Have just bought 'Direct replacement for existing bulbs' headlight bulbs from ebay from a 'trusted powerseller'.
Interestingly, he's sent me 100w bulbs, rather than the standard 55w ones. Are these bulbs road legal? (And if not, where does it say that they aren't legal)
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
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.
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. :-(
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.
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