red 59

I heard that the blue headlight bulbs alot of people use are illegal. What I dont understand is if they are illegal why do they sell them at auto parts stores?

AFRunner

Check the package, most say "For show or offroad use only."

toy283

Because idiots will buy anything. Yes, blue lights anywhere on a non-emergency vehicle are illegal. This includes neon and those silly little windshield washer lights.

nolongeraneqaddict

<-- Idiot, Had the silly blue windshield washer lights, yes they are illegal, got a nice $10 ticket for em

It will say in little tiney writing cleverly hidden for show use only

Jonathan

I think he is talking about the euro-style headlights you can buy from autozone and other places not neons. You know headlights that give the "HID" look. Most of those are illegal, as specified on the box "off-road use only". Many states however let them slide because it is just to hard to enforce the law on them.

Vato Loco

Shhhh.....I have them installed on my truck for the past 1.5 year. These ones are have a little bit of blue but its mainly white, nothing at all like the ones on ricer Hondas.

amusement

I bought a headlight replacement system from Ebay that had blue lights. It was around $30 bucks. I read the package before installing them "off-road use only!"

I was p*ssed. Couldn't get any money back either.

What I think is too funny is the tire valve cover lights that are installed on rice rocket - low riders. They are also illegal.
Walmart still sells them even though the package says "for show use only!"

Plays_with_Toys

hehe, I remember talking to a target employee...

I was in the section looking at the neon shift knobs and he says something like:

"Don't get any of the other neon stuff, its all illegal. Anything neon on the outside of your car is illegal"

So I reply "So then if it's illegal, why do you sell it?"

"Because idiots still buy it, and we take their money."

I also heard that yellow lights are far better for fog/rain anyway??

Firefyter-Emt

Yep, not only can you get a ticket with them.. They SUCK in the rain! Just for the hell of it I bought some once.. The first time it rained they went in the trash can!

kyle_22r

yup, yellow cuts through that stuff FAR better than those dumb blue lights

tenfourtyeight

What about all the BMW's, Mercedes, Lexuses, and Jags with factory blue-tinted headlights?

AFRunner

HID lights are a completely differeny animal. The illegal blue ones generally are tinted or run at high wattage.

EWAYota

my buddy emailed me the other day, with a report saying that they're thinking about making HID's banned except for vehicles that already have them installed. so if you bought a car with them or already have HID's installed you'd be fine, but they're thinking of discontinuing them on future models. i'll get the facts straight tomorrow, and let you know, but i'm pretty sure thats the way its stated cause he said that he's gonna go buy some for his bmw and put them on before they ban them. JFYI.

foxtrapper

Because they generally are not illegal. US DOT issued a white paper clarifying their definitions of white light, and it specifically allows for various tints now. This came about as a result of the factory HID headlights, particularly BMW. Owners were being issued tickets in some areas for illegal headlights.

As for blue lights on your wipers and such, those are also perfectly legal (usually) as long as they don't flash. It's flashing colored lights that run you afoul of the law. Though many times cops will issue you a ticket regardless of the law.

Where many of those light bulbs are illegal is on power. There are US DOT specifications for wattage (not lumins) of headlights, and other vehicle marking lights.

As for selling illegal items, everything sold anywhere at any time can be illegal with proper application.

SLC Punk

Me too, I just passed out strict emission/inspection with my lights.

Plays_with_Toys

I remember hearing about this a while back too. Basically many people complain that the lights are too blinding. They are fine 85% of the time, but on hills and over bumps the lights seem to be more blinding. This is because the light is so concentrated horizontally that when you hit a bump, it is a much sharper change in light compared to the older lights that have more of a gradual change in their light dispersion. You can also get it in your rear view mirror in certain cars, and when a car equipped with the lights stops behind you just right.

They (not sure who the authority is on this) are investigating whether the blinding other drivers factor is going to take these off the market.

kyle_22r

you also have to think about the idiots that put them on and don't properly aim them

ForeWheeler

They should ban them. What these vehicles with HID-equipped/or look-alikes drivers don't realize is, it blinds the oncoming motorists. The wrost offenders are the Audi's, seems like everyone of them have these blue light specials.

Breezey

I am running HIDS, I have never had a problem with the law...

PIAA makes a good blueish light and its 50 state legal..

toy283

FWIW, HID lights are NOT tinted blue. They use the same technology as camera flashbulbs but constantly, or rather, repeated very rapidly. As such, they are white, almost a perfectly pure white. It is purely an optical illusion that they appear blue. The light emitted from Halons is yellowish in tint. If you look into a standard or halon lightbulb, your eye reacts to the yellow by toning down the receptors for yellow light, the effect lasts for a few seconds after you've looked away. Your own headlights can cause this happen. Same thing happens when you look directly at the sun but in a greater scale. Anyway, after looking at a yellow light, a white light will appear blue because you eyes are still filtering out some of the yellow (white light contains all color frequencies). If everyone were to have HID lights, they would all appear the same, white.