[Ali-E90]

Hey guys, I recently purchased a set of these Rolling Gears headlights for the E90 (Pre-LCI) and am posting my honest review of the product. I purchased it from shopauto247 on eBay using this link (pics later in this post):
http://r.ebay.com/HV3oeD

Ranking:
Quality: 8
Fitment: 9.5
Angel Eyes: 9.5
Light Output: 8
Value: 8
Overall: 8.5

Summary:
Overall, these headlights are a great purchase, especially for anyone upgrading from pre-LCI halogens that don’t even have any angel eyes to begin with. These definitely change the look of the car a LOT, and depending on how far away you want to stray from the OEM look, this may be a good option for you. The DTM style angel eyes are super bright, the light output from the projectors is also good. The corner lights are all LED, but are difficult to see in daylight from an angle. Even when off, the headlights look good, and the new Matte Silver eyebrows on this version definitely look more upgraded than the stock white-like eyebrows seen on LCI and newer BMWs. Overall, I think these are great lights, and surpassed my expectations!


Detailed Review:
Communication: I contacted the seller, shopauto247, a number of times before, and after purchasing these lights (nothing wrong with them, contacted them after to ask about leveling adjustments). These guys were friendly and professional, and prompt! Also, it appears they speak proper English, which may sound elementary, but some other vendors are truly difficult to understand, or may not answer your questions properly as a result of this.

Packaging: I don’t think I could have asked for better packaging. The lights were shipped via FedEx in a large box. Inside the box were two smaller boxes, one per light. Within that, the lights were surrounded by bubble wrap, and form fitting Styrofoam for protection. One comment regarding FedEx, not sure about the US, but in Canada, these items have duties applicable. FedEx will charge you additional fees unless you give them a FedEx account number to bill directly for duties. The seller was very cooperative including my personal FedEx account to the duty portion of the shipping slip (and used their own account to pay for the shipping, which of course you ultimately pay for when buying the unit).

Quality: Overall the quality seems to be pretty good. I’ve had the lights on for a week now, pressured washed my car, drove through a rain storm, and everything is holding up fine. The only thing I was a little concerned about (but less so now, seeing that after rain / car wash everything still works fine) is all the wires that come out from the back of the headlight and go into the connector. Looked like they had done a decent job of covering key areas with electrical tape or similar, and I haven’t had any issues yet.

Installation/Fitment: Installation was uneventful, exactly what you’d expect. All the mounting points lined up fine, and once tight, fitment is spot on. There’s one mounting bracket at the top that has a pretty wide opening (see pic below). I might recommend using a washer for this bolt only, just to make sure it stays secure.

Angel Eyes: The angel eyes are DTM style (but not true DTM) and are super bright. Even in direct sunlight they are very visible. Unlike other LED angel eyes, these ones fade on and off with the welcome lights. Because these aren’t true DTM style (the inner part doesn’t go as high as the outer part), they stray a little bit from the OEM look (or F-series OEM look). I still think they look good, but for those who are purists (well, purists may likely stick with round AEs anyway) or don’t want to stray too far, this may be an issue. I think they still look good without looking too rice, but some may disagree since it’s in that grey area. Very subjective.

Corner LED: The corner lights are full LEDs, and look great. All individual LEDs have been working fine with no issue. These LEDs also seem to fade in and out with the welcome lights. However, the biggest issue I have with these lights is with the positioning of these LEDs. They all face directly frontwards, and as a result, are much less visible if you’re not directly in front of the car. This poses a problem when you’re signaling as people who are not directly in front of you may not recognize your blinker as being on if you’re trying to make a turn. This isn’t a problem in the evening/night, as the dimmer LEDs are still visible, but in sunlight, they are difficult to see unless you’re directly in front of the car. I imagine this could be fixed by having some of the LEDs face forward, and others face slightly outward to project the light into different directions. Not sure if the manufacturer will take this advice and update the design, but if they do they would have a golden product as that is my ONLY “major” gripe with these headlights.

