[tboudre]

So, I had been combing thru the forums trying to figure out what kinds of Angel Eyes H8 LED bulbs would work in my 2011 335xi. I ordered the Newsun because they were the highest power that I could find in blue, and the resistor boxes were larger and maybe wouldn't get as hot as reported by some other brands. As far as I could tell, most came with or sold separately, a 6 ohm resistor. 6 ohms is the resistance of the bulb. You would actually burn more energy with this setup, and generate a lot of heat. I set out to find if this resistor was really necessary. I bought a 20 ohm variable resistor & H8 connectors & hooked this up in place of the light. I initially set it to 6 ohms and then ramped it up to 21.5 ohms (as measured). I tried with driving lights on, and as DRLs. At the maximum resistance, I did not get an error. I measured current down to 0.1A. This means that you can use a resistor as high as 21.5 ohms and as low at 10 watts. I'm going to try a 50 ohm to see if that gives me an error. But at this level, if your LEDs draw 10 watts, you shouldn't need the resistor at all. I'll post some pictures when the bulbs come in on Monday.

BTW, these are the same 20W CREE LEDs as far as I can tell, but in blue.