[Soul_Glo]

Thought I would try these out to update my yellow corona lighting. These are the V4 Colour Adjustable version for the Pre-LCI E92. I read promising reviews and saw the photos. The UK retailer was 40-50 pounds more expensive. Even after shipping costs, custom duty the product still came out cheaper. In other words a saving of 40 pounds.

Fit and Finish: When I received them I was mad excited but this excitement died. Straight away I noticed that these were not going to prove a straightforward install! The pins were far apart and would not make the connection. Or so I thought that evening. I thought I would try again in daylight and then I noticed the whole connector was different.

Conclusions: an okay product marred by poor production and even poorer customer service. For an allegedly error free bulb it gives an outrageous error each time you start the car. However, there is a way to counter this and that is to permanently enable DRL from the BC menus to avoid the irritating bulb out error. Are they worth the money for a cosmetic upgrade? Yes and no. You'll have to make your own mind up. Yes because the LED used are high quality although fit and finish was abnormal in this supposedly isolated incident. No because you could put the money toward proper LCI lights, modify your existing lights from a place like Lite Angels (if they still exist? banned on here as I think they were not a forum sponsor correct me if I am wrong) or even turn to flee bay. No because you will be left high and dry as I was due to the lack of after sales support. It's a lot of money for a cosmetic upgrade that you can only fully appreciate in the dark but not so much in the daytime as it should be. So overall they are not worth it in my opinion but I am basing it on the nightmares installing them - you decide for yourself. As an upgrade yes, these are some of the best lights out there. There are many more alternatives available now that look better and are cost effective. Some of those products have been posted on these very forums and happen to look amazing leaving me with a bit of regret if I'm honest about my expensive exercise. Having failed that you could always cheap out and get yourself some GP Thunders to rid yourself of the yellow mellow.


Below is a conversation between myself and LUX regarding the fit and finish (the most recent message being first and the oldest one at the bottom where I complained about the fit):

Hi G,
I am very sorry for any of the confusion and frustration with the installation, however I have never heard any type of issue like this before so I have no idea why these would not fit on your car. If your car is a E92, and the connector you got from the scrap yard was also from an E92, then they should be the exact same. I don?t understand why the harness from the scrap yard would fit but not the ones from your car originally.

Would it be possible for you to take a picture of your stock connector and the junk yard connector, so that I can what difference there could be. We have sold well over 10,000 of these lights over the years, a lot of them in the UK also, and have not had an issue like this before, so I?m trying to understand what possibly could have been different here. Again I want to stress to you that it was never our intention to sell a product that did not fit, so I?d just like to understand why it didn?t fit your car to prevent any issues in the future.


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From: G [mailto:broken_gearbox@hotmail.co.uk]
Sent: Friday, January 8, 2016 2:13 AM
To: LUX Angel Eyes <sales@luxangeleyes.com>
Subject: RE: Product Query

Hello again,

Bending the pins was a no go. They would not make it to the connector. The difference was astonishing. So what I had to do was go to a scrap yard, chop off the light harness from a scrap E92 and re-wire your product.

I am shocked to say the least for the money I paid for what I consider to be a high end product that it was not a direct fit as had expected.

Your response to this final message from me will dictate my review of you and your product on E90 post. I have fitted the lights and they are amazing.

Thank you

G

From: Sales@LuxAngelEyes.com
To: broken_gearbox@hotmail.co.uk
Subject: RE: Product Query
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 2015 23:15:15 -0500
Hi G,
I did receive all the pcitures so sorry about the confusion. You might just need to push the pins a bit and they will fit into the connector. Sometimes during the assembly they get pushed inwards and you will just need to adjust them a bit to make them fit into the stock connector. They will fir 100% correctly without issues however. Please check that and let me know what you find.

Description: LUXEmailSig
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From: G [mailto:broken_gearbox@hotmail.co.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2015 8:47 AM
To: sales@luxangeleyes.com
Subject: Product Query

Dear Lux,

I recently purchased a set of your wonderful angel eyes for my pre 2007 E92 coupe. You were as horrified as myself when I informed you that the connection is different to the on on the vehicle. You requested images of what I was talking about and so I have managed to snap a few pictures and attached them to this e-mail.

