Styling My £1 Tint Job

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Styling My £1 Tint Job

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Bravo lights contain a reflecter, Theyre around the brake/night light housed withing the lamp unit. These have to be 100% visible, even the tinted corsas you mention have reflectors, they are seperate on the bumper and not housed in the light units themselves. You can see this on this photo I found.

dcp02014.jpg


This is why the corsas are allowed full tints, yes you're right about the 50% light but since manufacturers have been installing the reflectors into the rear light units themselves it is illegal to tint them, unless you leave the reflector but untinted. The alternative for you is to buy a stick on reflector and place them on your car somewhere, however this poses another problem because, reflectors are placed as close to the sides of the car as possible so that you can gauge how wide something is for when something is dark and hard to see. Which is very much the case in your situation. Your fog/reverse light don't count either. They're not reflective and they're not near the edge of your car.

Now don't get me wrong, your car looks fantastic. I really like the look BUT I assure you, it's very illegal. Won't pass an MOT. and should the police pull you it will be a fine and a nice reminder that you have to get them sorted. Normally means a trip to a police station to confirm you have done so. Or risk a court summons.

I Had mine tinted using fly eye kit. That is basically a film with thousands of holes in it. Whilst it gives the look of tints it still lets 100% of light out and more importantly it lets light IN as well. (So It can bounce off the reflector)



Your situation is now a funny one, you have used a spray which means to remove it, you will need to either buy new light unit. Or take them off and hope a good wet sanding can get rid of the tint.

Or of course you ignore everything I've said and risk it anyway. It is of course up to you and I'm not judging you. Just letting you know the law.
 
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Bravo lights contain a reflecter, Theyre around the brake/night light housed withing the lamp unit. These have to be 100% visible, even the tinted corsas you mention have reflectors, they are seperate on the bumper and not housed in the light units themselves. You can see this on this photo I found.

dcp02014.jpg


This is why the corsas are allowed full tints, yes you're right about the 50% light but since manufacturers have been installing the reflectors into the rear light units themselves it is illegal to tint them, unless you leave the reflector but untinted. The alternative for you is to buy a stick on reflector and place them on your car somewhere, however this poses another problem because, reflectors are placed as close to the sides of the car as possible so that you can gauge how wide something is for when something is dark and hard to see. Which is very much the case in your situation. Your fog/reverse light don't count either. They're not reflective and they're not near the edge of your car.

Now don't get me wrong, your car looks fantastic. I really like the look BUT I assure you, it's very illegal. Won't pass an MOT. and should the police pull you it will be a fine and a nice reminder that you have to get them sorted. Normally means a trip to a police station to confirm you have done so. Or risk a court summons.

I Had mine tinted using fly eye kit. That is basically a film with thousands of holes in it. Whilst it gives the look of tints it still lets 100% of light out and more importantly it lets light IN as well. (So It can bounce off the reflector)



Your situation is now a funny one, you have used a spray which means to remove it, you will need to either buy new light unit. Or take them off and hope a good wet sanding can get rid of the tint.

Or of course you ignore everything I've said and risk it anyway. It is of course up to you and I'm not judging you. Just letting you know the law.

Can you quote your ledgislation, as it passes all the MOT criteria, since im not a traffic cop i dont know but ive asked around in work and evryone agrees its an MOT thing as the lights can be clearly seen at 100m day and night
 
so if it reflects it is functioning correctly so is a pass
It obviously isn't reflecting. Look at how dark it is. You can see the light through it yes but not the reflectors. Hence it is Not functioning properly

I'm not sure whats so hard to understand here. The light shines through the dark tints. That is a certainty. I don't dispute that. However the reflectors housed in the lights themselves, for when the car is parked No longer reflect because of how dark it is. It is not a failure on the lights just the reflectors. Which are a legal requirement and can't be impaired. Which is obviously the case here.

Please can someone help me out here. I'm not sure if it's the way I'm explaining or what?

The lights are fine it's the reflectors housed within the lights are not. Which is a failure. As simple as that. An MOT may pass you because they either just don't care or forgot to check or feel that maybe it's a stupid rule. However if every MOT was done 100% correctly then these lights would definitely fail.

I'm not saying that they're bad, I'm not even acknowledging the rule as perfect. In all honesty I'm not bothered, I have HID's and LED's in my car which is also an MOT failure. I'm just trying to share MOT regulations, which in this case. Is a failure.
 
It obviously isn't reflecting. Look at how dark it is. You can see the light through it yes but not the reflectors. Hence it is Not functioning properly

you have to point a light at it for it to reflect, even un tinted reflectors don't reflect normal day light. it should reflect testers lamp
 
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Im going the mot center monday.. will found out for definatly soon :)

I've tried to keep out of this but I can't anymore. Passing an MOT does not mean your lights are legal. The MOT assumes the car was designed and built to the regulations ans is mainly concerned with degradation. The guidance in the testers manua is very subjective so a lot depends on the tester. Your refelectors are almost certainly illegal. Technically your lights are illegal because you have modified them. The modification invaldates the type approval ("E" marking) even if they still meet the requirements. Technically you would have to get your painted lights approved. This is the only way to make them 100% legal. To see if they meet the requirements you would have to get an approved test house, VOSA inspector or possibly specialist police officer, with the correct test equipment to inspect them. A very basic test which is broadly in line with the MOT requirements would be to use a light meter to measure the output of an unpainted light and that of the painted one. If the painted is less than half of the unpainted I'd argue you don't meet the MOT 50% rule. From experience of neutral density filters I guess you are well under half. However you can't tell by just looking, a carefully designed filter could have reduced attenuation at specfic wavelengths, it could look dark but let lots of red through. Witnerss the expensive drivers sunglasses that pass more red and green so you can see brake and traffic lights.
Note that for refelectors the tint can only be 25% to meet the 50% guidance as it attenuates the light twice, once going in before reflection and then again going out after reflection.
Bottom line is, you are technically illegal and if anyone with runs into the back of you you could be looking at a very big bill and a conviction for driving without insurance.
You have told your insrance company haven't you?
 
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