My buddy just had angel eyes install on his 06 TL. Both sides went out after a week or so. We tested both ballast and its not feeding the angel eye power. We currently have it connected to the parking positive and negative. He also has a load resistor connected to the same wiring because he has an LED turn signal.

We can figure out why it's not working. Can the resistor be causing the ballast to fail? How should we have wired it? We hooked it up to a 12v source and still no power.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Are these Umnitza rings you're talking about? If so, they are KNOWN to go bad... I had their angel eyes in my Nissan Maxima and must have gone through about 5-6 ballasts. What I found makes them last is to wrap the ballast in electric tape (so water doesn't get in). Umnitza sometimes replaced them free, and sometimes I had to pay...

Also, instead of using the connectors to connect the ballast to each ring, I cut it off and soldered that connection.

Hope this helps.

 

Yes they are Umnitza angel eyes. They worked for about a week and then 1 went and a day later the other. Shouldn't they last longer. You do pay a pretty penny for them.

 

well, there isn't much you can do about the resistor...it may in fact, or may not be the problem. but again, you can't really do anything with the resistor, so the other option is to use higher voltage...if that doesn't work you should contact the company...
could be a bad wire? who knows...good luck!

 

Yea my passenger side went out now it looks like my cars winking at me ... Ive had them in since september and that went out around Nov... the drivers side has been fine though.. i just need to get time to switch out the ballast and its so cold out its not the best time to do it

 

so is Umnitza that bad? damn I was going to call them to have them clear my headlight and angel eye my headlight.... any more negative feedbacks on them or positive feedback?

 

use a bigger resistor...resistors are used to control current...most likely there was too much current, which caused them to malfunction

find the specs for your angel eyes, and find the max current if you can
current = voltage / resistance

since current and resistance is inversely related, a bigger resistance will yield a lower current.

 

I believe that people who had umnitza angel eyes, changed the ballast out for another brand (forgot which one).

 

Load resistors have nothing to do with anyhting here...

What are they wired to? Running lights?

Can't wire them to 2007 DRLs, they run 5V. The ballasts require 12V. They may work, but they'll be underdriven, and surely fail quickly.

Umnitza' are known for shipping with cheap ballasts. Everyone in the BMW community that has had a problem switched to thse ballasts, and most report no problems further... $12 to fix

http://www.vibelights.com/alduin.html



Mine have been running for 2 hours a day, every day for over a month now...

 

We were talking about this on another thread. I did bforbrian's rings and in a matter of days his stopped working. We are guessing it's gotta be the inverters. I gave him what I thought to be the good set and I bought a set of vibelights inverters. The way it stands now is his are not working and mine are still going strong. Kennedy has them on his car too and they are working without problems. Looking at the statistics here it's clear.

Just skip the headache with sending the inverters back to Umnitza or Lightwurkz and just buy the vibelights CCFL inverters. They are weathersealed nicely, made well and cheaper than the competition. I can't say I don't still recommend Umnitzas because the rings are the important part and they still work fine. They are the best and brightest on the market.

 

Kennedy as you know each inverter has 2 outputs. Did you use 1 inverter and extend the high output wires or did you use both inverters and block 1 of the outputs? If you did use both inverters, what was your solution to make it single output? It's been said that you shouldn't leave the wire unplugged as it can be really dangerous. It can short itself out. I actually went the distance and opened up the unit and unsoldered the wire straight from the circuit board and resealed the entire unit. I wanted to know if you found an easier way?

 

rocky, you down to fix my inverters during my school's spring break mid march if i come to CT?

 

Sounds possible, KIT

 

1) They're not high output wires. I got shocked by one... It was a jolt, but nothing scary.

2) I did not extend them. I was planing to do so, but for $4.50 for new ballasts, i just bought a new set.

3) I'm only using 1 set of plugs. I just taped over the unused set of connectors... Short itself out? Only if the connection is bridged... how would that happen?

You really are worrying about this a lot...

 

Well, OK I guess we are just going to disagree on this one.

I showed you a few links on another thread as to why I said they are dangerous. I'm not the only one saying what I'm saying. These things CAN cause fires if you are not careful. Someone with angel-eyes on the forum already reported such an incidence and I can believe it. It is similar to the step up inverters used in the old school underbody neon lights. Those too ran at 600V and could cause burning arcs. I too have not been just shocked by them but even burned on the fingers. But of course I know you are going to tell me they are low amperage.

When I was tesing these CCFL angel-eyes there was a time I goofed and one of the connectors was not plugged into anything, just dangling on its own. I had it turned on to a 12V source. Guess what I saw? Burning plastic. How, why? You won't believe this but there was an actual arc of current forming between the pins of the connector and the surrounding plastic was melting. That's why I realized I had to do something with the spare wire. Unsoldering them sounds extreme but it gave me peace of mind.

What I meant by "high output" is not in reference to the realm of all wires, I just mean it in reference to the inverter. The same way you would like from a stereo amplifier. In=low (12V) Out=High (600V). Maybe "shorting out" was not the most accurate of descriptions.....more like melting itself into obliteration....

I don't think I'm worrying too much about it. Sincerely, man I say what I say because safety comes first. Don't want to see anybody get hurt. Don't think I'm paranoid. It's just my advice and it's your car of course but I would hope you'd consider another solution rather than taping up those connections.

