The angel eye units are based on the new 5 and 7 series halo side lights. These are becoming an ever popular modification for the E36 and now are becoming readily available for the E46 and E30. However, there are many units on the market, all with their pro's and con's. After much debate over which is the best kit to buy, I have come to the desicion that you must decide which is best for yourself! As I have said earlier each unit has its good bits and its bad bits! Here is a run down on what has been tried and tested by other BMW owners(including my own).
Evolve
This kit is the one I have installed on my car. It is a very simple kit comprising of:
4 (plastic!)Angel eye halos 2 pre-assembled light units(4 hyper blue/white leds) Thats about it! Some instructions(not the best!) Cost: £250 The halo's are quite simple to fit, as they are CNC machined,they fit perfectly into the inner rings of your headlight lenses, with a little bit of araldite spread around the rings they can be glued in tight and strong. Then all that is left to do is splice the led wires with your original sidelight wires! Not the most cost effective units but are certainly the brightest on the market so far! In fact, id go so far to say that I nearly had a heart attack when I opened the box they were in! Also, you will need perfect headlight lenses in order to make these look their best! So if they're cracked or chipped dont bother with this as you will need to buy new lenses too! I had just bought new lenses so this was the best option for me! They look superb in the dark and in overcast or halflight days!
In-Pro
The In-pro units. First available from ECP and the first kit to come to the E36! These kits come as a whole headlight unit, all you need to do is change your original headlight motors over into these ones! The halo in this type is built into the actual lense and is powered by the same wedge shaped bulb that is found in your ash tray. They also give off the same yellowish colour. Look very good at night and do suit the car. But they are not so good in the overcast hours, and terrible in the full light(as all available kits are!) Also, they are a hell of a lot better value for your dosh! If you need to replace your tatty lenses, then this is a much better option than the separate halo kits as it is all one unit! The yellow colour tends to suit darker cars rather than lighter ones! If you look at the above pic you can see Evolve Vs. In-pro! Price from ECP: £195.75 plus vat There may be a way of making them brighter but we still havent figured it out yet!
Daylight Demon Eyes (DDE)
Another ring only kit, this time they are fibre optics! Very expensive for what they are, similar fittment to the Evolve kit but are harder to wire up. This kit consiste of 4 flexible halos, fibre optic units, and mounting clips. And un-like the name suggests, they dont work in the broad daylight! Available from Motormec. Price: £255
Hyper Bright Led Angels from H-I-D
Another LED combination halo. The rings are not pliable tubes, but 44 pcb mounted leds with voltage dropping resistors mounted onto a horseshoe shaped pcb (printed circuit board). Connection to the sidelight circuit is via the very thin cables provided, passing through the reflector and plugging the copy lampcap into the wiring loom. The rings are fitted BEHIND the inner headlight lenses, friction fit and held by, believe it or not, sticky pads provided. A small terminal screwdriver is also provided. Cost: £270 These are very bright in the dark and work just as well as the Evolve halos. But yet again, they are just the rings, so if your lenses are tatty,i'd steer clear!
Hella Angel Eyes
These are the new style Angel eye units from Hella. The well known German company that produces BMW's light units. They use the same Celis technology as that of the current and old model 5 series BMW's. Being from Hella you can already expect to know how good the quality will be!
The downside to these lights(from my perspective) is that the rings are far too small and also they are upside down. I think they should have been made a lot bigger like the size of the other available options of angel on the market! I also do not like the chrome, it makes the rings look tacky, and for some reason takes the aggressive look away from the front of the car!
Also they are extremly expensive at over £300 a pop you can be forgiven for wanting to choose the cheaper options, which in my opinion look a lot nicer.
Angel Eyes