You will note from the photos that your one has a black connector. Note the position of the pins.

On my vehicle the connector is a grey one and the female receptacles are not compatible with the black plug. The pins on the black plug are close together and the female socket pin holes are far apart. Thus there is no direct fit.

Is there anything that can be done here without harming the vehicles OEM wiring? Do you have the compatible part numbers that you can send to me and I can send your black plugs back to you? Considering there is a variation in plugs will the lights actually work or will they trip an error code?

I know it is the holiday season but any urgent response would be appreciated as the bumper is coming off next week to replace the headlight washers and that to me is the ideal opportunity to undertake any DIY.

Thank you

G



Final Thoughts: I did warn him that I would post my review based on his response. It sounds like the typical salesman talk of "we have never seen that problem before." I sent him photos of the problem and he was more concerned about receiving photos of the scrap harness. That covers the installation nightmares.

So they work and they are colour adjustable. The outside rings are not as bright as the inside ones but we know this is the case for a pre lci model and we know that when the main lights are on you can't tell the difference much between those rings.

Photos to follow. I will take these tomorrow as I leave early. I will try to get a few snaps of them in the day time.

[Soul_Glo]

This is 25 meters away in darkness. They are ridiculously bright. With normal halogens the throw of light was around 5-10 meters. These throw off a white light that hits about 15-20 meters which is impressive. If you wanted to be a fool you could get away with driving with these on when it's dark but obviously at low speeds of say 20mph or less. That is how much they light up the road.

[Soul_Glo]

Here is a close up shot at an angle. You can see how bright the inner ring is versus the outer one. The sunlight was too strong so I will try get some photos with good daylight but not so much that you cannot see the lights on. Daytime photos coming up tomorrow. The 6200K setting is the closet match to the main lights and is white without looking obnoxious.

[col2611]

They look good. I've been debating getting some of the LUX 160 (I think that's what they are called)

[TBN54]

Once you go Lux, you don't go back.

(P.S Lux is the way to go)

[Thermobaric]

I can't work out why didn't fit. They definitely sent the right model?

[HollowmanVIII]

I had lux 160 on my 2008 E92 and wasn't all that impressed for the money to be honest. Yes they look a lot better than stock halogen but the outer ring is just not bright enough and plus they don't dim when you switch on your sidelights from DRL's.

I have an 2012 LCI E92 now and the DRL's are superb, yes the LUX are a good alternative but they are still a far way off from LCI angels.

[Soul_Glo]

Originally Posted by Thermobaric

I can't work out why didn't fit. They definitely sent the right model?

They were adamant that they have never made a mistake in manufacturing and that I had the correct version. I triple checked with them and kept telling them that I had a early 2007 registered model (built at the end of 2006).

I think it is because there was a wait involved. They never used to offer the V4 Colour Adjustable model for the pre-LCI (2006 model). It was something in development for a while. I think some more R&D could have gone into it.

It is hard to locate the actual part on real OEM so I could not give them an exact part number for the harness connector that I used. Perhaps the EURO spec pre-LCI does have a different harness for 2006?

The main thing is that they have their hundreds and thousands of happy customers so one bad experience won't stop folks from buying them.

[Soul_Glo]

A day time photo. It was difficult capturing a good shot as the camera was sensitive to the flicker. A bit like a slower screen rate being caught. To the naked eye you cannot notice any flicker and there is virtually no flicker on self testing. This is taken from about 5 meters away. You can see what I mean about the inner ring being brighter.

[Soul_Glo]

Here is another one. In this one due to the camera you can see that the outer ring is obviously not the brightest but with dipped beams on this is barely noticeable and it all comes together really well.

Depending on the lighting outside these can appear slightly off white in day time but at night and evening they are a brilliant white. So it is a shame they don't look the same during the day.

[Soul_Glo]

The adjustment unit tucks away neatly. It hasn't even moved since I fitted it in which is good as it keeps away from moving parts. Up, down, up and up gives you the 6200k setting.

[Soul_Glo]

The unit itself with the problematic pins.

I had a colleague of mine install them in the end. She has the most tiny hands I have seen. All it cost was a snickers bar and diet cola as a thank you!