Legislation for MOT with HID lights

[Harold]

I've not driven a car with xenons or hids, but I don't see much wrong with the standard lights. Brighter bulbs make a world of difference:

[Baker]

They can be very dangerous, i myself have been forced to squint and take my eyes off the road from what i believe to be HID lights.


If you really cant see the road without proper lights, get down to specsavers!

[10thanni]

[alanmr2turbo]

you also try eating lots of carrots

[bigcw]

I also heard something about that Chris, however just to confuse things further, mine failed the MOT last month on a handbrake cable and BLUE sidelights. which were actually blue white LEDs. Apparently, recent MOT legislation states they must be white. So they changed them for the original ones which look more like YELLOW and it passed

It's a strange, and rather stupid IMHO, piece of legislation that the requirements of construction and use that makes a car roadworthy are not the same as those requirements that allow a car to pass an MOT.

There are situations where a car would fail MOT but still be roadworthy under construction and use, and the opposite where a car could pass MOT but be unroadworthy. It's ridiculous, but that's the way it is.

It's worth knowing though that in the eyes of the law not having an MOT certificate is one offence but having an unroadworthy vehicle is another (and is endorsable) but one does not necessarily mean the other. Not that I would suggest driving without an MOT, but should you find yourself pulled over having genuinely forgotten, knowing the difference could save you getting points on your licence. For example, if you could prove that your car was roadworthy at the time of being pulled over, perhaps by taking the car to a suitably qualified mechanic for a check immediately following the stop, I'd say you would have reasonable grounds to have any endorsement overturned and the offence reduced to not having a valid MOT which is a fine rather than fine and points.

Anyway, I digress, back on topic....

I don't recall ever being blinded by someone with aftermarket HID's. However, I can remember plenty of times when incorrectly fitted bulbs have done.

You know the ones where H4's have been forced in upside down, or similar with H1's, H7's, etc where it's very easy to get them incorrectly fitted, and it appears as though one light is on main beam and the other dip, or worse still the bulb is wobbling about in the fitting and making the beam jump all over the road.

Having fitted several kits and driven the cars before, after, and with groups of cars with them fitted my opinion is that an aftermarket hid kit of oem power (35w) correctly fitted and adjusted are no danger to other road users and provide increased visibility for the driver.

To be completely frank, 3500k units look very much like bright halogen bulbs. It's only when you start getting up to 5000k and 6000k (and upwards) bulbs that it starts becoming obvious that the lights are HID.

Chris

[Nails]

I've not driven a car with xenons or hids, but I don't see much wrong with the standard lights. Brighter bulbs make a world of difference:

agreed, although the bulbs ive just put in mine are from ebay and theyre a bit boy racer ish, far too blue and it has lessened the brighteness somewhat, both my standard headlamped '2s have been fine also, however the rogue quadlamped one i wasnt impressed with much, thought it was harder to see at night in that

[bigcw]

I've not driven a car with xenons or hids, but I don't see much wrong with the standard lights. Brighter bulbs make a world of difference:

agreed, although the bulbs ive just put in mine are from ebay and theyre a bit boy racer ish, far too blue and it has lessened the brighteness somewhat, both my standard headlamped '2s have been fine also, however the rogue quadlamped one i wasnt impressed with much, thought it was harder to see at night in that

For aftermarket HID kits the colour temperature (Expressed in xx00K) goes up the perceived light output decreases.

Be aware that you can change the bulbs to get a different colour temperature, which are dirt cheap. You don't have to change the whole kit.

I've played around with a few colour temperatures and would recommend going for the 6000K bulbs which have a slight blue tint to them but nowhere near as obvious as the 'boy racer' blue bulbs. In fact, we lined up a car with halogens, mine with 6000K HIDs, and a mate with chav blue halogens from Halfords and mine were in the middle of the two in terms of colour.

However, I've noticed that 5000K are available now (they weren't when I was testing) which may well be the best choice if you want them to look stock.

