform in the headlight. H11 is a 55 watt bulb so you are generating much more heat than you would from a 35 watt bulb. I'd just be very careful and check every few days

LuxAngelEyes wrote  

Be careful of heat and yellowing. I would keep a close eye to make sure nothing starts to melt or deform in the headlight. H11 is a 55 watt bulb so you are generating much more heat than you would from a 35 watt bulb. I'd just be very careful and check every few days

Great advice, thanx!

LuxAngelEyes wrote

Be careful of heat and yellowing. I would keep a close eye to make sure nothing starts to melt or deform in the headlight. H11 is a 55 watt bulb so you are generating much more heat than you would from a 35 watt bulb. I'd just be very careful and check every few days

Quick one mate - Waiting for your Lux H8 160 to arrive. Do I need to adjust down the brightness back to standard or does the LED not care (whether you happen to know what the voltage diff is. Believe standard was "bright" while I adjusted up the one or two steps remaining).

Thanks!

Helmsman wrote  

LuxAngelEyes wrote

Be careful of heat and yellowing. I would keep a close eye to make sure nothing starts to melt or deform in the headlight. H11 is a 55 watt bulb so you are generating much more heat than you would from a 35 watt bulb. I'd just be very careful and check every few days

Quick one mate - Waiting for your Lux H8 160 to arrive. Do I need to adjust down the brightness back to standard or does the LED not care (whether you happen to know what the voltage diff is. Believe standard was "bright" while I adjusted up the one or two steps remaining).

Thanks!

Leds are current driven so it doesnt matter

Ah, makes sense, and assumingly their is a current limiter of some sort included.

Thanks

Helmsman wrote

Quick one mate - Waiting for your Lux H8 160 to arrive. Do I need to adjust down the brightness back to standard or does the LED not care (whether you happen to know what the voltage diff is. Believe standard was "bright" while I adjusted up the one or two steps remaining).

Thanks!

Nope it doesnt matter. The lights automatically compensate for the natural dimming effect of the car and will keep they at full power regardless. It you have it coded it wont have any impact on them.

LuxAngelEyes wrote

Nope it doesnt matter. The lights automatically compensate for the natural dimming effect of the car and will keep they at full power regardless. It you have it coded it wont have any impact on them.

Thanks. Should arrive during the week, looking forward to try them on...

Scrippy wrote

Great advice, thanx!

I'd be curious if you could post the results after a week to see what you find. Make sure you look inside the headlight at the angel eye reflector too

LuxAngelEyes wrote  

Scrippy wrote

Great advice, thanx!

I'd be curious if you could post the results after a week to see what you find. Make sure you look inside the headlight at the angel eye reflector too

It'll be a week tomorrow. I've checked every day and so far so good. The fact that H11 bulbs are 55watts as opposed to the H8 at 35watts is irrelevant. The system will only put out what it can current wise. The matching voltage is key and they do. The only legitimate concern is heat. The bulbs will not increase current usage though. I'll keep everyone posted to my findings. I want to be clear that I'm not a cheap ass. But I have utilized two LED systems to date on my E92 335 and they both shit out after 9 months. Id rather stick $200 bucks up my ass if that's how these products are going to work.

Scrippy wrote

It'll be a week tomorrow. I've checked every day and so far so good. The fact that H11 bulbs are 55watts as opposed to the H8 at 35watts is irrelevant. The system will only put out what it can current wise. The matching voltage is key and they do. The only legitimate concern is heat. The bulbs will not increase current usage though. I'll keep everyone posted to my findings. I want to be clear that I'm not a cheap ass. But I have utilized two LED systems to date on my E92 335 and they both shit out after 9 months. Id rather stick $200 bucks up my ass if that's how these products are going to work.

Hope you continue to have no issues! Your venturing in the unknown!

I have to respectfully disagree with your statement though. A higher wattage bulb IS increasing current. One concern is that the circuits that drive the bulbs is not robust enough. Its not just a simple connection, as you know, there is a circuit using PWM (small surface mount parts, ect..). Yes, "the system will only put out what it can current wise" but, its not the system that dictates the current, its the load (bulb). Hypothetically speaking, the bulb is the bottleneck in the circuit. Make the bulb larger and a differrent part becomes the bottleneck. Hopefully this is not the case.
Thats what I would worry about.

