LED Angel Eye sidelight
- Thread starter Phil-E30
- Start date
I did mine, not an ///M but I have retrofitted facelift Bi-Xenons, so same lights.
I didn't go the conventional route, as wanted something brighter than the alternative plug in LEDS, that would last. So I used 200 lumen W5W's from Halfords that have a 5yr guarantee. Yes I know I invalidated that guarantee, but I worked on the basis that their return/failure rate must be low if they offered such a warranty.
Still all good and working fine - Thread here; https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=100019&hilit=angel
Mike
I didn't go the conventional route, as wanted something brighter than the alternative plug in LEDS, that would last. So I used 200 lumen W5W's from Halfords that have a 5yr guarantee. Yes I know I invalidated that guarantee, but I worked on the basis that their return/failure rate must be low if they offered such a warranty.
Still all good and working fine - Thread here; https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=100019&hilit=angel
Mike
My car failed its MOT last year because the sidelights were the wrong colour. I hadn't ever noticed, but they were a bit blue.
So I took the lights out and had a look (bit of a job to do!!). At some point, the regular halogen (I think) side light bulb that lights up the angel eye ring lens had popped. BMW want around £35 per side for the bulb as it comes integrated into a plastic moulding. So the previous owner had a garage cut up the bulb holder and replace the blown bulb with an LED which had been glued in place. The LED was brighter, but it did look quite blue.
I didn't think it really suited the car either. I like the yellowy light on the sidelights, it suits that era of car. So I coughed up the £70 for two OEM bulbs from BMW and fitted them back into the headlights, so it's all back to stock again now. I did have the old butchered up bulb holders with LEDs glued in somewhere in my garage, but there is a chance I may have thrown them away.
So I took the lights out and had a look (bit of a job to do!!). At some point, the regular halogen (I think) side light bulb that lights up the angel eye ring lens had popped. BMW want around £35 per side for the bulb as it comes integrated into a plastic moulding. So the previous owner had a garage cut up the bulb holder and replace the blown bulb with an LED which had been glued in place. The LED was brighter, but it did look quite blue.
I didn't think it really suited the car either. I like the yellowy light on the sidelights, it suits that era of car. So I coughed up the £70 for two OEM bulbs from BMW and fitted them back into the headlights, so it's all back to stock again now. I did have the old butchered up bulb holders with LEDs glued in somewhere in my garage, but there is a chance I may have thrown them away.
Phil-E30 said:If you can dig them out Dan (assuming you haven't thrown them out) I'd be happy to take them off your hands.
Sure, I’ll have a look at the weekend when I get my car out of my garage. I’ve got a feeling I may have thrown them out, but I’ll look.
Spaniarduk
Member
Based on what I've done and gone through over the last few days is that led light bulbs, including some of the recommended in this thread, are complete and utter horse menure :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: . After fitting a set similar to the multi-led sold at Halfords and being disappointed with both colour (way too blue) and intensity (marginally brighter than the standard bulb) i ended up with an error showing in my dash. From there i replaced with another set from Halfords at £12. This would have been a good price had the result not been worse than before!! Upon returning the last pair to Halfords and failing to find an equivalent 10Watt to the original fillamented light bulbs i got a 'similar' filamented bulb, this time at 21Watt. This was the Halfords own 435H21W. Only when i got home did i realise than the little studs for the bayonet fitment were at 90 degrees and not diametrically opposed. Not a problem! Nothing that a pair of vinyl disposable gloves (to prevent finger prints on the glass) and a metal file wouldn't solve. I filed 1 of the 2 pins, fitted it and hey presto!!! Not only it is (a bit) brighter than the original BMW 10Watt ones, the errors have magically vanished, too.
Still looking for a brighter solution. Excuse the pun
Still looking for a brighter solution. Excuse the pun
Yes, I have put this on the backburner because the multiple LED sets I tried were all non-starters. Thanks latest idea I've had is to make an actual LED Halo ring using a flexible PCB, so that it can be squeezed in through the bulb hole and then expand into shape inside the reflector. To design this though I really need to get my hands on a damaged headlight in order to get the sizing perfect...