4300k angel eye bulbs

[bmv528ie39]

I just took apart mine chinasauki angel eye and now i know why these fail so often. They put glue underneath the led emitter, which acts as an insulator not allowing heat to transfer into the aluminum and away from the led. Looks like whoever makes these didn't even know the most basic engineering techniques. I'm going to order warm white Cree XM-L led emitters, properly mount them, and report back here. Even though i already know I'm going to get an overwhelming "those look dirty", "you just wasted your time they look halogen" type responses.

EDIT: I also found a graph from CREE plotting all of their leds against kelvin scale, so maybe ill be able to source some 5000k led's after all

[bmv528ie39]

Update on first page bump

[Arucano]

Very nice write-up. Thanks for the latest one. Well researched.

[bmv528ie39]

Finished up rebuilding my headlights, and finalized the install.

[bmv528ie39]

I did a design problem for school on this angel eye, led-heatsink deal, so i figure id post it here.

Heres a few renderings done in Solidworks Photoview







Hand calculations to find the coefficient of convection for the engine compartment. It turned out to be really low, because the engine bay is quiescent air at 90C, which does not held cool the LED very much at all.



Thermal simulation of the angel eye with no thermal epoxy applied to heat sink joints, notice how the heat does not dissipate into the the bottom very much.



Again, but with the thermal epoxy



Up until now all simulations were running the LED at 1A of current. This kept the junction temperature low enough for near infinite life, as you can see on the data sheet from CREE.



Here's the simulation running 3A of current, the junction temp skyrockets to 311C, which is going to totally cook the LED.



Ran it again using copper instead of aluminium for the heat sink. It only lowered the junction temp a few degrees showing that the combination of terrible heat sink design, coupled with low convection coefficient of the engine bay far outweigh the befits of using a metal with almost double the conduction capacity.

[MightyDuc]

Bravo, bmv528ie39, bravo!

[E39540V8]

Yeah nice work. Need to install my CCFL's in my depo's, but really need oem lights

[bartenderplease]

This absolutely deserves a bump. Did a search, found this thread. Incredible info here, thank you for all of your work.

[ViolinARC]

OK...I just picked up an '03 M-Sport. Does that mean I have the AE lights that cannot be upgraded?!?

[ImTheDevil]

OK...I just picked up an '03 M-Sport. Does that mean I have the AE lights that cannot be upgraded?!?

You can put LED bulbs into the housings to light the AEs, but these are the non-opening lights that mean you can't replace the AEs themselves with the high-wattage aftermarket rings.

Sucks too - I would love to upgrade the ones in my MSport too.

[ViolinARC]

My '03 has the clear "caps" on the Xenons so that means they CAN be baked open...correct? Someone mentioned that the black "caps" are the non-bakable ones...

[bmv528ie39]

My '03 has the clear "caps" on the Xenons so that means they CAN be baked open...correct? Someone mentioned that the black "caps" are the non-bakable ones...

------------Update----------

In order to run the angel eyes at full power (1,000 lumens per side) and have them still last a long time, i rebuilt them with a fatty heat sink. I also opted to add a relay and 16/18 gauge wire to carry the much higher 2.5 Amps these bulbs now draw, OEM is only around 0.75 Amps. I knew in advance all the extra power would still not make them DRL capable, but it did it because i wanted a more homogeneous light at night.

[Rjpacman]

Hey so after reading this thread today I decided go ahead an attempt this. I ordered everything from first page (except for the led/boards your website doesnt carry them anymore, found them elsewhere). I'm curious though where you got that massive heat sink and relay in the last post from? Thanks for your help. Its guys like you that help the rest of us noobs even attempt this.

[JaxPlanet]

Go to Amazon.com and search for "heat sink".

[JaxPlanet]

I finally got around to doing this and your write up is spot on. Thank you!

I have one challenge. I can't measure the amps. When I put my meter in series I get 0.06 mA which doesn't change when I adjust current and the LED does not light up:
IMG_0165[1].jpg
However, when I connect the LED directly, it lights up and changing the current adjusts the brightness:
IMG_0166[1].jpg
Somebody please tell me what I am doing wrong.

[Da Beemers]

The 10amp fuse in your meter could be blown.

[auaq]

OK...I just picked up an '03 M-Sport. Does that mean I have the AE lights that cannot be upgraded?!?

You can put LED bulbs into the housings to light the AEs, but these are the non-opening lights that mean you can't replace the AEs themselves with the high-wattage aftermarket rings.

Sucks too - I would love to upgrade the ones in my MSport too.

My '03 has the clear "caps" on the Xenons so that means they CAN be baked open...correct? Someone mentioned that the black "caps" are the non-bakable ones...

Just want to point out some things here.