Projectors/Light output: The light output is also better than I’d expect from an aftermarket light, it’s actually quite good and doesn’t need a retrofit IMO (unless you’re super picky and need only the best). The cutoff is nice and sharp, and does a weird angle thing so it’s higher on the right side… this is helpful to light up road signs without blinding oncoming traffic (which would be on your left, for these LHD versions). The throw distance is pretty decent, but I think my headlights came aimed a bit high, so I’ll need to assess the distance again after adjusting them a bit lower. These are definitely better than my Spyder headlights’ projectors, but can’t comment on how they compare to OEM or higher end projectors. Also, the halogen bulbs included are more of a white color than the standard yellow-ish color. Will see how long they last, but they do a decent job of matching the AEs and having decent light output. My plan was to retrofit an HID or LED H7 bulb right away, but these are good enough to keep using until they die before making a change!

Appearance: Even when these lights are off, they look fantastic! Really helps update the look of the car. The versions I bought are the newer ones with the Matte Silver eyebrow. I must say I think the silver eyebrow is much more expensive looking than the traditional white eyebrow seen on LCI and F-chassis BMWs. The black housing also looks great, especially on my black E90. The thing here is that the black headlights, and silver eyebrow, will contrast differently depending on the color of your car. On my black car, the black housings look great, but the silver eyebrows stand out quite a lot (the white eyebrow would have done the same). I’m still on the fence about liking the contrast of the eyebrow, but if you have a grey/silver car, I imagine these would fit really well. I think on all other colors the silver eyebrow will still look good since it gives a nice contrast. Perhaps only black cars have this issue since the eyebrow is the only part that contrasts the black, since the housing will match the body color. This all comes down to personal preference at the end of the day, and I may choose to wrap the eyebrow to go for an all-black look (if your car is murdered out, that is easily the best thing to do to go for the all-black look).


If you guys have any questions, please feel free to comment or PM me. Pics below.

[stashtrey]

Helluva write-up!

I have factory xenon adaptive on my pre-lci e90. The one thing I hate about them is tg amber cover reflectors.

Those look very factory!! Great price too!

[Ali-E90]

Originally Posted by stashtrey

Helluva write-up!

I have factory xenon adaptive on my pre-lci e90. The one thing I hate about them is tg amber cover reflectors.

Those look very factory!! Great price too!

Thanks!

Don't quote me on this, but I imagine there must be a way to use these with xenon lights too. Just not sure what would be required.

Also, I was pretty happy making a custom eyebrow for my oem lights to remove some of the orange reflector. See the link in my signature for pics.

[justalilbit]

Originally Posted by Ali-323i

Don't quote me on this, but I imagine there must be a way to use these with xenon lights too. Just not sure what would be required.

Should be plug & play, just involves some coding, disabling adaptive functionality, etc. I did it once with Depo "Halogen Only" headlights on an E60 w/ factory adaptive xenon. But I wouldn't recommend it, you'll miss xenon at night.

[RVRELUXX]

Nice man ! Those light change the whole look of you car !

[unrulyteach]

I hav the same headlights. How did you get the rings to be operational as welcome lights?

[RKP]

This lights are amazing. They come with normal halogen bulbs but I replaced them with a hid kit. Also keep your headlights in auto to use them as welcome lights.

[Ali-E90]

Originally Posted by justalilbit

Should be plug & play, just involves some coding, disabling adaptive functionality, etc. I did it once with Depo "Halogen Only" headlights on an E60 w/ factory adaptive xenon. But I wouldn't recommend it, you'll miss xenon at night.

If you want to keep the xenon type of output, you could always do an H7 hid kit, or maybe see if it's possible to use your factory xenon bulbs and ballasts with these lights.

[Ali-E90]

Originally Posted by unrulyteach

I hav the same headlights. How did you get the rings to be operational as welcome lights?

You'll want to code a few things on the car to get the most of the rings, such as using them as DRL, and for welcome lights. My car was coded with those features from before, so I didn't have to worry about changing anything once I installed these.

