[CapnCook]

Hi Guys,

A few weeks ago I drove through some pretty deep flood water, the water was coming over the bonnet of my E91 but luckily made it through ok. Only problem afterwards was that both my fog lights had water inside them

(This pic was taken a few minutes after driving through the flood water, notice the algae and crap all stuck in my grills at the bottom!)


I had wanted to get some whiter headlight bulbs anyway, and since I now had the ball-ache of getting to the fog lights to get the water out I thought I may as well buy a full set of 'white' bulbs that come with fog light bulbs to match.

I also bought a set of Angel Eyes to match from eBay £55 (link below)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3211392032...84.m1439.l2649

The Angel Eyes came with all the tools you need to complete the swap, 2 x sockets, a socket screwdriver, and a Torx screwdriver.

I set about whipping off the wheels and arch liners. this was pretty easy although the trolley jack wouldn't fit under the car so I had to drive up onto some wood to lift it up.

Once the arch liners are out, the fogs are easily accessible, and it was pretty easy to get the water out. Getting the old fog bulbs out were a PITA though, i'm not sure if its possible to access the fogs without going through the arch liners, but if so it would have been almost impossible to get the bulbs out of their holders any other way, they were really stuck in there and took a lot of wiggling!



Accessing the Angel Eyes is really simple and it took all of 1 minute to get them screwed in and finished. Here is the new next to the old:




The main/dipped bulbs were probably the hardest part of the whole job! Particularly the drivers side. Even from inside the arches you can't really see the bulbs, so its tricky to get the old ones out, let alone get the new ones in! I had a look to see if this was possible through the bonnet, but I can't see how it could be possible as the drivers side dipped is totally out of reach from above.

All in all it wasn't a hard job, was actually quite enjoyable in the sun this morning.

Here are the new Angels compared to the old in the daytime:

Before:


After:


And at night: (They look crap on these night pics taken on my iPhone but IRL they look totally different to these pics. They actually do look really White but the pics make them look yellow... I'll get some better ones taken on a real camera and update this)

[makkan00]

All I can say, its a nice looking E91. And congrats on getting white LEDs.

[CapnCook]

Thanks Makkan, they are the ones you gave me the link to in the other thread!

I still haven't got round to buying an INPA cable that works, so my Combox is still sitting in a drawer feeling sorry for itself, but I will be calling on your services as soon as I get one!

I was hoping to be able to code the Angels to be always on, but I thought I had the DRL option in the iDrive menu, but I was thinking of my moms Mini, I don't have the option on mine

[Brian mc21]

Good work. Now get them hubs painted.

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by CapnCook

Thanks Makkan, they are the ones you gave me the link to in the other thread!

I still haven't got round to buying an INPA cable that works, so my Combox is still sitting in a drawer feeling sorry for itself, but I will be calling on your services as soon as I get one!

I was hoping to be able to code the Angels to be always on, but I thought I had the DRL option in the iDrive menu, but I was thinking of my moms Mini, I don't have the option on mine

re: combox, not a problem mate.
re: DRL
AFAIK, you have FRM3 and it does not allow these halo rings to be coded as DRLs. I have tried to experiment on few cars but no joy.

[CapnCook]

Originally Posted by makkan00

AFAIK, you have FRM3 and it does not allow these halo rings to be coded as DRLs. I have tried to experiment on few cars but no joy.

Thanks for the info anyway Sam!

[dj219957]

any radio interference with those? heres my ebay cheapies:




with mtec 4750 blue main

[CapnCook]

I haven't noticed any radio interference yet, and no errors.

Yours look sweet too!

[raj55]

Are these LED angel eye bulbs perfect fit or do they need DIYing? What about the connector between the LED bulb and the car's original bulb connector. Did those come with the kit? Any bulb warnings or interference?

[raj55]

If you switch your car lights to the parking position (car light switch), and drive, you will have the halo lights on along with the rear and side lights. But you have to switch off manually each time on leaving the car.

[Jase 320d]

Please do not drive through water that was coming over the bonnet ever again

You do realise how lucky you were?
Could have easily been the end of your engine. Suck a bit of water in and its a goner

[CapnCook]

Originally Posted by raj55

Are these LED angel eye bulbs perfect fit or do they need DIYing? What about the connector between the LED bulb and the car's original bulb connector. Did those come with the kit? Any bulb warnings or interference?

Yeah they're a perfect fit, the connectors are also included but I just didn't take any pictures of them, it took 2 seconds to fit the connectors.

Originally Posted by Jase 320d

Please do not drive through water that was coming over the bonnet ever again

You do realise how lucky you were?
Could have easily been the end of your engine. Suck a bit of water in and its a goner

Indeed I do, and I would have tried to avoid it if possible but we live in a pretty rural area and were on our way home from the inlaws. Two of the roads we would usually use were coned off due to flooding so we had to find a diversion. There was a Shogun infront of me and an old shape 5 series behind me.

The whole lane was pretty waterlogged but it was mostly shallow, you couldn't tell how deep it was and could see the junction at the end of the road so it certainly looked drivable. The Shogun obviously plowed through ahead of me with ease, but after about 10 meters it was obvious that it was getting pretty deep, then when it started coming over the bonnet I honestly held my breath. The 5 series had followed me and there was no way I could have turned back at this point so I just preyed it didn't get any deeper and luckily we made it through. As we got to the end of the water I saw a couple in a Fiat Punto coming the other way. I didn't have any time to warn them but me and my wife both said "I bet they won't make it through".

I pulled over a few minutes down the road and took that above photo.

This is what it looked like afterwards:



A few days later I saw a different 5 series stuck in the ford near our house. Nobody was inside but the back window was smashed!

[CapnCook]

Originally Posted by CapnCook

A few days later I saw a different 5 series stuck in the ford near our house. Nobody was inside but the back window was smashed!

I just did a quick search and found some pics of the actual car I was on about, I assumed the back window was smashed from someone climbing out but the news article I got the pics from say it was looted. I didn't realise all the other windows were smashed too.








And a little off topic from the Angel Eyes discussion, but that same news article also shows an Audi that was looted after it broke down in the flood water:




It says people were purposely stealing the 'Flood' roadsigns so they could loot abandoned cars that got stuck!

[Tonyblade]

Can I ask if both rings light the same? I've heard some bulbs allow one ring to be brighter than the other? Thanks

[CapnCook]

Originally Posted by Tonyblade

Can I ask if both rings light the same? I've heard some bulbs allow one ring to be brighter than the other? Thanks

Yeah most of the ones I've seen have one mega bright ring and one not-so-bright ring, but mine really don't look like that. I have literally been looking for a set of Angel Eye bulbs for the last 3 months, I've started 3 threads on the subject and read hundreds of other posts regarding Angels.

So far mine are the best I've seen in the flesh (Standard halogen replacement I mean), of course having the super-bright retro-fit upgraded Angel Eyes fitted will be a much better result than mine (the ones that require your headlights to be dismantled to fit) and mine are no contest compared to the Angels on new BMWs.

But as a simple bulb replacement upgrade for halogen lights, mine are the best I've seen. Even in the dark now I can see all 4 rings glowing white in the boot lid of the car in front of me! It makes a hell of a difference.

I keep trying to get a decent pic, but my iPhone in the dark is only capable of taking a white splodge it just can't handle the brightness! haha!

[Tonyblade]

Thanks for your reply , appreciate it. Right that's my mind made up I'm ordering a set lol your reply was exactly what I wanted to hear. Thanks. tony.