Despite having the non-bakable headlights from 07/2002 to 2003, you can still get around with replacing the internal parts (projectors, AE rings, adjusters, etc.) by cutting around the edges of the lens first. I know this doesn't sound like a great idea, but honestly there is no other way. However, on the bright side you'll be able to replace/refresh the old, dirty looking lens with a brand new one, and then use a butyl rubber/sealant to seal the lens back on the housing. This way you are practically converting your non-bakable late model 2002-03 headlights into a bakable headlights once more. Here's a good source of how to cut the lens:

www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e39-m5-e52-z8-discussion/413905-replacing-headlamp-lenses-adjusters-unbakeable-lights.html

Once you have opened up your headlights you can finally upgrade the AE rings with any good aftermarket products available online. You can even install Umnitza's expensive Orion V4's in there too although they don't list it for face lifted E39's, but I have been told and confirmed from them that you can install these once you bake it open. So, this is would be a win-win situation for all face lifted headlights.

Unless if you find this task quite daunting to take on, then your other option would only be to upgrade the AE bulb.

Hope this helps.

[JaxPlanet]

The 10amp fuse in your meter could be blown.

Nailed it! Thank you!

The new LED works perfectly with the cheapo converter from the eBay. I measured the current at 0.620A. I would like to use the new converter to increase the current to 1.5A but I keep blowing fuses. I have turned the current and voltage screws on the converter counter clockwise about 8 times but it is not helping. I tried 3A, 5A, and 10A fuses. The fuses blow even when I am just checking voltage:
IMG_0174[1].jpg
Any ideas why it is blowing fuses?

[Da Beemers]

You might want to try another meter. Some of the lower end meters have a diode that is sensitive. After a surge or high current measure they can fail and short internally. I have seen this behavior before. That is just one reason why I love my Fluke meters.

[JaxPlanet]

Thank you for the fast response, Da Beemers!

I'm sorry, I should have been more specific. I am referring to an inline fuse I added to the positive wire going to the convertor not the fuse in the meter. The fuse holder is that little black thing cutoff at the top of my last picture.

It blows when I have the meter connected (as pictured) but it also blows when I remove the meter and just connect the LED bulb. It has blown fuses up to 10A which is far more than I will need so that is where I stopped.

[Da Beemers]

Sounds like a job for fuses referred to as 'slow blow'. It should not be needed, but it sounds like those leds surge when first powered, possibly caused by the use of the regulator. Slow blow fuses can handle the surge and still provide the rated protection. I would try a 10amp slow blow, and if that blows, something is definitely wrong.

[JaxPlanet]

Thanks again.

The fuses are the exact same ones the car uses. Not sure if they are slow blow. I can say that I did not have this problem when I was doing my first tests, as you can see from my first pictures. My best guess is that the converter is no longer working properly.

[Da Beemers]

There is a good chance the converter cannot handle the load. It may say it can do 3 amps, but in the real world we often find that is not the case. I need to go back and read the thread because I don't understand why a converter is needed. If this is a regular 12v led it does not need one. However, if it is a bare led, then you need an led driver circuit, not a converter, they are not the same thing. A driver circuit provides a constant at a certain voltage and is needed to properly drive high power leds.

- - - Updated - - -

I had completely forgotten that I had posted in this thread way back. I remember wondering at the time why he had chosen that converter as a driver, but since it seemed to work I thought no more of it. I would not use that unit, too small for the job IMHO. It is not made for this type of application. A standard led driver would be a better choice in my opinion. They can be found all over ebay, some better than others. A good pair of drivers might cost you $20, but they will do the job they were made for. Some are made for specific frequency leds. Others are more generic and can be used with any led as long as the current and voltage rating is observed. I will track down some for example.

- - - Updated - - -

I would use one of these if you want to have only one driver for both lights:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Boost-DC-DC-...sAAOSwWTRW2ETu

or two of these, one for each light:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-DC-CVCC-B...YAAOSwHQ9WW7O5

I always overrate in cases like this. If I know I need 10 watts, I would probably use a 20 watt driver, because they do get hot when used at or near max output and I want them to run as cool as possible. There are better quality units out there, these are just an examples, but I believe these will work fine.

[Mach540]

Da Beemers, What is the reason for the converter?
I thought LEDs can just run off of the car voltage.

Feel free to throw some technical dialogue in....

[Da Beemers]

Leds are actually low voltage devices. Most do not even go above 2 volts. Different color leds have slightly different voltages and they are very sensitive to both voltage and current, and the brightness of an led is controlled by current, not voltage. The color of an led does not come from the plastic part at all, but from the frequency of the burning element. Blue leds are in fact electrostatic sensitive and can be damaged from just a bit of static electricity (developing blue leds was a HUGE undertaking: complicated little buggers). If you have an led that says it is 12v, that is because there is a resistor inline that brings the voltage down to what the led needs. For all intents and purposes there is no such thing as a 12v led. In this case the required voltage is not really the issue, but carefully regulating the current while maintaining the voltage is where the driver comes in. Some freq specific drivers are very expensive, but lucky for us that is not the case here.