[Dark_Knight_335]

Originally Posted by rollinstone157

Well, their price may be lower since they don't use the custom salt mix that the CBI's do. I should rephrase what I said. The Osram NightBreakers are probably the best 4300K-ish bulbs on the market. But I prefer the pure white output (and it seems you do too) and in that case, the CBI's are definitely the best bulbs on the market.

I have the Osram Night Breakers - exact same kelvin for fogs. They are ok, but no halogen solution is really that good...meh, might take em out soon and go back to my stock Osrams...

[JaysBlueE92]

known issue on e92 good to see op figured it out nice DIY and info here

[E92-Lighting]

let us know when the issue is finally isolated and fixed, very interesting how things panned out

[rollinstone157]

Originally Posted by Dark_Knight_335

I have the Osram Night Breakers - exact same kelvin for fogs. They are ok, but no halogen solution is really that good...meh, might take em out soon and go back to my stock Osrams...

Exactly, no halogen solution is that good.

But another fun development on the (well-performing) LED fog light front!

A company called Carclo (and others) makes something called a TIR (Total Internal Reflection) Lens. Similar to a reflector in the nature that light is shaped and projected out the front, TIRs have the advantage that a given form factor an easily produce different light beams by changing certain characteristics of the TIR.

I ordered a bunch for my flashlight projects--a narrow, medium, wide, and an elliptical beam. The elliptical beam looks like it would be phenomenal for fog lights--very wide, yet narrow spread. I'm going to wait until it's foggy out and just test the flashlight. But if the BMW OEM fog retrofit doesn't work out, I may end up building a custom solution with a buck driver, some neutral white high-CRI LEDs, and a 3-LEDs-in-1 elliptical TIR. I'll make a thread if I follow through with my ideas.

Sorry to

[Dark_Knight_335]

Got my Osram CBIs today- going to have them installed along with my LSD Saturday or the 31st!

[LuxAngelEyes]

Originally Posted by rollinstone157

Exactly, no halogen solution is that good.

But another fun development on the (well-performing) LED fog light front!

A company called Carclo (and others) makes something called a TIR (Total Internal Reflection) Lens. Similar to a reflector in the nature that light is shaped and projected out the front, TIRs have the advantage that a given form factor an easily produce different light beams by changing certain characteristics of the TIR.

I ordered a bunch for my flashlight projects--a narrow, medium, wide, and an elliptical beam. The elliptical beam looks like it would be phenomenal for fog lights--very wide, yet narrow spread. I'm going to wait until it's foggy out and just test the flashlight. But if the BMW OEM fog retrofit doesn't work out, I may end up building a custom solution with a buck driver, some neutral white high-CRI LEDs, and a 3-LEDs-in-1 elliptical TIR. I'll make a thread if I follow through with my ideas.

Sorry to

Years ago a tried to make my own LED based fog lights and tested out a lot of differet optics. The problem with most of them is that there is no clear cutoff beam on them, and too much light was shining upwards still. Ellipical beams do give the best usable light since they are wide, however they will still blind oncoming drivers.

If you look at the design of the new LED based fog lights and headlights from BMW they use an LED facing upwards into a reflector. The reflector allows for a more controlled beam pattern while presenting excess light from shining upwards.

I did end up going with my own LED fog lights by using a aspherical lens and the top half of it was painted black. There are 6 LED's in a row and because of that you get a wide beam angle. Te 1/2 top painted black blocks light from shining upwards. The biggest problem is adjusting the whole thing to make the light cutoff level with the ground. Trust me it wasnt a very fun project. Some of the newer Ledil Asymmetric optics might work nicely, again just no cutoff beam

[E92-Lighting]

Originally Posted by rollinstone157

Exactly, no halogen solution is that good.

But another fun development on the (well-performing) LED fog light front!

A company called Carclo (and others) makes something called a TIR (Total Internal Reflection) Lens. Similar to a reflector in the nature that light is shaped and projected out the front, TIRs have the advantage that a given form factor an easily produce different light beams by changing certain characteristics of the TIR.

I ordered a bunch for my flashlight projects--a narrow, medium, wide, and an elliptical beam. The elliptical beam looks like it would be phenomenal for fog lights--very wide, yet narrow spread. I'm going to wait until it's foggy out and just test the flashlight. But if the BMW OEM fog retrofit doesn't work out, I may end up building a custom solution with a buck driver, some neutral white high-CRI LEDs, and a 3-LEDs-in-1 elliptical TIR. I'll make a thread if I follow through with my ideas.

