HID's / LED's

john-wingnut

john-wingnut

Active Member
Hi people

There seems to be a lot of differing between what people say on these HID conversion kits.

Many on here state they are illegal in the UK without the auto leveling system etc, but on the contrary many retailers of them say they are road legal and will pass an MOT.

Same goes for the strip LED's. I read a post by bret saying they nullify your insurance yet the retailers say they are completely road legal and make your car safer.

So basically I would like to know the what the correct information to believe is, as I have both on my A2 and dont wanna get in trouble.

John
 
Offical Government website:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety/drs/hidheadlamps

1. The headlamp unit (outer lens, reflector, bulb) shall be type approved to ECE 98 and be "e-marked" to demonstrate this. That can only be done by the headlamp supplier - Hella, Valeo etc. who must test the headlamp in an independent laboratory.

2. Once fitted to the vehicle it must have headlamp cleaning and self-levelling (which can be for the headlamp or can be in the vehicle suspension - some expensive estate cars have "self-levelling suspension" and that is adequate). Also the dipped beam must stay on with the main beam.

3. The headlamp must be maintained in good working order, kept clean, and aligned/adjusted correctly like any other headlamp.
Click to expand...
 
As long as the aftermarket HID kit complies with all the above points then you'll be ok.
 
Last edited:
However, these regulations are now over 3 years old and are seriously in need of review. The quality of kits and the beam patterns they produce are now so much better than they were in 2006, that the benefits to safety, from enhanced night vision available to the driver make them indispensible in my view.

The problems occur when the lights dazzle oncoming drivers and pedestrians, but as long as the beam patterns are within legal tolerances, then I see no reason why you shouldn't fit an aftermarket HID kit.

Cheers,

Mike
 
I have the H7R bulbs for reflector headlamps anyway, so there should be no problem with them to be honest.

I have the originals as spare so can just switch them if necessary

J
 
... thing is, these regs are used globally, with the exception of the US, as they're defined by the UN and supported by the EU, written into local laws. Local exceptions are, however, possible - they're raising the limit of driving lamps here to ref. 100 in the spring. How this works, I do not know. I might have to revise my opinion.

Short version:
- a lamp is tested with a light source
- changing the source or anything else about the lamp (e.g. darkening the lenses) invalidates, strictly speaking, the tests.
- passing an MoT is a sign that the car is not contravening in any major way the standards of traffic. The point remains, though, that changing the light source is not OK.
Each and every H7 bulb is E marked these days (I checked when I changed mine last time) and if it's not e-marked, the police could pull you and demand that you "sort it out".
I'm not saying that this is likely to happen - the rules on autolevelling and washing are there to reduce dazzle and decrease the likelihood of a stop anyway.

The bottom line is that if there's an accident caused by the non-marked equipment, the insurance company could refuse to pay up. If you're sure of your craft, I'm sure this would never be an issue, but it might be.

Testing for a legit set of lamps would be of the order of €1000, + setup of the rigs necessary and the repeatability. A cheap solution it isn't, and many are simply not prepared to pay €1000 per set of bi-xenons (which is what it would end up costing).

OTOH, the supply of parts has dried up as the number who feel the need to convert (especially in Germany) has headed towards none due to the zero-tolerance policy of TÜV.

Bret
 
so, as long as i dont cause an accident due to my headlights im ok.

I phoned up the place i bought my HID's from and they assured me my car would pass an MOT as i had the H7R bulbs which are anti glare for reflector headlights.

This being true, the Police would have no right to pull you as the car is road legal!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top