[Ali-E90]

Originally Posted by RKP

This lights are amazing. They come with normal halogen bulbs but I replaced them with a hid kit. Also keep your headlights in auto to use them as welcome lights.

My plan is definitely to upgrade to either HID or LED (still need to see more feedback on using LED H7 as headlights, throw distance etc), but there's less of a rush now since the halogen bulbs included are white and still pretty bright!

[Ali-E90]

Originally Posted by RVRELUXX

Nice man ! Those light change the whole look of you car !

Yeah, I definitely agree!!
Here's a before picture with the Spyder lights I had before.

Those were still better than the oem halogens without angel eyes, but these new ones make a world of a difference!

[RKP]

They definitely make a difference and are probably even brighter than oem. For some reason mine didn't sit properly so will reinstall them. My car looks literally like op's car. You can't go wrong with 220m rims.

[siphor1989]

These look really good! I would be all over these if only the xenon light output was like factory... Definitely an upgrade for those with factory halogens but I don't want to give up my adaptive xenons.

[unrulyteach]

Originally Posted by Ali-323i

You'll want to code a few things on the car to get the most of the rings, such as using them as DRL, and for welcome lights. My car was coded with those features from before, so I didn't have to worry about changing anything once I installed these.

When I turn on drl the inner bulbs come on. So I just use parking lights. And I don't see welcome lights

[Ruddigger]

Where you said to use washers, I just transferred the clips from my original lights.

[Ali-E90]

Originally Posted by unrulyteach

When I turn on drl the inner bulbs come on. So I just use parking lights. And I don't see welcome lights

Ahh, so it's likely you just need to get some coding done... you can get the rings to come on as DRL, welcome lights, and also do a corner delete (so they don't also turn on with your headlights), though with the LED corners, there's no need to do that delete IMO.

[Ali-E90]

Originally Posted by Ruddigger

Where you said to use washers, I just transferred the clips from my original lights.

I upgraded from another set of aftermarket, so I didn't have that clip... probably gone with my OEM lights.

Good call though!

[Ali-E90]

Originally Posted by siphor1989

These look really good! I would be all over these if only the xenon light output was like factory... Definitely an upgrade for those with factory halogens but I don't want to give up my adaptive xenons.

These come with some sort of adapter for the adaptive piece, and I'm sure there's a way to retrofit your halogen bulbs in these units (but don't quote me since it's not something I have to worry about)

[Ali-E90]

Originally Posted by RKP

They definitely make a difference and are probably even brighter than oem. For some reason mine didn't sit properly so will reinstall them. My car looks literally like op's car. You can't go wrong with 220m rims.

The eyebrow looks good on the white car, is that the new "matte silver" option, or the original white eyebrow?

Yeah, love the 220M wheels... though I'm starting to crave for more concave now (love the concave of the E60 M5 wheels, but prefer the machined shiny finish of the 220s)... I have OEM 219Ms for winter too (yet to be used, just got them this spring)!

[Ali-E90]

After seeing all my posts, I'm noticing it's time to update my avator/profile pic!

[RKP]

Originally Posted by Ali-323i

The eyebrow looks good on the white car, is that the new "matte silver" option, or the original white eyebrow?

Yeah, love the 220M wheels... though I'm starting to crave for more concave now (love the concave of the E60 M5 wheels, but prefer the machined shiny finish of the 220s)... I have OEM 219Ms for winter too (yet to be used, just got them this spring)!

They are the white eyebrow ones. I thought they would go more with the white car and yeah I'm feeling some more concave rims on my car too. 219m rims look really nice too.

[unrulyteach]

Originally Posted by Ali-323i

Ahh, so it's likely you just need to get some coding done... you can get the rings to come on as DRL, welcome lights, and also do a corner delete (so they don't also turn on with your headlights), though with the LED corners, there's no need to do that delete IMO.

Does the coding hav to be done through a expert tool