I've been wanting to sort out my rear lights for a while, and am convinced that the only way to go is to have them clear/white. The problem being, a blue car, with white lights, and a red reflector strip would look terrible.

Now, since nobody makes clear/white rears for the punto, the point is moot, but i was wondering about the legality of white rear reflectors.

Someone on my parents street has a white mitsu lancer evo 6, heavily modded (cosmetically at least), and though it might be considered a little bit much by some, i think it looks great. It has white light clusters on the back, complimented by an integrated white reflector.

Now, it's illegal to have red lights at the front of your vehicle, and white at the back (except reversing light) right? Does this stretch to reflectors?

Reflectors don't emit light, so they're not white lights at the back of the vehicle. However, they do reflect light, so the light being reflected is in fact white light from the back of the vehicle. Very confusing

I feel like knocking on the guy's door and asking if he switches them out for mot, ever been stopped because of them etc, but he's my parents neighbour, not mine, and I've never spoken to him (her?), and infact, don't even know which house is his/hers!

If white reflectors are legal, I could be tempted to tint the whole cluster white (reflector n' all) and stick some inconspicuous white ones on top... much nicer than red!

I should have gone for a black or red punto really, life would be so much easier lol!

http://www.ukmot.com/1-4.asp

red according to here

it doesnt matter, just make sure that everything is legal for the MOT, then go back to chav mode once you pass.

custard said:

http://www.ukmot.com/1-4.asp

red according to here

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that's that then

jug said:

it doesnt matter, just make sure that everything is legal for the MOT, then go back to chav mode once you pass.

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bugger that, she's in for an mot today, i wouldn't be too happy being served a producer and having to pay for retests continually thanks to having illegal reflectors.

if they're illegal, it's for a reason. if white reflectors are dangerous it's a matter of 'tough luck, learn to live with it'.


Cheers for the link custard

MrDT said:

if they're illegal, it's for a reason.

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excellent attitude

Just get some little red sticky ones for your bumper, they're pretty unnoticeable in the scheme of things

or buy a bravo with some massive ones already stuck on, they're hard not to notice.

Helz said:

Just get some little red sticky ones for your bumper, they're pretty unnoticeable in the scheme of things

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:yeahthat:

I don't think the light units themselves have to have red reflectors fitted, but you MUST have approved red reflectors fitted to the back of the car. The same applies to motorbikes, and a lot of them have the reflector on the rear mudguard and not on the light unit. You can stick a pair of reflectors on the bumper as Helz said, or on the tailgate. That would leave you free to have your rear lights clear/ white.

But if they are Lex-arse style lights then whatever you do they will look Chavvy!

1986Uno45S said:

But if they are Lex-arse style lights then whatever you do they will look Chavvy!

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No, all I want to do is tint my standard lights.

The car's light blue, so blue tint will probably clash (unless i paid an autoshop to colour match, but I'm too cheap for that )

I guess black, red, or white would do.

I just want the entire cluster to look as uniform as possible, the crappy white bits ruin the standard lights in my opinion. Figured that clear headlights, indicators, side repeaters would match nicely with white rear clusters.

1986Uno45S said:

:yeahthat:

I don't think the light units themselves have to have red reflectors fitted, but you MUST have approved red reflectors fitted to the back of the car. The same applies to motorbikes, and a lot of them have the reflector on the rear mudguard and not on the light unit.

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Correct, the Brava/o is like that as standard (reflectors on the bumper) and I know a few people with Puntos who've gone the stick-on route when the rear lights are tinted, keeps them out of trouble

but if you had white and red reflectors you'd still fail an MOT, you need red only, anything else isnt allowed. white suggests its the front of the car, amber could look like you're signalling to pull out, multicolours makes people think there's a xmas tree on the roadside.

Im just sitting here reading this and now i'm wondering... where are the reflectors on the back of a Phase I Stilo 5 door The rear lights all have plain/clear or red lenses on... its not built into the lenses, perhaps its incorporated into the reflector of the tail lights...

wotnowarninglight said:

Im just sitting here reading this and now i'm wondering... where are the reflectors on the back of a Phase I Stilo 5 door The rear lights all have plain/clear or red lenses on... its not built into the lenses, perhaps its incorporated into the reflector of the tail lights...

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you often find it is built into the tail light lense. then if you have a bulb out it looks as though they both work when headlights shine on the rear. my escort did this and one of my (dim) friends thought i had a magic bulb that only worked when his headlights were shining on it. DUH!

Shine a torch on the back of your car tonight and let us know

I wouldn't risk it for the sake of styling. as you say a producer followed by a retest is not fun.
you can tint the rear of punto lights and leave the lower red reflector bit untinted. doesn't look too bad on a darker coloured car, but a light colour would maybe look iffy, still its whats legal so meh.

jug said:

but if you had white and red reflectors you'd still fail an MOT, you need red only, anything else isnt allowed. white suggests its the front of the car, amber could look like you're signalling to pull out, multicolours makes people think there's a xmas tree on the roadside.

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Jug, you are right. I should have pointed out that white reflectors on the rear would be totally illegal, but clear/ white LENSES with red reflectors elsewhere on the back would be ok.

Oh, and I loved the 'magic bulb' story on your later post

reflectors? aren't they just the rear light casings? or is it something my tipo wouldn't have?

Shine a torch at your rear lights in the dark and one bit of them should shine back at you