Headlight Bulb Wattage Question

They're almost certainly not E approved so notlegal for road use in a post

198? car.

They aren't legal (assuming you're talking about H4 or similar) - for H4 the limits are 60W/55W. I'm sure you'll find that in the C&U regs somewhere if you can be bothered to look for long enough.

Of course unless the seller has stated that the bulbs are actually road legal you may have to put this one down to experience.

No they are not road legal , it should say on the box either not for road use or off road use only but this is not always the case when buying through ebay.

The construction and use of motor vehicles legislation covers this

If you do use them and dazzle other drivers if an accident results you could be held liable

I wouldn't worry. You probably bought Xenon bulbs, and the ones on ebay only last a week, so you'll be back to Halfrauds for standard ones shortly ;-)

Al.

I used to run 110/130s and they no more dazzled than modern HID's. That said they were only really more use on full beam too.

That wouldnt stand up as an argument in a court of law , Hids comply with the max wattage per lamp

one of the problems is the law hasnt court up with modern technology and restricted the light output as apposed to the energy consumption

Anyone over 45 here will remember the lamps pre halogen how dull they were copared with halogen , now we have xenon and hid lamps

Alls fine if correctly adjusted but how many headlamps are

Yes, I think it says something like they should not cause: "undue dazzle or discomfort to other persons using the road".

So like many factory fitted HID and aftermarket lights or so it seems to me then? :-(

I feel the race for more light is not dissimilar to the bigger is safer argument ... all very well, especially if we all have it but where will it end?

Have roads really got that much more dangerous or poorly marked where we need more light to see where we are going, more light than we did say 30 years ago? I'm all for progress but I feel it's got to (past?) a threshold where I am being dazzled more an more by ever brighter lights ... and that makes *me* safer how?

I also find myself dipping my rear view mirror more and more .. maybe it's just that drivers of HID vehicles also have ABS so are happy to sit on my boot and I'm no slow coach. I normally let them past then suffer them going slower because they can't see well or aren't confident enough, even without my lights burning the paint off their boot?

Part of this may be that *I* seem to have better night vision than many, as compared with some biker / car driving mates who prefer to follow me through the unlit twisties, night vision I temporarily loose every time I get a face full of even dipped HID beam (or whatever those very very white lights are, often sported by 'soft roaders')[1]?

Further proof of the extra power of these lights is noticed when people insist in pulling up on the wrong side of the road and leave their 'dipped' (now dipped into my eyes) headlights on. Probably another road traffic violation that goes unmentioned ..?

;-)

All the best ..

T i m

[1] The height of said lights probably doesn't help *me* either, especially when in my mirror.

Snip

So when are you standing for election?

-- Malc

I'm not as old as that and I remember the regular filament bulb lights. 45W or something I seem to remember. I put 100W high beams in one of my cars and they were great and certainly would have been blinding top oncoming road users. The trouble is when you switch back to dipped beams.....

As for the ebay items - I imagine they're advertised as direct replacement 100W bulbs and the buyer simply didn't realise that they were higher than legal/factory, "direct replacement" meaning that they fit right in without any mods. If they're not as described then file a claim with ebay or paypal.

Not any time soon .. who would vote for common sense and reason ..? ;-)

Nope, they would all vote for the party that thought loud pipes would be good thing for everyone, lights as bright as the alternator could support were fair game and everyone could cope with mobile phones on the move.

Joking aside, of course *proven* safety things are a good idea .. like crumple zones, airbags etc because none of those have consequences for anyone else[1].

But once we have reached a lighting level where a std human being suffers every time they see some of said coming towards them then maybe enough is enough? It's all very well having a nice clear view of the road but not if the partially blinded driver hits you head on? Again, maybe my eyes are more sensitive to such lights but I have been seriously compromised several times now and the intervals seem to be getting more frequent? :-(

Maybe that's a solution .. we all run 100kW of lighting and (some_of_us) can wear sunglasses 24/7! ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

[1] Unless they make unnecessary use of the ABS in front of a non ABS vehicle etc. :-(

"Common sense" very often isn't very common or sensical. It's uncommon sense that we need.

Hmm, you may well have something ... ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

Factory fit HID have a self levelling system which should help reduce glare. If you look deeply enough into the C&U regs you will see that aftermarket HID convertions are actually not legal for that reason. (This of course refers to proper High Intensity Discherge units, rather than the HID (meaning blue coloured tungsten filament) ones sold on Ebay mostly.

Self leveling and did I also spot something about self cleaning lenses?

The trouble is, it's quite likely that many of the folk who would fit such in a manner that would render them illegal are the same folk who might also fit and use driving lights and clear/ smoke / aftermarket tail light lenses etc.

;-)

All the best ..

T i m

The actual information is here

Yes they have to be self cleaning too. I also see that it is illegal to supply.

Brian (Brian ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Type approval, rather than C&U. C&U for retrofit HIDs seems a bit of a grey area.

Mind you, some cars have self-levelling and light cleaning already... Many others have manual light height adjustment and light cleaning.