 

it's been over 1 year, with umnitza angel eyes, all 4 rings are still in the same condition as they came, good. No problems ever.

 

If they are known to fail why are they still selling them. Wouldnt you think they would change supplier. They are pretty expensive. I'll tell my friend to contact them and see if they will send him new 1s.

 

Maybe... They probably should do that.

but really... $12 is expensive?

 

Not that $12 is expensive, it's that the kit costs $140 and that feels like a ripoff to begin with. We shouldn't have to foot another $12, they should be giving us a top notch inverter to begin with.

I can't imagine how many people have been sending it back and all the headaches they can save themselves. They have a so called "limited lifetime warranty" on their stuff but I bet if you send it back they will attribute the cause to one of those "limits"

 

I agree with that... Just pick my battles. If I can fix for less than return shipping, I'll DIY.

But yes, these things are overpriced. Price of total badassness...

 

Sorry to revive an old thread but my ballasts just died last week (put on mid july) and I was searching to see if anyone else had this problem. Seems I'm not alone.

I had most of my ballast covered with electrical tape (at the ends as they wouldn't stay together). Mount point was under the radiator support arms right behind the headlights. One did get water in it (must have been vapor) and had started burning through the board. The other put a big hole in the board but no real sign of water (no corrosion). I called Umnitza and they will not support me as I bought them from Lightwurkz. However they said to contact them if he does not resolve my problem. Umitza said that it would be $35 to get new ballasts from them. If $12 is expensive, then what is $35 for ballasts?

Kennedy, have you had luck with the ballasts you posted the link to?

Has anyone tried the ballasts from oznium.com? I have a bunch of extra ones but they do have vent holes in them.

Has anyone come up with alternate mount points that may help in preventing water from getting to them?

I tried to use a multi meter on the OEM ballasts (one with least damage still worked for a bit) and then wanted to compare it to the output from the Oznium ones. However my multimeter must be bad as I couldn't get consistent readings from either ballast (umnitza or oznium). Umnitza said they would not give that out as each company hides their output specs so others can't use it. blah blah

 

Almost forgot lightwurkz suggested to try the oznium ballasts but when I asked as it was his suggestion that if they damaged the angel eyes would he cover them. He hasn't responded to that question yet.

 

Buda, I have had my inverters in since December and they are my first set. I have had ZERO problems with my angel-eyes since installation. I'm sure Kennedy can attest to the same.

I know pursuing umitza on their "lifetime warranty" will be a tough one. Their loophole will always be citing your installation/wiring error and not a defect. I say just ditch them. You don't want another set that will inevitably go bad too do you? It ain't fun takin out those headlights again.

We both used the vibelights inverters and they work like a charm. I advise everyone to just upgrade them from the start and do it right the first time. I did bforbrian's car too and his originals lasted him barely 2 wks. Replaced now with vibelights and running strong. Just get em.

I have the inverters zipped and tucked somewhere behind the headlight. It dosen't get much water there. The inverters are already well weatherproofed but I still covered them with duct-tape and silicone.

I looked at the oznium inverters too but they look pretty standard to me. They don't look any different than the umnitza ones. I say stick to vibelights, they're built better. It's what we use and it works.

 

^-- thanks for the response. I went ahead and ordered the vibelights ones last night. Was just curious on the oznium ones. I can't believe how bad and expensive the ones are that come with umnitza.

 

I had a very bad experience with umnitza. I bought angel eyes for my m3 and it was nothing but trouble. Bleh.

 

oh man how often does this happen with umnitza angels?? i just installed mine yesterday...i hope i dont have that same problem not working within like weeks...

 

^-- make sure you seal up the ballast from umnitza otherwise water will get in there and they will fry. Mine happened after a 1.5 hour highway drive in the rain.

Got the vibelights ballasts installed last night. Angel eyes almost seem brighter. Those aluminum ballasts are extremely well constructed. I'll be very surprised if I have any problems with these.

 

I am glad it worked out for you Buda, told ya they're good.

I have been hearing plenty of good and bad about Umnitza. I have had mine in for 1 year without a single hiccup. Maybe I am lucky, but I know others that are going strong too. When I did my headlights I dreaded ever having to open them again for anything. (It was my number one "con" against doing the project.) Everybody wants to have their pie and eat it too. Sometimes you just can't have everything the way you want it, there's a consequence. When a mod goes wrong I can't blame anybody but me. I took the risk to change something that didn't come OEM on the car so I take it into my own hands.

The way I look at it is that this kind of mod definitely is not meant to last forever. I bet it will run only about 3yrs and then something is just bound to happen. If it does, I'm not mad because of 2 reasons: 1) Because to me that's a pretty long time and I got some use out of it and 2) By that time I will probably be sick of it and want to change things around anyways......or maybe even sell the car, lol.

The only downside will be having to open the headlights again. I know, this is not for everybody so you gotta give props to those who are willing to put up with it.

 

thanks for the info rocky; i also just went ahead and purchased the vibelights ballasts; i need help with 04 wiring; which power source would you use for them? did you just snake a wire back in to the cabin and made a remote for the eyes? my goal is I want to be able to have the eyes lit without my headlights on too; and having the parking lights on blows since i will not be using switchbacks and am opting for the silverbulbs.