Sorry to

correct, normally for fog lights, all halogen bulbs are very similar, issue was already fixed with our MTEC LEDs.

[AWDBooSTIn90]

Originally Posted by E92-Lighting

correct, normally for fog lights, all halogen bulbs are very similar, issue was already fixed with our MTEC LEDs.

Wow that led fog light bulb is actually pretty good. Does it look that good in real life or is that just the photo making the white light make it seem brighter than it is? The reason i say that is because my stock fog lights actually do a decent job of lighting the road infront of the car. Just not white at all. And could be brighter i know.

[rollinstone157]

How are the headlights from hell treating you these days

[AWDBooSTIn90]

Originally Posted by rollinstone157

How are the headlights from hell treating you these days

The headlights are good. No more leaking. I ended up just putting a super thin bead of black silicone on the lexan/headlight housing seam. Worked great and you cant tell its there.

I still need to install my new ballast and AHL module.

I have my car all apart right now for some maintenance/upgrades:

335is motor mounts, m3 trans mounts, downpipes.

OFH gaskets, intake manifold gaskets, coolant change, oil change, rear diff fluid, vanos solenoid gaskets, carbon cleaning.

After all that its on to an idrive retrofit. Gotta swap the dashboard. I have a complete idrive system already but i might go with a nexus 7 or ipad mini in the double scoop. Then after that! Its time for m3 bushings and m3 suspension.

Luckily i have another car so i get to enjoy working on the 35 and take my time!

[rollinstone157]

Originally Posted by AWDBooSTIn90

The headlights are good. No more leaking. I ended up just putting a super thin bead of black silicone on the lexan/headlight housing seam. Worked great and you cant tell its there.

I still need to install my new ballast and AHL module.

I have my car all apart right now for some maintenance/upgrades:

335is motor mounts, m3 trans mounts, downpipes.

OFH gaskets, intake manifold gaskets, coolant change, oil change, rear diff fluid, vanos solenoid gaskets, carbon cleaning.

After all that its on to an idrive retrofit. Gotta swap the dashboard. I have a complete idrive system already but i might go with a nexus 7 or ipad mini in the double scoop. Then after that! Its time for m3 bushings and m3 suspension.

Luckily i have another car so i get to enjoy working on the 35 and take my time!

Glad to hear that the silicone has solved your problems! Hopefully everything will be in working order when all the new electronics come in.

Now that's a setup you've got planned there. I'm big on mods like that--not necessarily something you see, but something that you can feel.

While the Nexus is nice, there's nothing like good OEM integration, and the iDrive will make that happen. Unless you only found a CCC instead of the newer CIC, then don't bother with it, cause the CCC is a total wet blanket

[AWDBooSTIn90]

Definetly going with something better than the ccc. I was alittle dissapointed the first time i tried it. I was expecting it to be alot better than it was. Im just glad the CIC is pretty much an easy swap and is a big upgrade. Im debating on whether to go with the newer NBT idrive setup or just go with the CIC with combox. I havent really been looking into it much lately because ive been busy with other stuff.

I just had the carbon cleaning done yesterday thanks to Dan(Dr. Carbon)! He did a great job and knows his stuff. It was reallyyyy bad. Lots of buildup. Should notice a nice change i would say. I want to buy an oil catch can now so i can minimize the buildup if i can.

I bought a JB4 that i have waiting to go in. So should have some fun with that!

Motor mounts are done. Trans mounts done. OFH gaskets done. I cleaned out the coolant resevoir while i had it drained for the OFH removal. New coolant going in tomorrow and then ill have to do the bleeding.

But thats alittle off topic lol. I will be ordering the new ballast and AHL module as soon as i get some free time. It hasnt been a proirity since i havent been even driving the car.

[Dark_Knight_335]

AWD damn bro- I wish I had a FRACTION of the DIY talents you seem to have man. Sounds you have plenty to keep you busy- hope everything turns out exactly as you planned!

[rollinstone157]

Originally Posted by AWDBooSTIn90

Definetly going with something better than the ccc. I was alittle dissapointed the first time i tried it. I was expecting it to be alot better than it was. Im just glad the CIC is pretty much an easy swap and is a big upgrade. Im debating on whether to go with the newer NBT idrive setup or just go with the CIC with combox. I havent really been looking into it much lately because ive been busy with other stuff.

I just had the carbon cleaning done yesterday thanks to Dan(Dr. Carbon)! He did a great job and knows his stuff. It was reallyyyy bad. Lots of buildup. Should notice a nice change i would say. I want to buy an oil catch can now so i can minimize the buildup if i can.

