AE Side by Side Comparison... and finally found a good one!!

Originally Posted by giarC71

Lights are working great now!

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Bimmer App

I'm afraid the "fixing of the problem" required disabling some internal checks through programming, not something I'd want to hack in a 100K car...

Just wanted to give an update. The day after my last post in this thread (6/7) I called Alex directly. He answered my call immediately, brought up my information, and told me that my bulbs had been lost in the mail. He was very apologetic and told me that he was mailing out a new set and that he would refund my credit card $20 or $30 (I can't remember how much it was, and to be honest I never checked to see if there was a refund). I received my bulbs within 3-4 days.

While I don't agree with not responding to emails, in Alex's defense he did everything possible to help me when I called. I have yet to install the bulbs as I have been busy with work, and to be honest I didn't realize there were so many damn wires! I will probably put them in this week or weekend.

http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...er_media_share

So this is what happen. Alex have no idea why. Anyone have this issues? Fuse didn't pop but cable at the connector got soo hot it burn dry off

Happen on our way back from the drive from fl to tx.

Originally Posted by Tdrag97

http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...er_media_share

So this is what happen. Alex have no idea why. Anyone have this issues? Fuse didn't pop but cable at the connector got soo hot it burn dry off

Happen on our way back from the drive from fl to tx.

That's really scary looking.

That doesn't look good at all. I really want to upgrade my lights but pictures like the one posted above makes me back off.

I guess our only hope would be that if it catches fire, it burns to the ground. BMW in no way is going to warranty anything.

Originally Posted by CABimmerNation

I guess our only hope would be that if it catches fire, it burns to the ground. BMW in no way is going to warranty anything.

This is what I'm worry about. and wonder if any other user of the Alpine AE have this issues.

Its strange, cuz it only at the terminal If the cable hardness did get this hot, I would expect the cable to metal and the fuse to pop. But I can understand that if there are no faulty power issues why WOULD the fuse pop , right?

So some how just the terminal got really hot in order for the cable to burn off like that.. the plastic under was a bit melted too. so question is what would cuz just the positive terminal(bolt) area to get extremal hot.

and if we are able to buy a new terminal cap for replacement.

Well Alex fixed my warning light out problem back in June. However since the Days are getting shorter I set my lights on to Auto and when starting the car the drivers side light doesn't come on. I have to then turn them off and then to the on position to get them to work. Little frustrating. I sent Alex an email and then he asked for my order number and since then I sent him a 2nd email and have not heard anything. As i appreciated his services to fix the problem in June, I'm not happy about the latest problem. I will call him to see what he think. Anyone have other ideas what the problem is?

I bought mine for my 2011 750i back in December of 2011 and installed them myself. Alex and James were always great on the phone with any questions, even after i installed them. I called them last week, because i too now have had my 1st problems.
My lights would turn on sometimes and other times be off. Alex figured loose connection but after some trouble shooting i believe the relay was going bad. The relay even when the lights wouldnt work was so hot to the touch as were the wires coming off the relay, that you couldnt touch them. Pretty sure they shouldnt get that hot. I replaced the relay and have been back in business. So 8 months after my order, Alex was patient and responded to my messages quite promptly.
I do though think sometimes that not only is the drivers side outer ring dimmer, but i feel like the outer rings in general have gotten dimmer. I could be nuts. Mine are 8000k color. Anyone using 8000k and have a pic to post to compare? Thanks.
Also, until this issue, i havent ever had an error or issue with the lights.

Well Alex fixed my warning light out problem back in June. However since the Days are getting shorter I set my lights on to Auto and when starting the car the drivers side light doesn't come on. I have to then turn them off and then to the on position to get them to work. Little frustrating. I sent Alex an email and then he asked for my order number and since then I sent him a 2nd email and have not heard anything. As i appreciated his services to fix the problem in June, I'm not happy about the latest problem. I will call him to see what he thinks. Anyone have other ideas what the problem is?

I know he has been having a lot of surgeries.... so I am not sure if that is the problem with his delayed response...

Alex had some nasty hand surgery ...

I recently got my new cable set to replace my burnt connection near the battery terminal. But It seem that these light my have some other issues. Like stephenaron said, these cable run very hot.

Hot to the point that it will burn the cable right off the metal connection., but for some reason will not pop the fuse or light.

As you can see in my old picture.. it is hot enough to burn the cap...

Originally Posted by stephenaron

I bought mine for my 2011 750i back in December of 2011 and installed them myself. Alex and James were always great on the phone with any questions, even after i installed them. I called them last week, because i too now have had my 1st problems.
My lights would turn on sometimes and other times be off. Alex figured loose connection but after some trouble shooting i believe the relay was going bad. The relay even when the lights wouldnt work was so hot to the touch as were the wires coming off the relay, that you couldnt touch them. Pretty sure they shouldnt get that hot. I replaced the relay and have been back in business. So 8 months after my order, Alex was patient and responded to my messages quite promptly.
I do though think sometimes that not only is the drivers side outer ring dimmer, but i feel like the outer rings in general have gotten dimmer. I could be nuts. Mine are 8000k color. Anyone using 8000k and have a pic to post to compare? Thanks.
Also, until this issue, i havent ever had an error or issue with the lights.

Here is a picture of my F01 with the Alpine kit installed. Color temp is 8000k and both rings fully light up.

I just installed the kit on 9/1/2012 so I don't know if they have changed the kits after the issues they've been having.

So here are three pics i have. One shows my angel eyes when i put the kit in 9 mos ago. and the 2nd picture shows them now. They actually werent working for the last week, and i ended up replacing the relay in the kit. Now they work, but this doesnt look right. The outer ring is barely lit on either side of the car, and certainly not WHITE like it was. Help?

