OK so I bought these Anzo headlights off ebay and opened them up. The box was labeled "Eagle Eyes", I'm not sure if Anzo rebrands them or something. Anyway, the dissection was kinda interesting so I took some pics:





Yes, they actually glued a bag of silica gel in the headlight housing!



Here is the other half, I was surprised at the mess of wires in there:



Here is a close up of the LEDs, they were wired 3 circuit boards in sucession, 2 LEDs for each board:



Another LED closeup:



Now here is a closeup of the ballast for the CCFL rings:



Now here are the actual CCFL rings, the one on the left is encased in plastic, the one on the right is one of Umnitza's DDE's for reference, you can see they are the exactly the same size diameter wise.



Here is a close up:



Now I was surprised that the Anzo headlights had the EXACT same ballast and rings that Umnitza sells for $150 on thier site!! For only $50 more you can buy a whole new headlight housing, not to bash on Umnitza but they must make a killing selling thier DDE kits.

I have heard ppl saying that the Anzos halos are actually brighter than the Umnitza DDEs and I was hoping they would have a thicker CCFL tube but this is not the case. They both use the exact same diameter rings from what I could tell, but the Anzos halos have the plastic casing around them, allowing the light to diffuse, making them seem to be brighter.

Anyway I feel kinda stupid for making such a long post, lol. The real reason I opened the Anzo headlights up is bc I wanted to take the plastic eyelid from the OEM headlights and put them into the Anzos. It looks like it would be a pefect fit. I might actually tint the eyelid, what do you ppl think? If you want I can take Anzo DDE halos vs Umnitza DDE halos pics for comparison. Thanks for reading thru my long post guys!

**UPDATE**

OK so I've had people ask for measurements of the projector and housing, here they are. I know nothing about projectors so if i missed something let me know.

The mounting bracket's hole is a hair less than 3.5 inches:



Projector width is 3 inches, not including bracket arms:



Projector height is a hair less than 3 inches, it just looks bigger in the pic:



Here is the reason for the bad cutoffs:



Cutoff bracket mounted behind the projector:



Now here is the plastic eyelid pulled from the stock headlights, note that is is already kinda tinted:



AND YES IT DOES FIT PERFECTLY!



So yeah. There we go. I am planning on smoking the eyelid too, its gonna look tight after its all done. And yes, to open any headlight all you do is bake it around 220-230 degrees for around 10 min to soften the glue. (After removing screws, bulbs, and any plastic pieces)

Some notes:
*the 2 halos and the 6 LEDs are connected to the same ballast, so if the ballast fails then all the halos and LEDs fail
*the anzo housing is flat black, compared to the stock headlights, which seems to be molded with glitter in them, making them sparkle. anzos still look good tho
*Anzo headlights are heavy, weigh about twice as much as stock, which is about right bc of the projectors and electrical components
*LED eyebrows are almost guaranteed to fail, ive read many posts about this, so you might as well disconnect them
*CCFL halos might not power on fully when its cold outside, ive had one of my halos dim out while the other 3 rings were bright, dont panic, just turn on the headlights to warm them up and they should return to full brightness after a few min

I am working the next few days so I will have more updates next week.

**UPDATE**

So here it is, the anzo projectors with smoked eyelids and silver turn signals!









Halos on at dusk:



Overall I think the Anzos are a good product for the money, and the eyelid mod is pretty easy to do and makes the headlights look way better. Thanks again for reading!

 

So does the projector seem easily replacable?

 

nice info!

 

please take pic once install is complete, waitng to see..

 

cool ... cant wait to see more pics ...

 

I can't wait to see your finished project. You're doing exactly what I thought about doing with those. I'm betting it's gonna look SICK!

 

Very interesting. I was doing a small retrofit on the vertexracing once. Anyway, I don't think the halos are from Umnitza. 1) Umnitza, Anzo, and how many other retailers use same suppliers to supply them with CCFL technology. So, no surprise if they have the same ballasts, and what not. 2) the low beam halos of the Anzo headlights are smaller Umnitza's low beam halos.

You information post a question. If you spend 220 or 230 for a CCFL halos and a pair of headlights (Anzo), versus $150 or $160 for Umnitza halos, do you think the Umnitza's halos is a bit too high? Or maybe it's just my imagination

 

Could you get some dimensions on the projectors?

 

how did you go about opening up your headlights? did you just bake them and tear it open?

 

so.. if you take the cutoff shield from behind the projector and just completely disregard it.. technically it should have a better cuttoff rite?

 

Nice. I'm glad someone did this and took photos. Waiting to see the end result.

 

Actually that would yield a high beam with no cuttoff that would completly blind oncoming traffic. However, it seems that this projector can easily be modded for better results, maybe even HID, although it would probably be best to just replace the projector with an oem HID projector. These headlights are pretty stylish with the eybrow, its a huge difference. Maybe a summer retrofit project for me. I was going to add umnitza angel eyes to my current retro, but if I can get a whole new headlight for a little more money, then I am tempted to do it. Just can't decide if I like my e46 shrouds better. What do you guys think?

 

they both look good to me

 

Exactly what I'm gonna do. I posted this idea in a thread a few days ago.

 

It looks like your shroud is right side left, meaning they're switched. The notches are to face ouside.

 

WOW ! its looks so much better w/ the stock eyelid ...

 

Nope! I disagree. the notches stop on the word XENON which on most bmw is facing outside. I guess the wod XENON doesn't show up in the pic.

 

So what OEM projector do you guys think would fit in the slot?

Also, where would you get eyelids?

 

well ive rad up on these lights and have been debating whether or not to purchase them,

after opening up the lights, how do you feel about the craftsmenship and structural integritt of them?

 

very impressive pictures.. and discoveries.

good information to those looking to purchasing the same headlights.