I bought a JB4 that i have waiting to go in. So should have some fun with that!

Motor mounts are done. Trans mounts done. OFH gaskets done. I cleaned out the coolant resevoir while i had it drained for the OFH removal. New coolant going in tomorrow and then ill have to do the bleeding.

But thats alittle off topic lol. I will be ordering the new ballast and AHL module as soon as i get some free time. It hasnt been a proirity since i havent been even driving the car.

Hey man, how's the car doing?

[GreaseJunkie]

I just got AHL servo codes after installing Weisslicht (sp) LED angel eye bulbs. Was thinking it was their fault, but after reading this thread and battling condensation on my driver assembly, I'm pretty convinced I have the same issue as OP. Thankfully now I have a clear cut idea on what I have to do. This is why I love this site.

[DrewWphoto]

Great info.dealing with the same thing.

[AWDBooSTIn90]

Originally Posted by rollinstone157

Hey man, how's the car doing?

Cars doing great!

For anyone wondering the problems i had with my AHL headlights so far has been:

Moisture getting in the headlight, took headight out and just ran a super thin bead of black rtv silicon to see if i could get away with not opening the headlight. Worked perfectly and you cant see it all.

The moisture, even after only 2 weeks of it happening, was enough for the condensation to drip down and fry my stock xenon ballast and the AHL module ecu. The E92 headlights (mine are pre-lci) have the ballast and AHL ecu on the very bottom of the headlight. So any water accumulated in the headlight will go straight down to the ballast and AHL ecu. Not a very good design in my opinion.

So anyone with condensation buildup in your E92 headlight, fix that RIGHT AWAY! It caused all my problems and cost me around 200$ for both of the parts, used..

Second problem i had was, my other headlight became very obviously misaligned and the projector was basically pointing straight up at a 45 degree angle. Turns out, i hit a big pot hole and the projector popped off the adaptive headlight motor that controls the up/down movement of the projector. Theres 2 motors, one for left/right, the other for up/down movement of the projector.

So i took that headlight off the car, opened the back cover, removed the bulb and all the external parts to get as much visibility into the headlight as I could. The projector is connected to the 2 motors using a ball in socket, type of connection. My projector popped out of the socket. So i was able to just apply pressure to the projector while holding the arm and the ball snapped back into the socket. Now the projector was properly connected to the headlight stepper motor and the projector was level again.

Re-Installed the headlight. Turn the car on and off a few times. Watched the projectors do their up then down self test. The projector centered itself and all is good again. Haven't had any other problems with the car or headlights since then. *knock on wood * LOL

Im currently running MHD tuner for N54- stage 1. I've had to replace a few coil packs, but thats to be expected with the old oem bosch coil packs on a stock car and even worse when tuned.

Also installed the VRSF 3" downpipes. Love the sound! Still have oem exhaust otherwise and to me its the perfect balance of the factory exhaust tone and slight increase in sound only when you get on it, in the upper rpm's. I can now technically go to stage 2 on MHD, just haven't yet. I noticed a bump in power immediately even on stage 1 (93 only) tune. I miss the jb4's ease of running E85, but MHD just came out with an E40 map. So ill try that out eventually as well.

Next step is suspension. I have enough power, now its starting to show the weaknesses of the stock sport suspension. I have lower mileage oem sport struts/shocks/springs, but its still not enough. Shooting for a full suspension overhaul. Solid or M3 bushings, konis, m3 control arms, and dropping the rear subframe and cleaning/painting everything and undercoating the whole car.

Next step is

[AWDBooSTIn90]

Originally Posted by GreaseJunkie

I just got AHL servo codes after installing Weisslicht (sp) LED angel eye bulbs. Was thinking it was their fault, but after reading this thread and battling condensation on my driver assembly, I'm pretty convinced I have the same issue as OP. Thankfully now I have a clear cut idea on what I have to do. This is why I love this site.

If you have condensation in the headlight, i would remove the headlight.

Then remove the AHL module and see if its wet. Mine was clearly wet and actually a little corrosion on the contacts. So it was very obvious the water inside the headlight ruined it.

Good luck with fixing it.

Also if you haven't already, code out the AE bulb checks for cold, warm, and hot: bulb checks.

[lambdatheta9]

Drove through some water at a decent speed. 10 seconds later, received low beam malfunction warnings on both lights followed by adaptive light malfunction... fml. Anyone know a cost estimate? Taking it to a shop to get evaluated but wanted to see if anyone had an experience with this.

I understand that the ballast might need replacement and bumper needs to come off - expensive stuff.....