I also am starting to see the same thing with the outer rings. I hope someone can explain what is happening. I will reach out to Alex when I get a chance.

would the middle light head set work on a 328xi 2008 ? And can anyone spend me a link of those if they do work for that type of model . :/

Thanks

I too recently purchased from Alex at Alpine HIDs and I'm trying to figure out what the typical expected wait time is for the HIDs to be shipped out after ordering?? After reading some of these posts, I feel like I may be waiting and waiting for a long time... Like others have mentioned, my follow-up emails have also gone unanswered. Thanks.

For all of you wondering why it is so difficult to get these electrical mods working on the F01/02... I think I have found the cause... and possibly a solution (more on the last part to follow).

I was having a BMW tech who also has his own shop install some HID driving lights on my '12 F02 M sport in addition to the HID angle eyes from Alpine I installed a few months back. Needless to say we ran into our share of problems but learned a lot in the process.

Long story short, it turns out that the new BMW's use a pulse modulated current throughout the car to power everything. This apparently saves a lot of copper wire and weight. In fact the new cars have half the wiring than the previous model had. The current in this new set up is constantly switching on/off to all electrical components which are designed for this. As you can guess, this relies heavily on programing and solid state technology to work.

The relays that are part of the kit (and many other kits) are failing with such frequency because they are mechanical and essentially buzzing on/off due to the pulsed current which they aren't designed for. I am now running a nonmechanical solid state relay which addresses this first issue but unfortunately there are additional problems.

The current in this electrical set up also fluctuates between 12V with just the battery on and 14+ volts while the alternator is running which is likely tripping the ballasts resulting in the sometime on sometimes not nature of these lights. This requires a capacitor to be added into the lighting circuit to maintain a steady 12V current.

Then we have the resistor problem, to trick the faults codes into thinking a bulb is still in place. On inspecting the one that was part of the angle eye kit (Black cylinder attached to harness), it looked like it was about to explode and had severely swollen after only little use. So this too has to be beefed up and replaced.

My mechanic is almost finished with the project that started as a weekend install. Between all the trial and error as well as waiting for new parts its now been 3 weeks. I can't wait for the bill on this! lol

I will post a wiring diagram, and component parts that need to be replaced once I'm sure this setup is working. I can already tell you though, that it won't be cheap as the solid state relay alone runs $180.

Else where on this forum are posts for supposedly error free LED's for the F01/02.... something to think about although they are likely not as bright! Some have also reported yellowing of the angle eye fibers from HID's so that may still be something else to contend with.

In the mean time... happy motoring!

our F01 and F02 MTEC angel eye are all error free and made with CREE leds for maximum brightness it is 100% plug and plug with no messy wires externally

Originally Posted by E92-Lighting

our F01 and F02 MTEC angel eye are all error free and made with CREE leds for maximum brightness it is 100% plug and plug with no messy wires externally

You keep on adversting your LED's. Reading from f01driver that his 20watt LED kit is barely noticeable in the daylight (so much less than stock than he uninstalled it), I fail to see that a 6 watt kit like yours could be brighter.

Disregarding the error code comments, go and show us some quality, non-photoshopped pics in a F01/02 in sunny daylight to see if it's worthwhile to buy these.

I for one love to get a good working set, but so far, most of what I have seen is nowhere close to what BMW has put into their F10's or crap that can damage the headlights.

Originally Posted by Wolfman64

You keep on adversting your LED's. Reading from f01driver that his 20watt LED kit is barely noticeable in the daylight (so much less than stock than he uninstalled it), I fail to see that a 6 watt kit like yours could be brighter.

Disregarding the error code comments, go and show us some quality, non-photoshopped pics in a F01/02 in sunny daylight to see if it's worthwhile to buy these.

I for one love to get a good working set, but so far, most of what I have seen is nowhere close to what BMW has put into their F10's or crap that can damage the headlights.

I also wanted to add that my kit threw error codes, I removed them after having them for a day and went with PIAA's.

I've personally given up on LED kits, our angel eyes can't project the LED lights properly so we'll never be able to achieve the same brightness as the f10/X5's or the LCI f01 unless you go down the OEM route and retrofit the LCI OEM headlamps.

I have PIAAs now since the last LED kit didn't work out, but the PIAA is closer to yellow stock lights more than anything else. After driving the F10 and new 328 loaner with OEM LEDs, the brightness is unmatched with any aftermarket LEDs. I am so jealous!

I've personally had Alex's HID angel eyes for almost two months now with ZERO issues.

Couldn't be happier, literally, my F01 wouldn't feel the same without these gorgeous bright, white, HID angel eyes.

Here are a few pics of the completed project. No faults or error codes thus far. Everything looks and works great... Very visible during day or night. Cost me around $400 in parts and labor to make the HID angle eyes bullet proof but definitely worth it!

Originally Posted by haastx10

Here are a few pics of the completed project. No faults or error codes thus far. Everything looks and works great... Very visible during day or night. Cost me around $400 in parts and labor to make the HID angle eyes bullet proof but definitely worth it!

Are those the Alpine HID's?

My biggest concern on these is that the AE rings inside the headlights (plastic?) will yellow over time due to excessive heat.
Looks like that would be a 6+ months timeframe for the yellowing to occur.

These headlights are just too pricey to replace.

EDIT. Just saw your previous post. Please disregard.

Looks great. Keep us posted; do you have a parts list or install guide. At least yours sounds like a proper and safe setup (minus the risk of yellowing over time)!