[AndreyT]

A basic question: What on Earth is "HID angel eyes"? I see this term thrown around a lot, but in different cases it seems to be used differently.

Most of the time it appears that "HID angel eyes" means "HID headlights with angel eyes". In this case it is implied that it's just the actual headlights themselves use HID bulbs to provide forward illumination, and that these units are are equipped with "angel eye"-style running lights. Angel eye halos themselves in that case are illuminated by an ordinary stock non-HID bulb. Basically, in that sense, my 2011 335i was already equipped with "HID angel eyes" straight from the factory. Of course, calling this combination "HID angel eyes" is misleading, but if people prefer to use it in informal speech, that's OK.

Yet, if I'm not mistaken, from time to time this term seems to be used to refer to literal HID angel eyes. It makes it sound as if there are aftermarket vendors out there who supply angel eye replacements that use actual HID bulbs to illuminate the angel eye halos. Is that so? If that's the case, could anyone please point me to an example of such a product? (At the first thought taking a HID bulb and forcing all its light output into two relatively small halo rings feels like an overkill...)

I did a search here and on the net, of course, but it is often very difficult to figure out what is being meant by "HID angel eyes" in each specific case (as I described above). For example, this recent thread: http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=433832.

So, once again, is there such a thing as literally HID angel eyes?

[cisf0rcalvin]

It means HID bulbs for the angel eyes instead of the standard halogen H8 bulb.

[LuxAngelEyes]

your car already comes with the angel eyes so that makes it easier to explain.

the stock bulb the lights up your angel eyes is a H8 base Halogen bulb. Many users change this bulb to something different to get differetn brightnesses, colors, or evenness of the rings.

the easist way to change it is to use a colored halogen bulb such as the GPThunder bulb. its cheep but does not look good

Users also do install HID Angel Eyes. what this means is that you replace the stock h8 halogen bulb with a HID or Xenon bulb with a ballast . the HID/Xenon bulb is about 3-4 times brighter then the stock bulb and offers more choices of colors. the inner ring gets extremely bright almost blinding while the outer ring is much dimmer.

The other option is to use a LED based bulb, such as the LUX H8 V3. the LUX H8 bulb also replaces the stock halogen H8 bulb and offers a very pure white 6500k color and also makes both the angel eye rings almost equal brightess.

Hopefully that answers your question.

[AndreyT]

Thank for your replies. So there's such a thing as HID bulb for angel eyes.

Originally Posted by LuxAngelEyes

The other option is to use a LED based bulb, such as the LUX H8 V3. the LUX H8 bulb also replaces the stock halogen H8 bulb and offers a very pure white 6500k color and also makes both the angel eye rings almost equal brightess.

Yes, I'm considering purchasing a pair of Lux H8 for my car. I just wanted to research the HID option as well.

AFAIK, the stock angel eyes use "light pipes" to redirect a portion of light to and around the outer ring (while the inner ring is lit up directly by the bulb). This is what makes the outer ring dimmer. I would expect that if instead of an omni-directional light source one used a special directional bulb designed to send more light to the entrances of the outer ring "light pipes", one would be able to equalize the brightness between the rings. Is that how your LED bulbs work to achieve more even brightness distribution?