As far as heat from the bulb, isn't there folks running HIDs that run far hotter, without issues?

jdamore wrote  

Scrippy wrote

It'll be a week tomorrow. I've checked every day and so far so good. The fact that H11 bulbs are 55watts as opposed to the H8 at 35watts is irrelevant. The system will only put out what it can current wise. The matching voltage is key and they do. The only legitimate concern is heat. The bulbs will not increase current usage though. I'll keep everyone posted to my findings. I want to be clear that I'm not a cheap ass. But I have utilized two LED systems to date on my E92 335 and they both shit out after 9 months. Id rather stick $200 bucks up my ass if that's how these products are going to work.

Hope you continue to have no issues! Your venturing in the unknown!

I have to respectfully disagree with your statement though. A higher wattage bulb IS increasing current. One concern is that the circuits that drive the bulbs is not robust enough. Its not just a simple connection, as you know, there is a circuit using PWM (small surface mount parts, ect..). Yes, "the system will only put out what it can current wise" but, its not the system that dictates the current, its the load (bulb). Hypothetically speaking, the bulb is the bottleneck in the circuit. Make the bulb larger and a differrent part becomes the bottleneck. Hopefully this is not the case.
Thats what I would worry about.

As far as heat from the bulb, isn't there folks running HIDs that run far hotter, without issues?

I'm not sure what other lights are being used and their heat radiation. I do know that so far so good on my application. I will keep everyone up to date on any issues I may come up on. My point on the current is that the system is only capable of what it is and once I go too far the fuse will blow. That being said.....I think I'm still within tolerances because the bulb difference is minimal. The load change in the H11 compared to H8 is minimal too. If the load change is minimal....so is the current increase.


Your right....the current was almost doubled.

jdamore wrote

Hope you continue to have no issues! Your venturing in the unknown!

I have to respectfully disagree with your statement though. A higher wattage bulb IS increasing current. One concern is that the circuits that drive the bulbs is not robust enough. Its not just a simple connection, as you know, there is a circuit using PWM (small surface mount parts, ect..). Yes, "the system will only put out what it can current wise" but, its not the system that dictates the current, its the load (bulb). Hypothetically speaking, the bulb is the bottleneck in the circuit. Make the bulb larger and a differrent part becomes the bottleneck. Hopefully this is not the case.
Thats what I would worry about.

As far as heat from the bulb, isn't there folks running HIDs that run far hotter, without issues?

+1 about the current. If you have these coded to run at full power then they are running at the normal 12v and 55 watts whcih is about 4.5 amps to each bulb. The stock lights only use about 2.6 amps so you are almost doubling the amount of power, and therefor doubling the amount of heat being generated. If the lights are coded than the car will provide it the full power.

So the Lux 160 arrived today, installation was straight forward. Loads of light, modern good look.

Small fortune before they got here but assuming they hold up trouble free it will be worth it!

Cheers

Helmsman wrote  

So the Lux 160 arrived today, installation was straight forward. Loads of light, modern good look rather than "modded" (which is why I have taken some time to go for it, want to avoid pizza racer).

Small fortune before they got here but assuming they hold up trouble free it will be worth it!

Cheers

Great lighting! If you remember, feel free to post any failures here. IF they occur. Hopefully your good for a long time. I tried twice on the LED setup and had ballast/current regulator failure (3) times. Bimmian is cool to replace after you pay $45 in shipping cost for their failed product but I was over it by that point.

Scrippy wrote

Great lighting! If you remember, feel free to post any failures here. IF they occur. Hopefully your good for a long time. I tried twice on the LED setup and had ballast/current regulator failure (3) times. Bimmian is cool to replace after you pay $45 in shipping cost for their failed product but I was over it by that point.

Thanks Scrippy, I'll keep you posted. These sets of diods was close to $300 at arrival so better not make a hazzle...😈

Cheers

Scrippy wrote

Great lighting! If you remember, feel free to post any failures here. IF they occur. Hopefully your good for a long time. I tried twice on the LED setup and had ballast/current regulator failure (3) times. Bimmian is cool to replace after you pay $45 in shipping cost for their failed product but I was over it by that point.

Hey Scrippy.. Whats the temps like where you live? Hows your lights holding up?

We have been having some serious heat waves (95ish) and i suspect that just killed off one of my DTEC H8 V10s.
(just replaced with the 160s)

Helmsman wrote

So the Lux 160 arrived today, installation was straight forward. Loads of light, modern good look rather than "modded" (which is why I have taken some time to go for it, want to avoid pizza racer).

Small fortune before they got here but assuming they hold up trouble free it will be worth it!

Cheers

Looks good!

Be sure to put the dc converter (whatever its called) in the bottom of the housing below the Bulb. The 160's run hot (almost too hot to touch) and I'm sure the dc converter doesnt need the extra heat