XSeries-forum

With the ever increasing popularity of LED bulbs, i wondered if anyone has ventured into angel eye LEDs yet?

Doubtless still not a substitute for factory level brightness, but sharper, brighter white lighting would still be a worthwhile 'upgrade' on an E70 & E71

Several folks tried a few years back and the issue then was cost (it was new tech so pricy) plus needing coding to stop the bulb out warnings and actually finding an LED that lined up well with the light-pipes in the inner headlamp unit. Most didn’t and those that did were lacking in intensity. Some also required surgery on the headlamp itself, or needed special resistors adding, or had fans that got in the way.

Whether ten years of tech development had improved them I don’t know.

Things are much cheaper now, though no guarantee of anything being better of course or that they fit and work.

I'll need to ponder further on whether to buy and experiment

Correct me if I'm wrong, but your car will fail the MOT if mods have been done and the lights do not reach the standards re reflectors etc. This applies to xenon mods and led mods to halogen lights.
No doubt our more illustrious and knowledgeble members will have the answers !!!!!!!!!!!

Lez

I wouldn't have thought brighter illumination to the angel eyes would be an issue to an MOT tester. They'd never match the later factory brightness level. However, despite i forget now what i did when i first acquired the car, the angel eye lighting hasn't been OE for some years.

Angel-eyes came in with the facelift in late 2003. The MOT rules apply to all headlights fitted after 1986 in that if the original lamp on the car does not have the appropriate marking - DCR for HID lamps - then it is an automatic failure should it be converted from filament to either HID or LED. This applies to the headlight, not the side marker lights. If the OEM light unit has been replaced with one carrying the correct markings then no issue.

In other words you could replace the entire E53 headlight (both sides) assembly from a filament type headlight with new HID/LED approved headlamp assembly. Changing the headlight bulb type without changing the headlight assembly is the MOT fail, and you must change both assemblies.

The rules were amended to stop HID/LED conversions to headlamps where the original lamp unit had not been replaced and was therefore unsuitable for use with either of those technologies causing glare or inadequate beam patterns. I still see a lot on the road though! Most likely the bulb is changed after the MOT, or there is no MOT (no idea how prevalent that is, even in these days of ANPR).

On my X6, I just used MTEC H8 35W with a blue filter to increase the colour temp. Never had an issue with the MOT.

I've fitted LED Angel eyes to my 02 4.4, Fortunately my headlights were heat splitable,so I split them and glued LED angel eyes into the lenses and then reglued the headlight back together.
The sidelights were single bulbs in each headlight , so I covered the bulb holes with chrome tape and used the bulb wires as power for the LED angel eye rings. Ive just bought a pair of 2001 headlights off the ebay and another set (4) led angel eyes(£54) the last ones they had so I will have a spare set of headlights converted.
Late 2002 ,about August BMW changed to a different glue which was NOT heat malleable. So to be on the safe side I go for 2001 lights.
There is a little round date clock on the headlight shell which gives the date of manf.

I am sure I read that they have changed the rules re modding the bulbs in headlights. you are NOT allowed to change halogen to xenon or led as a modification,because the beam pattern is incorrect .
I am happy to be proved wrong if anyone knows different

Lez

That’s exactly the issue. No conversion from halogen to anything newer UNLESS replacing the entire headlight assembly for one specifically designed for HID/LED

My E53 and current E71 were built with HID/ Xenon lighting so not much to improve really. Whiter angel eyes would be nice though.

Conscious that i refer to my other non BMW at times, i have fitted some Philips H7 Ultinon LEDs into the projector lens dipped beams, the difference is literally night and day. So i believe LEDs have a place going forward, albeit not in a BMW perhaps.

From what bit i remember reading of the update it was a farce.
As said above basically if it didn't come with them it's a fail.
But and i will have to look again it didn't include the main beam put what you want in there.
Will double check tomorrow.

Thread revival!

I stumbled on these tonite, ebay seems awash with them. I dont know if E60 fitment would be suitable for E70/71 though? Example item 223650255305

Found some X5/6 listed items, 362616227340 but these look huge! I've no recolection now of the MTec bulbs fitted size. Might take a punt on these, not exactly a wallet breaking price.

OEM Bulbs are 35W H8 type. No clue as to what these are. It looks like a special BMW fitting only suitable for the Halogen type lamps (EDIT confirmed looking at listing). The Xenon/HID use the same 35W H8 as the X6.

In short - these won’t work.

Do you mean the first or second item, or both?

Sorry, I meant to put in the first item.

For the second item, they may well work, but the power draw is 60W instead of 35W so may cause a heating problem as that is at the upper recommended limit for a 0.5mm wire (what BMW use according to the wiring diagram). The power comes from the Floor Module and that doesn’t give any kind of detail as to power limits. Each light has its own circuit, so no feeding of 120W down one wire (which would overheat it!).

You’ll also need to hide the anti-error device somewhere either inside the light unit or in a protected enclosure of some description. They’ll very likely work though.

As to their comment about ‘Road Legal’, no reference of the UK CA marking or ‘E’ code makes me suspicious. That being said, it won’t matter for Angel Eyes as they’re only sidelights really.

Thanks. I have enough frustrations with my VW and LEDs at the moment, i think I'll sit on my hands on this.