daytime running lights / indicator combined

Fisher wrote: Nick

Are Halos legal? or LED's fitted within the headlight? (MGTF 2004).

Robert

LED's definately not. Halos, well that's more complicated depending on how they are made. But I'd still say no.

E marked daytime running lights are perfectly legal because they consist of LED's in type-approved (for road use) LED housings. So ones made by Ring etc are fine to fit but not cheap Chinese ebay jobs. So Halos may or may not be depending on if they are E marked. If they aren't, then they are illegal. If they are, then they are fine. However, fitting them inside the headlight assembly that isn't approved for LED use would make them illegal again because the type approval consists of bulb (or emitter), reflector and lens as a complete assembly.

Aside from the legality, your insurance company would also count it as a declarable modification and I would be wary of making any change to the headlights of a car that the insurance company wasn't told about and/or was potentially illegal - for obvious reasons!

Disclaimer: I'm not a legal expert, but have done a lot of reading up on type approval for LED's when I was looking at modifying a previous car. I didn't bother in the end!

Nick

As I understood, the legal issue of fitting LED or HID bulbs in headlights was when you replaced the original tungsten or tungsten halogen bulbs with LED equivalents. Leaving these original bulbs in place and fitting LED rings as additional items were ok.
The issue is that the replacing the bulbs for LED may increase the brightness and dazzle oncoming drivers.
DRL Halos are not intended for illuminating the road in front of you, but to highlight your presence to other road users.
Mine passed the MOT with no issues, but the examiner made me change the operation of them slightly to comply.
The controller made the Halos flash with the indicator, so I had to install relays to isolate the Halos on whichever side when the indicator lamp was in operation. They also have to dim down or turn off when you switch on your headlights.
The examiner explained to me that there is no current MOT legislation on retrofitted DRL's as long as they work in the correct manner.
There are quite a few TF drivers now on the road with Halo rings fitted and you can also buy converted headlights from MG Magic http://www.mgmagic.co.uk/daytime_running_lights.html .
At the end of the day if fitted and wired correctly, I doubt any MOT examiner or Police officer would be concerned on what could be classed as an additional sensible safety system which may prevent a serious accident.
As I previously said, the amount of cars pulling out on me has drastically decreased since I fitted mine.
If there was an issue and were deemed illegal, its simply a fuse that needs to be pulled to de-activate them.

Sundance

I saw a bmw on the a50 in stoke on trent 2 weeks ago with red halos..seen it twice..it stuck out from other road users a lot. ..but I bet due to cut backs in the police force that nobody could give a hoot about it ...back in 1990 when I were a lad I got pulled in a ford escort in broad daylight by 2 motorbike cops parked in a lay by. ..they did a quick check of my car
and was given a yellow ticket to produce at a police station for not having any working front side lights and a garage had to stamp the ticket to show they fixed it within 7 days.....the bmw with red halos is one of many cars that shouldn't be driving about...I saw another with flashing drls which to the car in front would appear there was a emergency vehicLe behind...but the one I saw was not due to the tell tale grey primer around the rear arches.....is there a law or has all that legeslat ion been chucked out of the window...a while back I had some lights for a pushbike....you know the ones...they could be turned on has normal or they could be made to flash....the packaging said not to be used for road use in flashing mode....now every cycle I come across looks like a strobe light from a disco.

The red Halo's - I have seen some too...would definitively be illegal...as would green and blue.
I forgot to say that I got my son to check the halos out after I fitted them, he is a police officer, and he saw no issue with them, but did comment that it was a shame that I could not fit LED lamps to compliment the Halos, as the Halos were a nice crisp white light and the halogens were of a standard tint. I did buy some blue tinted halogen bulbs but did not like the beam they produced so put the original ones back in.

Sundance

Interesting to see how long I could drive around with red halos before being stopped...when I lived in a small staffordshire town some years back..it would of been around 10 minutes before you had the entire police population of the town taking your details...or the neighbours reporting you has you unpacked the halos from the box......

SundanceUK wrote: The red Halo's - I have seen some too...would definitively be illegal...as would green and blue.
I forgot to say that I got my son to check the halos out after I fitted them, he is a police officer, and he saw no issue with them, but did comment that it was a shame that I could not fit LED lamps to compliment the Halos, as the Halos were a nice crisp white light and the halogens were of a standard tint. I did buy some blue tinted halogen bulbs but did not like the beam they produced so put the original ones back in.

Sundance

Have you tried these these Sundance, I put smd sidelights in my yaris the main beam lights looked yellow. I swapped to the Phillips white vision and the difference was amazing.

SundanceUK wrote: The red Halo's - I have seen some too...would definitively be illegal...as would green and blue.
I forgot to say that I got my son to check the halos out after I fitted them, he is a police officer, and he saw no issue with them, but did comment that it was a shame that I could not fit LED lamps to compliment the Halos, as the Halos were a nice crisp white light and the halogens were of a standard tint. I did buy some blue tinted halogen bulbs but did not like the beam they produced so put the original ones back in.

Sundance

Ah, interestingly, there is no law at all prohibiting blue lights on the front of your car. There are legal questions over flashing blue lights because only certain road users have the right to display flashing blue lights. That said, there is also no law prohibiting you decarating your car in police livery because there is no law for impersonating a police car, only impersonating a police officer. You can drive around in an MG with POLICE down the side and all the markings, but you must say (if asked) that you are NOT a police officer. The only laws on lighting colour state that:
1. no vehicle should be fitted with a lamp capable of showing a red light to the front
2. no vehicle shall be fitted with a lamp capable of showing any light other than red to the rear
The lights have to be steady, not flashing.

So your red-lighted BMW is definately illegal. He should change them to blue

Nick

One thing to also consider, an Audi driving friend of mine wanted to fit four halo rings on the front of his bonnet, over the Audi logo, so it lit up at night and doubled up as a DRL.
Not allowed as they have to be sited in the correct place. There are guidelines which detail how far up and across they have to be.

Bob, I will have to try out the Philips bulbs, thanks for the recommendation.....

Sundance

Images of the audi halo badge.


Used to see wolesley cars with illuminated front logos and talk about the legal side leads me to believe knightrider was breaking the law with that red strobe light...it should of been blue.