DRL/Angel Eye LED bulb recommendation

[belcom]

Just looking to change out the BA9S bulbs and code out the voltage check.

I've been looking and there's a ton of them. I'd very much prefer something bright but it must not have any hint of blue so 4000 -5000k color temp. Not sure how many lumens is enough though.

Any recommendations? Prefer to order from Canada or US

[pungo]

Just so you know, there's a blue translucent filter lens between the bulb and the angel eye ring, I believe to make the stock yellowish halogen bulb look more white. Therefor any white LED installed is going to appear blueish.

As well, no matter how many lumen LED you go with, they're not going to be that much brighter than the stock bulbs due to the configuration of the AE on these headlights. The only option to dramatically improve the AE on these headlights is to retrofit LED rings.

[Huz-Z]

The above is why I used OEM bulbs.

[belcom]

Pungo, I have a friend who's done a few of these upgrades for himself and other people. So its not a big deal to do it. Issue is I am not a big fan of cutting up the headlights for this. Don't think it's worth it.

If the LEDs don't work out at all I am going to put the stock 5w halogen bulbs back in and call it a day.

[pungo]

Originally Posted by belcom

Pungo, I have a friend who's done a few of these upgrades for himself and other people. So its not a big deal to do it. Issue is I am not a big fan of cutting up the headlights for this. Don't think it's worth it.

The LED rings can be installed without any cutting, though requires some customized tools and the headlight assemblies need to be removed from the vehicle.

Originally Posted by belcom

If the LEDs don't work out at all I am going to put the stock 5w halogen bulbs back in and call it a day.

The stock halogen bulbs are actually 10w, not 5w.

[Huz-Z]

Do you do that procedure for folks?

[pungo]

Originally Posted by Huz-Z

Do you do that procedure for folks?

I was retrofitting dual AE LED rings as a service for a while but have since stopped offering the service.

[jpbmw]

Couldn't find a bulb in the U.S. or Canada but ordered these in May and they've worked great so far. Wish I had a before and after but happy with the upgrade.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B08...=UTF8&th=1

[ZeD4Mr]

Originally Posted by Huz-Z

Do you do that procedure for folks?

Andre (AK72) in Toronto did my lights and I'm extremely satisfied.

After I received them back, just plugged them in like OE head lights and everything just worked for the last 2 years.

I had them painted the housing flat black, lightly smoked the turn signal part, (he offered different configurations for me like blink orange with turn signals etc), I kept it simple..

Never fogged up or leaked as you can see I the pictures.

I slap XPEL clear on the lights after I got them.. never looked back.. well, I still look back at the car as I walk away.. lol

Here's some pictures

[pungo]

Originally Posted by ZeD4Mr

Andre (AK72) in Toronto did my lights and I'm extremely satisfied.

Curious, how much did they charge for the service?

[belcom]

Originally Posted by ZeD4Mr

Andre (AK72) in Toronto did my lights and I'm extremely satisfied.

After I received them back, just plugged them in like OE head lights and everything just worked for the last 2 years.

I had them painted the housing flat black, lightly smoked the turn signal part, (he offered different configurations for me like blink orange with turn signals etc), I kept it simple..

Never fogged up or leaked as you can see I the pictures.

I slap XPEL clear on the lights after I got them.. never looked back.. well, I still look back at the car as I walk away.. lol

Here's some pictures

Hey, Andre is my friend I helped polish your headlights when he did it hehe. So getting the same done on my car is not an issue. Like I said, I am not a big fan of cutting the lights apart. Maybe if I had a spare set... And I am not sure how Pungo accomplished it without cutting. Perhaps he can elaborate?

I have two Zs with same headlights and just took the lights out on the Si as I was changing out the projectors to Morimoto Evox-r 2.0. At the same time played around with some LED bulbs I ordered from amazon. I really did not like that even though they're actually brighter than stock and bulb on its own is pure white, the color temp was way too blueish and does not match the HID bulbs due to the filter in there. It just looks off to me. So I ended up just putting new osram bulbs in there and called it a day. I like to keep things as close to stock as possible. Plus those LED bulbs were generating quite a bit of heat. Didn't have a temp gun to check exactly how hot they ran but it was fairly hot. And melting internals in the headlights is the last thing I want to do.

Perhaps I will revisit the idea later but for now I am ok with stock look and bulbs. Need newer D2S bubls for better use of the new projectors though and get them adjusted. Going to do the same thing on Z4M. Output is definitely better.

By the way, for everyone who is not upgrading projectors I highly recommend to at least take the lights out and remove the stock projectors to clean the lens. When I took mine out the lens had this milky residue on the front and back of the lens. The clarity of the glass after cleaning is very significant and I bet would do wonders in light output. But you still can't do much about the reflector. Its just hazy and kinda looks used up and burnt out. I think it would be great if someone had made an aftermarket replacement reflector for the stock assembly. That with a clean lens would be a decent upgrade for light output.

[maupineda]

I was almost set on changing the projector but I cannot digest cutting and adapting things with lights. What I did was very similar to the above, I opened them up and changed the lenses with clear ones from the retrofit source ILO the fresnels OE ones. I added some laser etch ///M logos too 😬

[maupineda]

A few pics of my upgraded lenses from "The retrofit source"





As mentioned before, the OE lenses where foggy due to dust accumulation, the photo above is after cleaning, and you can see the fresnel design, which makes the light output less neat.