Anyone have WOF trouble with Angel headlights?

[tintop 10]

Failed a WOF last week with our E36 coupe because the 'forward positioning lamps need to be more effective'. In other words, your park lights are too dim.

Now the problem is, the lights are fine at night. You can see the park lights a few hundred metres away, however during the day they are faint as anything, which shouldn't matter because its during the day.

WOF manual says reason for rejection is 'under normal darkness can't see the forward positioning lamps from a distance of 200metres'. Since you can't get a WOF under darkness this becomes a problem...

Anyone else have similar problems?

[pjay 8]

Never. Sell the one piece Angel eyes, and buy proper ones to replace the OEM light.. OR try a higher wattage bulb just for wof, then swap it over after

[3 SERIES 92]

Never. Sell the one piece Angel eyes, and buy proper ones to replace the OEM light.. OR try a higher wattage bulb just for wof, then swap it over after

One piece angel eyes are FUGLY!

[martyyn 2]

OR try a higher wattage bulb just for wof, then swap it over after

Dont start buggering about with half-ar$ed measures just to get a wof. Its your responsibility to have the car up to wof standard at all times, not just the hour its at the tester.

Do it right or dont do it at all. If the lights are too dim, then replace them with oem/genuine items or get a higher wattage and replace them.

[Carl 3]

I'd have thought that the standard tiny little park light bulb would be less visible, certainly isn't very bright on my standard setup, angel eyes should be brighter than them

[briancol 3]

One piece angel eyes are FUGLY!

That's only your opinion. I have one piece Angel Eyes and I think they look great and a whole lot better than standard OEM's

[darkwolf 0]

Any chance of pics of what the WOF guy says is the problem. As the park lights on my celica are crappy and they've never been an issue when I've tried to get a WOF.

[hybrid 1039]

I have p46 DDE LED based rings. they are a white light not the 3600k colour orange standard DDE emit.

Never had a problem with them. They are visible during the day.

[elmarco 56]

I'd have thought that the standard tiny little park light bulb would be less visible, certainly isn't very bright on my standard setup, angel eyes should be brighter than them

The problem is the celis ring (the angel eye ring / light guide) is notoroiusly inefficient at spreading the light out (similar reason as to why fibre optics work). Typically, they run double the wattage of a standard 5w park bulbs and even then sometimes struggle to meet the legal requirements.

I think the OEM BMW parts on the E39 may even use a 10w quartz halogen bulb.

[tintop 10]

Yeah I'm gonna have to take a photo or something, because at night they are super visible. I walked about 250 metres up the road at night and could still see them.

Thats why I checked the WOF rules which has the magic sentence; under normal darkness.

[ZMOKIN 0]

Failed a WOF last week with our E36 coupe because the 'forward positioning lamps need to be more effective'. In other words, your park lights are too dim.

Now the problem is, the lights are fine at night. You can see the park lights a few hundred metres away, however during the day they are faint as anything, which shouldn't matter because its during the day.

WOF manual says reason for rejection is 'under normal darkness can't see the forward positioning lamps from a distance of 200metres'. Since you can't get a WOF under darkness this becomes a problem...

Anyone else have similar problems?

Very stink! Let us know how you get on as I was thinking about getting some angel eyes headlights for my E36. Where did you get your ones from?

[tintop 10]

Thats the thing. They came on the car ex Japan. So was complied with them and has 3 WOF's since we have owned it all at testing stations.

[Carl 3]

IMO I don't think this is a safety issue at all and if the WOF guy is being particularly stringent go somewhere else and cough up another $45 as it'll be cheaper than replacing.

[byza213 1]

IMO I don't think this is a safety issue at all and if the WOF guy is being particularly stringent go somewhere else and cough up another $45 as it'll be cheaper than replacing.

yea i agree some guys are just cocks !

[dickhead 0]

wof issuers are on par with parking wardens in my book. especially those tossers from VTNZ. the best thing to do is wait the 30 days or whatever it is to go off the system then go somewhere else.

[Braeden320 0]

wof issuers are on par with parking wardens in my book. especially those tossers from VTNZ. the best thing to do is wait the 30 days or whatever it is to go off the system then go somewhere else.

FYI, There are WOF inspectors that are valued members of this forum and probably wouldn't appriciate generalisations like that.

Remember at the end of the day they are looking out for your safetly and others on the road.

[Mark 178]

FYI, There are WOF inspectors that are valued members of this forum and probably wouldn't appriciate generalisations like that.

Remember at the end of the day they are looking out for your safetly and others on the road.

Good call. Don't diss authority just because you can't be bothered following the rules.

[martyyn 2]

wof issuers are on par with parking wardens in my book. especially those tossers from VTNZ. the best thing to do is wait the 30 days or whatever it is to go off the system then go somewhere else.

As far as Im aware it will still show up on the system as a fail regardless of how long you wait.

[briancol 3]

There is nothing stopping you from going to nanother inspector for your WoF.

Just because one place has failed you, you are still entitled to go to another inspection place to do your Wof. I will cost you another fee though.

Some inspectors are rather pedantic though. I had one tell me my tints were too dark even after I pointed out that they were marked as 35%ers he still failed me. Went to another inspector who passed them straight away.

Edited November 4, 2008 by briancol

[tintop 10]

Took it to another Testing Station today and passed no questions asked

[Carl 3]

I checked out some e30 headlights on the weekend with angel eyes, the angel eyes were definitely considerably brighter than the standard parking light, however, the highbeam lacked the reflective cone and wasn't bright enough IMO so that would fail in my books...hard to find the right set