Are Your HID Headlights Illegal?
You may already have HID Headlights added to your vehicle, or you may be doing research on improving the look of your vehicle and to help you see better at night. You might already know what kinds of HID Bulbs you want to install to your vehicle, or you might be shopping around to see which ones you want. One thing you must be aware of is HID Headlights can be illegal to have installed to your ride. You might have heard rumors about people getting ticketed for having HID Lights installed, but how do you really know if you’re going to be safe from being ticketed?
If you look on the box of HID Headlights, usually they say things such as: “DOT Approved.” Just to let you know, the DOT has never approved HID Headlights and has no plans of giving them the OK anytime in the future. Do if you get pulled over by the Police and you tell them that your bulbs are DOT approved, there’s a good chance that it won’t matter.
But how is it that HID Headlights are illegal when everybody has them on their vehicles? Car manufacturers have taken notice on HID Lights and began installing them to their newer vehicles. These bulbs are OK by the Police and there’s no need to worry about them. The problem is if you installed the HID Headlights yourselves, then you may have a problem.
What can you do to avoid getting into trouble with the law? For starters, be sure not to buy “knock off” versions of the HID Bulbs. If you get pulled over with fake bulbs, you will probably get into deeper trouble when it comes to being ticketed. The reason why is because the fake bulbs are regular Halogen Bulbs that have a blue tint installed to the lens of the vehicle. Because of this, the Police could see this as impersonating an officer. These colors are reserved for the Police Department and other Emergency employees. The way Police check to see if your bulbs are fake is they take a white sheet of paper and hold it up to the bulb. If the paper turns blue, you have fake bulbs. If it turns out white, you’re in the clear.
Another reason why people are pulled over for HID Headlights is because they have been improperly installed to the vehicle and blind other drivers. Make sure your bulbs are shining upwards and not blinding others.
If your bulbs are glaring and bouncing off of objects when driving, you will get pulled over. It’s safe to stick with HID Headlights at around 6000k-8000k. Anything brighter than this will bring attention to you.
Learn more about HID Headlights, and visit www.clearlights.org to find the best advice on HID Bulbs.
Tags: lights, Automobile, headlights