dim angel eyes

so i installed the angel eye headlights on my bimmer yesterday, and so i ran the wires to the parking light ground and power...thing is....the light looks very dim, like not at all what i expected....im assuming its either of two reasons

1. eagle eyes (brand name of my headlights) suck...(or the halos that came w/it suck)
2. the parking light isnt giving it enough power (in which case i might run a direct ground and power for the halos themselves.)

in the case that i cant solve this...would i be able to replace the halos for some brighter ones? like just buy the halos alone (ive seen kits on ebay)

thanks.

anyone?

ohh yea and i forgot to mention that they are actually brighter when they blink along w/the turn signals than when i just have them on....wierd...

hook it straight to the battery and see what happens

k then im gonna try that in a bit...will post results.

did you wire them without the ballast? i know that the turn signals/parking lights when running are a little dimmer but when they blink it'll be brighter.

Originally Posted by sillieidiot

did you wire them without the ballast? i know that the turn signals/parking lights when running are a little dimmer but when they blink it'll be brighter.

i dont have a ballast....umm....lets see yea i ran the ground to another direct ground wire and now they are brighter but im still not satisfied...they look a bit yellowish...thats what i get for buying cheap headlights.....what i bought was not an angel eye upgrade but an entirely new set of headlights with projectors (not hid) and angel eyes......

ohh yea and a small bit of one of the halo's doesnt even turn on...i already complained to the ebay store...im contemplating just asking for a full refund and buying some good lights off somewhere else.....

i really dont know what to do, should i return the headlights and put the stock ones back on and upgrade them? or just upgrade my halos and get an HID kit later?

nah just get the full refund and buy some p46's from jlevi. then you can get hid, projectors, and angels all in one place. and lifetime warranty on most of the parts.

yea sounds like a better idea...now if i can only replace the headlight cover...its all greyed out by the sun and the condensation....

you can try using meguiars plastix on it. it will take some time. but it should work. otherwise you can buy a new set at your local dealer.

well nah i just realized that P46's come with new covers so yea im good...

now im just trying to convince the ebay store to let me return the stupid headlights so i can just upgrade my stock lights.....currently waiting on their message..i really really hope they give me a refund....by the looks of it they might rather give me an exchange...

what should i do if they refuse to refund my money and dont wanna let me return the lights?

complain to ebay... they sold you non working garbage.

I just installed a set of CCFL's on my E46 yesterday. Like you I wanted to wire them in to my parking lights. When I went to confirm postive and neg leads was surprised to see only around 4.5v. Both sides checked the same and the voltage didnt change with the engine running. Am not sure what was going on but went ahead and wired them in with the fogs as they checked in at closer to 12v.

If you wired them to your parking lamps it could be you are supplying low voltage to the halos.

^ that should be about right. for most of our cars, the running/parking lights are 1156 (single filament). so to get the dual filament ability of 1157, it should be around 6v for running and 12 when blinking.

It is indeed a dual filament bulb and must get its ground from the light assembly. So with the park lights on the voltage I was measuring then must've been between the two hot leads (park and turn) right?

If thats correct then maybe I would have been ok had I tapped into the park light lead and picked up a ground from the body or one of the tan ground leads going to the fog lamp?

yes

you can just tap the ground coming for the turn signals as well.