Angel eye brightness upgrade

jdamore wrote  

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)

Hey JD, uh I'm in SoCal so it's been the normal 80-98's throughout the day. It hasn't been mega hot because of the storms in the Pacific making it muggy and humid which kills the sunlight but it's been hot. If your H8 is over 2 years old, I'd just go with normal failure.....less than a year is not cool. Unfortunately that's just one so we can't say you have an issue electrically. I'd just replace it and watch what happens. And to be honest, I don't think ambient temps up to 110 would influence failure to occur that wasn't going to happen anyways with a bulb. The housing is shielded by the hood from direct light and furthermore is in its own plastic housing. I would think the only heat that could negatively influence the bulb would be the heat it generates itself. I think this was the problem with my personal experiences with LED retrofits. Even with their aluminum heat sink housings the ballast seem to get too hot in there. My angel eyes are still holding up, plastics and all. I hope anyone paying attention will hold off until I complete a month or two before doing it themselves. I don't want someone mad at me for trying too.

jdamore wrote

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

Yeah? Thanks for the input, I actually thought the LEDs would generate close to no heat! May I ask if you are sure mate, do have them yourself and felt it?

Thanks

Edit: just saw in previous post you do. Thanks again, I'll "re arrange" the light nest today.

Scrippy wrote

Hey JD, uh I'm in SoCal so it's been the normal 80-98's throughout the day. It hasn't been mega hot because of the storms in the Pacific making it muggy and humid which kills the sunlight but it's been hot. If your H8 is over 2 years old, I'd just go with normal failure.....less than a year is not cool. Unfortunately that's just one so we can't say you have an issue electrically. I'd just replace it and watch what happens. And to be honest, I don't think ambient temps up to 110 would influence failure to occur that wasn't going to happen anyways with a bulb. The housing is shielded by the hood from direct light and furthermore is in its own plastic housing. I would think the only heat that could negatively influence the bulb would be the heat it generates itself. I think this was the problem with my personal experiences with LED retrofits. Even with their aluminum heat sink housings the ballast seem to get too hot in there. My angel eyes are still holding up, plastics and all. I hope anyone paying attention will hold off until I complete a month or two before doing it themselves. I don't want someone mad at me for trying too.

The DTEC H8s are new.. I got them a little over three months ago! Milage wise, they have maybe 2000 miles. One of the dc converters died. I haven't reached out to the vendor yet but I probably should and get that replaced. So, I completely understand and have empathy as to why you don't want led. I don't think you are being cheap like you mentioned lol.

I am giving another shot at LED to LUX. If I get two years out of them, I might be happy. By then, we will know if h11s are ok lol.

Helmsman wrote

Yeah? Thanks for the input, I actually thought the LEDs would generate close to no heat! May I ask if you are sure mate, do have them yourself and felt it?

Thanks

Edit: just saw in previous post you do. Thanks again, I'll "re arrange" the light nest today.

Yup! I had them on for about 5-10 minutes when I felt to see how warm they were. Try for yourself and let me know!

Hi guys, coming back from a nice drive in the sun.

The Lux 160 luminense in the inner ring is strong and maintain fair visibility also in day light. However as with most LED the outer ring is becoming quite poor, if not viewed directly from front they fade away close to completely. Bit dissapointed as I thought these high output versions should help out.

Can't see more than one way to install but will reach out to the vendor to see if something could be improved. If not I'd say the times 2-ish premium is doubtful.

Cheers

Helmsman wrote  

Hi guys, coming back from a nice drive in the sun.

The Lux 160 luminense in the inner ring is strong and maintain fair visibility also in day light. However as with most LED the outer ring is becoming quite poor, if not viewed directly from front they fade away close to completely. Bit dissapointed as I thought these high output versions should help out.

Can't see more than one way to install but will reach out to the vendor to see if something could be improved. If not I'd say the times 2-ish premium is doubtful.

Cheers

This was the issue with my retrofit as well. 1 of 4 LED's would burn out and it was always the LED responsible for the outer ring. If a retrofit can't make it a year or two.....it sux! The ballast would keep failing which burnt the same LED every time. A lot of suck going on!

Scrippy wrote

This was the issue with my retrofit as well. 1 of 4 LED's would burn out and it was always the LED responsible for the outer ring. If a retrofit can't make it a year or two.....it sux! The ballast would keep failing which burnt the same LED every time. A lot of suck going on!

Hi Scrippy,

had a chat with the vendor to get some more details on the power/heat dissipation. They confirmed the dissipation is significantly lower than the OEM bulbs due to the LED's efficiency, so will generate less heat in the light house vs the OEM tubes.
The initial disappointment on the outer rings is less after viewing the car a bit further away when the complete light picture gets much better. All in all I'm pleased!

Helmsman wrote  

Scrippy wrote

This was the issue with my retrofit as well. 1 of 4 LED's would burn out and it was always the LED responsible for the outer ring. If a retrofit can't make it a year or two.....it sux! The ballast would keep failing which burnt the same LED every time. A lot of suck going on!

Hi Scrippy,

had a chat with the vendor to get some more details on the power/heat dissipation. They confirmed the dissipation is significantly lower than the OEM bulbs due to the LED's efficiency, so will generate less heat in the light house vs the OEM tubes.
The initial disappointment on the outer rings is less after viewing the car a bit further away when the complete light picture gets much better. All in all I'm pleased!

I'm glad your happy with your setup. LED's may be efficient but they are still prone to failure just as bulbs are. I do like the WHITE light that LED's provide though.

Where do you download the bmwwhatsapp? Is it apple or droid? I'm definitely missing something here lol.

Upgrade+ wrote  

Where do you download the bmwwhatsapp? Is it apple or droid? I'm definitely missing something here lol.

Both, try searching "CarlyforBMW".

You still running the 55 watt'ers?

jdamore wrote  

You still running the 55 watt'ers?

Yes

Scrippy wrote  

jdamore wrote  

You still running the 55 watt'ers?

Yes

Sorry for the short reply. I was busy at work. Yes I'm still on the original set. I put 5k a month on my car so they've been used a lot. I have the daytime running lights on so that the halo's are always on. No heat issues/bulb warnings/failures. The heat thing makes sense but what are the X3&5 using? I figure they have a more stout bulb setup in a very similar light housing setup. I live in Socal and it's been 104 MUUUUULTIPLE times in 405,5,10,101 traffic. Still doing good. I'll post a failure when and if it occurs

:cool!:This is really good news.

What this tells us is if running 55w bulbs at full brightness has had no diverse effects then running a H8 35W at full brightness definitely wouldn't have had issues and we no longer have to question it.

jdamore wrote  

:cool!:This is really good news.

What this tells us is if running 55w bulbs at full brightness has had no diverse effects then running a H8 35W at full brightness definitely wouldn't have had issues and we no longer have to question it.

The H8 may be the weakest link at full power. That may have been everyone's issue before.

Hey Scrippy ! Sorry to revive such an old post but I was wondering, are you still running the H11s ?

No I’m back to H8. So many miles that I’ve had to replace bulbs. Since I can’t stand a light out, I just get what’s available at an Autozone. H8 is always there so……..

Oh I see, thanks for the reply !

If I’m not mistaken they did last quite a long time though, would you advise to use H11 or H8 for a brightness upgrade or is it not worth it ?