Why are these illegal in the UK?

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Does anyone know? It seems really stupid. People spend £100's more to have Xenons - which are perhaps 100% brighter than "normal" bulbs, yet these bulbs - which are only perhaps 50% brighter than normal are too bright to be legal? Ridiculous.

I am very tempted to fit them and just say sod it. Can anyone shed any light (lol ;-) on this strange anomaly? And just *why* are they illegal?

Chip

Reply to
Chip
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The reason they are "illegal" is usually they dont have DOT aproval, perhaps they are 100watt which will be brighter than your normal 55watt halogen's.

They also may not give out the correct light pattern, although this is normally done by the lens optic's.

Thousands of car's in the UK run 100watt "illegal" bulbs, and you will find they are better, but be carefull as the wiring may not be up to it, and you can find yourself burning out light switch stalks.

I have been using HID/xenon bulbs and ballast's in my Audi for over a year now< retro fitted>, and the amount of light on the road is amazing, if your going to upgrade your lights, spend the few hundred quid on a good HID upgrade kit, you wont regret it.

If you live in the west country, I can show you mine, or give you a number of a cheap suplier.

hth

Ron

Reply to
Ron

Here is why they are illegal:

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Here are some "blue bulbs" that are not illegal (at least in the US) though they offer no real benefit.
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Scott

Reply to
Scott

That just explains about blue bulbs, the ones the OP link posted are not blue, but brighter, and that link is for the USA, the UK has different lighting laws.

Ron

Reply to
Ron

Yes, Ron you are correct. I just happened to link to a review about a blue one. But my question was really about the 80w ~ 100w "brighter" bulbs. (Scott, thanks for the info - a very interesting read.)

But Ron, do you not see the irony in this. The Philips Rallye bulbs (for example) which are *illegal* in the UK, and less bright than your typical HID, which *is* legal. Now where's the logic in that? (And its nothing to do with colour - the Philips Rallye are not blue.)

BTW, I know of and appreciate the benefits of Xenons. My last car had them and my current one does too :-) But my interest in brighter bulbs is for my wife's car and it just doesn't make sense spending HID upgrade prices on it. But £30 on a couple of bulbs might have been worth considering.

Ron, as a matter of interest, would you mind telling us how much your HID upgrade cost and who did it? I thought they were about £500?

Cheers,

Chip.

Reply to
Chip

Ron

I'm thinking of getting aftermarket xenons as VAG parts are doing a special on them at the moment. I'm v unhappy with the standard headlamps, even with the best white 100% extra bulbs I can find. I'm wondering where you got your kit from.

Cheers

Paul

Reply to
Paul

Cool

Yup Irony being the keyword, the law is not logical when it comes to lighting.

As long as the bulb's are CE approved, then they are tested and allowed in our cars, blue bulbs Fwiw are not illegal, there are some companies that make very good one's, vison plus springs to mind by Phillips. It's all to do with having approval.

A decent kit can cost around 250-300 quid, if you import it from the states, make sure you get a good quality ballast, Hella/Phillips are the main ones, there are loads of cheap kits avaialable with seperate starters, avoid these if you can. The ballast should have the starter built in.

If you retrofit the bulbs then make sure you get a fairly decent bulb, one that replicates the type of halogen bulb you are replacing, the HID capsule should be in the same place as the Halogen coil, mine are H7's.

Dont worry too much about expensive philips bulbs, they wont generally last much longer and cost 2 x more money.

60 quid is about right for a HID bulb, 6000k is the norm, although I run 7000k.

See above for price, but I fitted my HID's myself, I have fitted them to other cars as well about 5 now, never had a complaint

Takes about 20-30 mins including dremeling out the rear case.

Cheers

Ron

Reply to
Ronny

While UK and US laws *are* different, these sites are done by my good friend, Daniel Stern, whose knowledge of automotive lighting is encyclopedic and has no national boundaries. He can and will tell you, regardless of its 'legality', what is the absolute *best* lighting system available for your car. His usual recommendation for the US is 'illegal' ECE systems. He does not hold US federal or state government lighting standards in high regard. If you wish to have better lighting and still remain 'legal' in your home country, he can tell you that as well. Contact him directly if you wish; tell him I sent you.

In my own limited experience, I find that simply putting higher wattage bulbs into Audis is a Very Bad Idea (TM) because of the Audi engineers' brilliant (no pun intended) idea of putting *all* the power to the headlights through the light switch instead of using a relay, or relays, as many other manufacturers do. This means that the extra current running through the light switch can actually *melt it*.

-- C.R. Krieger (Been there; melted that)

Reply to
C.R. Krieger

Thanks CR. Lucky, then, that I am not enquiring about and Audi, nor about blue bulbs.

Chip

Reply to
Chip

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