Chris

[wickermonkey]

One thing that you could do, which is an idea im toying with, is to get some cheap lights of ebay that already have the correct lenses in them and "bodge" them in. Ive got a quad lamp convertion so i dont think it shouldnt be too bad. Already got the HID kits lying about from off other cars ive had and managed to get some Ford Puma lights for £12. If you dont mind paying for them you can get the lenses new seperatly from ebay as alot of bikers use them for upgrades but i think there were a few pairs on there too. Just need to work out how to get the shoe horned into the housings

[bigcw]

I thought about doing something similar, using a pair of kit car (or bike) projector units, one each for main and dip, mounted under the stock popup housing. I'd then modify the lift cam to decrease the height. Would give the 'sleepy eye' look but still with perfectly working headlights.

Chris

[10thanni]

More debate for the lovers and haters of HID lights...

I have put some lights on today (well, a good friend has!) and the difference is outrageous. Thing is now the fog lights, if I were to put them on, are a distinct yellow.

So to stir things up more, any ideas of what I could use to balance the colour up of the fogs with the HID lights? Hmm...

[Torero]

So to stir things up more, any ideas of what I could use to balance the colour up of the fogs with the HID lights? Hmm...

They do some xenon on eBay cheap enough, it is a whiter light to match the HIDs.

[bigcw]

So to stir things up more, any ideas of what I could use to balance the colour up of the fogs with the HID lights? Hmm...

Another set of HIDs?? Or is that too simple an answer??

[10thanni]

Ha! Well, I was wondering about Xenon fogs...hmm. Wondered if there is a bulb that is just very white, an LED or something. Am no authority in these matters...obviously!

[bigcw]

The other idea I was thinking of was packing them with LEDs. You can buy 1W units in an 8mm 'straw hat' package. Make up your own plastic inner lens, drill 8mm holes in it, glue LEDs in.

Eg: 5p 1W 8mm Straw Hat White LED Light StrawHat 240,000mcd

Keep in mind LEDs are between 5-8x brighter for equivalent wattage to halogen, so to give the light of a 50w foglight you'd need about 10 of those badboy LEDs. I'd try to cram a few more in though!

If you're buying LEDs from the far east on eBay I'd recommend seller 'hitechledworld'. Used him/her loads of times and never had a problem.

Chris

[riot68]

On a seperate but related note I also learnt (on one of those police reality tv shows of all places) that it's not an offence to show coloured lights on the front of a car. In years gone by before I knew any better I used to have coloured sidelights and was told off several times for them. Apparently the only offence is showing a colour other than red to the REAR, there's nothing specific about sides or front. The only thing the Police can try is failure to maintain the headlights - having a different colour isn't an offence in itself.

I also heard something about that Chris, however just to confuse things further, mine failed the MOT last month on a handbrake cable and BLUE sidelights. which were actually blue white LEDs. Apparently, recent MOT legislation states they must be white. So they changed them for the original ones which look more like YELLOW and it passed

I have the JDM orange sidelights so even with white bulbs they're orange and passed an MOT fine.

I've got crap eyesight and get annoyed with being blinded, other than that I find my standard rev1 lights fine at night.

Really hating all the idiots who don't even notice that they only have one headlight which is brighter than it should be because the other is broken...

[wickermonkey]

I always think it depends what you want from fog lights, if you just want the look then get some LED's and some frosted glass and your well away, thats what ill be up to over the winter in the garage anyway.

If you want them for driving then a proper set is the way as hids will only blind people. The best way to look at HIDs is that when your driving along and the road signs are like they are in daylight then the scattered light is far too bright and that is what other drivers will be seeing and not the angled beam you see on the road. Id still have some but maybe some of the higher K rating ones. Was going to put some 12000k in my supra but i then sold it, nice puprely colour like some of the porches

[cosmos]

Hids must be accompanied by a headlamp washer system check on this.