Need help on possible Angel Eyes headlight DIY

[Perfectus-D]

First of all am new to the site. Tried to research as much as i could, but didnt get an answersIi was looking for. Hopefully someone can help me.

I recently bought a 2009 BMW 128i with standard headlights. At the beginning I did care about having Angel Eyes, but now that I've see how cool they look and am in desperate need of doing the switch.

I am trying to avoid going to the dealer as it will be very expensive, so this wont be an option.

On the other hand, I've seen on Ebay that they sell the complete angel eyes headlight in brand new and used condition. I am hoping that I can install it myself but theres some concerns I have. Is the standard headlight wiring compatible with the one used in Angel Eyes Headlight? will it need coding? and has anybody done this before were I can get feedback.

[URL="http://www.ebay.com/itm/2008-2011-BMW-135i-128i-E82-E88-XENON-HEADLIGHT-ADAPTIVE-COMPLETE-ASSEMBLY-OEM-/200733011475?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories &fits=Model%3A128i|Make%3ABMW&hash=item2ebc9eae13& vxp=mtr"

Thanks in advance.

J.

[NickyC]

Do a ton of research on this before modding your headlights, and make sure you know 100% how to get the rear covers back on the lights. It's amazing how many people are frying their lights due to this simple mod, which has a high price to fix.

Oops, just noticed you have standard headlights. Does that mean halogen with no adaptive feature? If so, disregard what I wrote above.

[Satalite]

Welcome to the forum!

First off do not attempt putting the Xenons on your Halogen equipped car. It will not work. There is A LOT of extra wiring/coding/sweat/tears/blood/money (lots of it).. that goes into configuring it by yourself...

An easier method that you might want to take a look at, as well as cheap would be to purchase a set of E82 (DEPO) projector headlights. They are completely plug and play with existing Halogen equipped cars. The downside is that they are not necessarily as bright as some people would like... You can configure them with brighter HIDs + LED rings to look better for around $700

Follow this thread here: http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showt...highlight=DEPO

A member has performed what I just mentioned and loves it. He would be more than happy to answer your questions and might even post up here since this is a very common topic.

Hope this helps. AND good luck!

[andrey_gta]

You should read up on the:
Xenon retofit/conversion

if I recall besides the lights there is a control module, an adaptive module (if u want it or the headlights are made for it ) ,hid bulbs, brighter led bulbs and a bit of custom wiring and coding.
And before you start the decision between facelift LCI lights or not. And if u want no amber in reflectors, the effort to source euro lights.
this is very pricey and time consuming

The alternative is Depo brand lights retrofitted with brighter led, or even new led rings. Angel eye look at much less cost.

[AW128i]

You can certainly go the OEM route. The eBay auction you have linked above seems to include everything for a U.S. headlight. Of course, you'd have to the other headlight, but I'm sure that wouldn't be a problem. Now, how comfortable are you modifying the vehicles electronics? I ask because retrofitting the OEM HIDs requires a couple things.

First, you can go the OE route and fit a new NFRM module and run the additional wiring to run the bi-xenon shutter. You'd then also have to code the car to add the HID option and remove the auto-leveling coding that automatically gets added when you add the HID option.

Second, you could forego adding a new NFRM module and perform a few wiring modifications inside and outside the headlight. Member WS6 on this site has done this, though I'm not completely sure how he got the bi-xenon shutter to operate since the OEM headlights don't have a standard high-beam from which you can tap the bi-xenon shutter. I do believe he had to install capacitors to fool the car so it wouldn't shut down the headlights or have them flicker.

Third, if you're going to go to the trouble to fit OEM lights, you might as well go a step further and fit OEM European lights so you can get rid of the ugly amber sidemarkers.

Next, you can add the DEPO lights. These lights feature a look very similar to the OEM lights, with projector low-beams, angel eye rings, and clear sidemarkers (since they're European lights). Out of the box, these lights are 100% plug-and-play with U.S. cars originally equipped with halogen lights. These lights are also considerably less expensive than OEM HIDs; you can get a set of the DEPOs for about what the eBay auction you linked to has one OEM light for.

Building on the out-of-the-box DEPOs, you can upgrade the angel eye lights with LEDs. One disclaimer, the DEPO angel eyes aren't exactly like the OEM ones; i.e., they actually use 4 small bulbs per angel eye ring and in bright light, the 4 lights in each ring create "hot spots" of sorts and you can tell that the rings aren't evenly lit. Adding LEDs helps this, particularly if you purchase LEDs that are composed of two SMDs that are side-firing. There are pics around on this site and elsewhere. Just search for them. Pics are more common over at babybmw.net

Next, you can retrofit a H7 HID kit to the DEPO lights. Doing so gets you a look that's similar to the OEM HID setup with the added bonuses of LEDs in the angel eyes and clear sidemarkers. Now, when adding an aftermarket HID kit, you have to be careful about which kit you buy. The reason being that many kits will throw error codes and not work properly. This is because the car is coded for halogen lights. There are a number of companies that offer BMW-specific HID kits that supposedly are "error-free," but do your research on this before purchasing because, it turns out, not all are actually error-free! Installing the proper HID kit and/or making the necessary coding changes should make the setup truly error-free.

Finally, you can go hog wild and do a proper HID projector retrofit into the DEPO housings. I know this is somewhat popular among the E90 crowd and they tend to use the FX-R bi-xenon projectors from theretrofitsource.com. You could attempt this retrofit on your own, or pay large sums of money for a reputable retrofitter to perform the modifications for you. You might also fit proper LED angel eyes then, too. I looked into this option and it was going to be almost $700 just for the parts and the labor...and that's on top of the price of the DEPO lights! LED angel eyes would've been even more. You could also pay a retrofitter to install HID projectors into your OEM halogen lights, though I personally feel this is the least desirable option as it will never quite look "right."

I personally went with the DEPO lights, a MTEC H7 HID kit, and LEDs for the angel eyes. I love the blacked-out headlights, clear sidemarkers, and the look of the projectors as opposed to the OEM reflectors. The light output with the HID kit is very good, though not great, and is better than the OEM halogen lights. Cutoff is great, but the spread of the light in the beam pattern isn't quite as uniform as a light that is designed for HID from the get-go. There is a slight advantage in that these lights incorporate the European beam pattern. Overall, I'd say beam pattern is about on par with the U.S. halogen lights, with overall light output better thanks to the European cutoff and increased lumens of the HIDs.

Wow, that was a lot. Let me know if I missed anything.

[Perfectus-D]

Thank so much for all the information you guys provided me with, I will try to make a decision and possibly take some pics of the DIY.

[titleistforged]

AW128i, that was amazing. I've been lurking on the site trying to obtain knowledge about upgrading to AE's, and that by far was the best summary.

To the OP, I'm in the same boat as you. Good luck!