Styling Xenon hid conversion??

[Thomas Hougham]

This is a nice little list of answers to most questions people have about HID headlights

Q: Are retrofit HID bulbs that replace Halogen bulbs road legal?
A: No. All headlights are approved for there bulb type and only a approved bulb of that type can be used. For HID bulbs you must use a ECE98 approved headlight coded with a “E98” and “D”. These will take a HID approved bulb type such as a D2S or D2R.


Q: But my retrofit HID bulb are approved it has DOT, ISO9001, E11 and/or E4 printed on it so they must be legal right?
E: No.


DOT, when it comes down to vehicle lighting DOT is a US standard that does not apply to the UK. Any car imported from the US actually has to have there lights replaced for ECE approved ones if they don't already hold the correct approval.

ISO9001, This has nothing to do with road legality in any way shape or form. It is a total irrelevance when it comes to vehicle lighting legality.


E11, The name for the ECE regulation number 11 is “Door latches and retention components” and as you may have guessed has nothing to do with vehicle lighting laws. If you do have this printed on its possible the lights are counterfeit.


E4, This one is to do with numberplates this time and nothing to do with vehicles headlights. Yet again its possible your lights are counterfeit if they hold this mark. Or as its very easy to pass the E4 regulations the manufacturer may got a legitimate E4 mark in the hope they can confuse people in to there legality. But this mark in no ways make then legal to use as headlights.


Q: If I take a ECE98 HID approved headlight and approved HID bulbs from another car and fit them to my car is that ok?
A: No. All such approved bulbs also fall under ECE regulation number 48. As these bulbs are so bright they require a few extra safety systems that. Must be fitted to legal used such headlights.


Q: I hear ECE48 only applies to new vehicles so they must not apply to me retrofitting HIDs Right?
A: No. This is a myth that has done the rounds on the internet but is simply not true. Back in 2006 the UK Governments Department For Transport issued a fact sheet reiterating the requirements for any retrofit HID headlight to be used on the road.


Q: My car came as standard with no auto levelling but also came with HIDs is it now illegal?
A: No. You are fine still if your car was legal it still is. Many cars came with HIDs only in high beam or had auto levelling suspension and did not required auto levelling headlights.


Q: I hear that all this is erelevant as no the law has never been tried in court, is this true?
A: No. This is yet another internet myth. Both the Road Safety Act and Road Traffic Act are both sound laws tried many times in court. If the Police did find you with illegal lights on the road they are perfectly within there rights to fine your on the spot or even confiscate your vehicle without having to go to court. However the option is still there for them to take you to court if they wished to throw the book at you.


Q: I really like these blue and purple headlight bulbs are these road legal?
A: No. There are stringent regulations covering the colour of headlights. You can only use E approved headlights bulbs and these will be white or yellow in colour.


Q: I have found HID sold as 10,000K and they say they are E marked are these legal?
A: No. As of the date I wrote this the HID bulb with the highest colour temperature to achieve E approval was 5800K. Anything much over that and your safe to assume they are fakes and have a fraudulent E marking.


Q: I have a vehicle that came with 35W HIDs and wish to upgrade them to 50/55W is this legal?
A: No. They will not have valid E approval. If you wish to use the vehicle you will have to retain your 35W bulbs.

 

[koopturbo]

Here we go boys and girls, this is why you should not fit HID's in to standerd non HID hreadlights.
Below you can see on my Stilo 3 door, how bad the beam of light is compered to the other car next to it. The beam is not evenly spred and blurs above the other cars light line if you know what i mean.

And here we are now with my nice new H7 bulbs (OSRAM NIGHTBREAKER). Dont know if you can see in the pics but the light spread is mutch better and just as bright. Wish i had do this a long time ago.

Hope this help people make up there mind about HID's

Cheers
Leighton

 

[Argonought]

Very good post

 

[koopturbo]

Cheers

I bourt the Stilo with the HID's in. And driving around everyone was flashing me. Also when driving around i thourt to myself how poo these light are!?

So i did the right thing and look it up on here and found this thread.

Now I'm all shorted and my light are mutch better!

I'm sorry to see them go as they did look cool, But it's better to see were you'r going then to look cool.

 

[krismc]

ive had an 800k hid kit on for 2 months now,

never been flashed by anyone as soon as the kit was put on it was all levelled at mot station,

and the vision on mine has improved greatly, most notibly anything reflective, ie road signs etc stand out a lot nicer.

my cut off is very sharp too

 

[OzMoSiS]

ive had an 800k hid kit on for 2 months now,

never been flashed by anyone as soon as the kit was put on it was all levelled at mot station,

and the vision on mine has improved greatly, most notibly anything reflective, ie road signs etc stand out a lot nicer.

my cut off is very sharp too

ditto.

as for legality, the govt. doesnt know what its on about. my HID's look exactly like the other car in koopturbo's post. my electric adjusters are shot and it was manually adjusted.

NEVER been flashed at or spoken to by the rozzers

 

[Argonought]

as for legality, the govt. doesnt know what its on about. my HID's look exactly like the other car in koopturbo's post. my electric adjusters are shot and it was manually adjusted.

NEVER been flashed at or spoken to by the rozzers

Post # 17 still applies to this thread.

Telling the judge the law is nonsense, in my experience at least, never works very well

 

[OzMoSiS]

well the government is as bad as a wet fart, so :whogives:

 

[koopturbo]

Your going to have to get some photos up like mine so we can all see the light spread. I had my HID bulbs in and out 3 time thinking i had them in wrong because the light spread was so poor.

And i do rember the road sighs being better lit but i think thats because of the blur from light.

 

[NumanR]

I mot tested an audi with aftermarket hids and the pattern was bloody awful, they failed.

 

[krismc]

Just an update mycar was fully molestered by around 6 traffic officers and some other dudes as they were doing road side stops stopping every car.

They had no issues with my car including tints and hids

 

[koopturbo]

lucky you. How is your light pattern / spread? Could you put up some pic's?

 

[Dogspods]

I've got aftermarket HID's and it's sailed through 2 MOT's no probs at all.

 

[OzMoSiS]

I've got aftermarket HID's and it's sailed through 2 MOT's no probs at all.

what kalvin rating are yours dogs?

mine failed with 'incorrect colour' apparently

 

[Dogspods]

what kalvin rating are yours dogs?

mine failed with 'incorrect colour' apparently

4300k I believe

 

[krismc]

I'm running 6000k which look like merc/bmw oem

Don't think I'd use 8000k as think it's pushing it in the colour chart.

 

[OzMoSiS]

lol ok, maybe thats why.

i have 8k, ooops

love them though

 

[Jay31191]

lol i better not get 12000k then, woops

 

[OzMoSiS]

12k are violet/purple

 

[Jay31191]

yeah i know theres quite a good picture of 10k which im thinking of getting for the stilo. ill wack it on here .