LED Angel Eye Realiability

[SCY7H3]

I'm thinking of putting these babies in when I do my blackout headlights, but has anyone had any experience with the reliability of them?

Since I can't post a pic as I'm new here, you can easily find them on eBay under the "LED angel eyes" title. They're a white ring with 24 flat LEDs around.

 

[jbaker1121]

1. alot of people have had trouble with angel eyes in our headlights...LED or not.

2. it's ebay, so its a 50 50 chance they will work well

3. try it and let us know what happens

 

[Dr.2K]

LED's do have a long life span unlike CCFL lights used in the past used for angel eyes. turbocad here does have a set of led angel rings inside his headlights and I believe he has not had any problems with them. Can't say which brand he used but ebay brands seem to be a hit and miss on quality. I just received my new headlights with the same led angel eye rings on the projectors so I guess I will see how long they will last.

Check out turbo's headlight work here ///3665

 

[SCY7H3]

Ya, I've checked those LEDs out as well though the one's i'm referring to (I wish i could post the link cuz it won't let me for the life of me yet) are LED's soldered onto a circular ring, so there's no tube or rubber casing like turbocad has.

I'm going to buy a set and test them out before I put them in, just leave them running for an hour each day to see if they end up failing at some point.

The other mod I'll probably do and this is what BMW has is run a lexan glass rod that's formed in a circle and have it come out the back of the headlight so that if in case an LED fails, i can easily swap it.

BMW's have replaceable bulbs for the angel eyes.

I have some wild ideas for the lights so i'll be starting that soon and show you guys once its done....i can't wait...seriously =D

 

[digital_nrg]

I would be very interested to know if you can do the BMW angel leds instead of CCFL or led rings. I have CCFL now and I believe 1 inverter already burned out.

 

[J3FF3R$0N]

I noticed your in T.O or related area, I have some extra headlamp "guts" if youre interested...Cuts down the down time

 

[SCY7H3]

Cool, i'll keep everyone posted on my progress!!

On a side note, I was snooping around the net just now and found a post of headlights melting after blacking them out because the chrome inside the headlight reflects the heat away from the plastic but now seeing as alot of people who did the CFL mod are having issues, i can probably see why...its the extra heat the bulbs take on lowering life...as the rule is, heat destroys everything unless its in a controlled environment.

Since our headlights don't exactly come off in 5 minutes, I don't plan on taking my bumper off to change a bulb lol

 

[turbocad6]

I look at my leds as a cute novelty & a little extra but not a main part of my headlight in that theres really no loss if it's not there really, but the problem with the angel eyes is that when they go, they leave you with a crappy damaged looking headlight. mine I did in a way that even if they do fail eventually it's not detrimental to the headlight itself at all, just leave them off & no harm done, like there not even there. if these your talking about are visable after it's assembled then longevity is much more of an issue really...

 

[SCY7H3]

That's true, the way you did yours is great that if they fail you don't have an eye sore.

There's two ways I'll probably go about this. First is drill holes in the surrounding rings and put a LED strip behind like you did. Option two is to replicate the BMW concept of using a lexan rod and forming a ring which will go through the reflector housing towards and outside the back of the lights and maybe find a spot where I can make a 194 style bulb socket which goes inside the lexan rod on the flat part of the headlight housing in the back making it look OEM. Two great things about it is you can always change the bulbs and its weather proof.

This isn't a final solution yet, I still haven't taken the lights apart...but for sure i'm going to take my time. I'm not completely taking out the chrome, its going to be a mixture of everyone's ideas plus some ideas I've thought of before.