cheap HID kit

[Yosser]

Originally Posted by Flanaia1

As a director of a Service and MOT centre I can tell you that VOSA have instructed all MOT garages to fail any cars with aftermarket HID kits.

Thats interesting.

Can you tell me when that instruction was issued and also what the bulletin reference was please?

[Flanaia1]

Originally Posted by Yosser

Thats interesting.

Can you tell me when that instruction was issued and also what the bulletin reference was please?

I can when I get back to work which will be Saturday morning as I'm travelling at the moment which is interesting with all this ice about.

We have just had a brand new ATL fitted and strangely enough this was one of the topics brought up by the guy from VOSA when he inspected, as he was going on about boy racers and converted Corsa / Saxo etc.

Will post or PM it you this weekend.

[fenton_jd]

Originally Posted by Flanaia1

As a director of a Service and MOT centre I can tell you that VOSA have instructed all MOT garages to fail any cars with aftermarket HID kits. Only original factory fit are permissable. Therefore come MOT time you need to revert back to normal bulbs.

As regards the law if you are caught with them on the road you will definitely be prosecuted for the offence and in some counties your car may be seized.

It's the same as de catting a car its totally illegal IN the UK but a lot of people do it. Fit HID at your own risk but don't moan if you get caught.

As for getting caught in an accident then the Insurance definitely wont pay out we have repaired 2 cars recently and both insurance companies asked us to check the car for any modifications that were not standard, including checking for re maps before they would authorise the repair

Food for thought?

I had one of my old cars MOT'd by two different garages, and one picked up on a lot more things than the other did.

Needless to say, I'd be stunned if my S40 failed an MOT with my HID kit. That said, i'll plug the halogens in for the test.

How the standard S40 headlamps pass any kind of MOT is a joke.

[Metblackrat]

Originally Posted by Flanaia1

As regards the law if you are caught with them on the road you will definitely be prosecuted for the offence and in some counties your car may be seized.

Absolute rubbish. There is no power to seize a vehicle for this.

[Harvey1512]

He is not talking about the UK here. Some European countries are quite feisty about seizing cars, the French for example, so it is quite feasible.

[Berty.]

If the Police in the UK and the Gardai in Ireland cannot enforce foreign registered vehicles movements and their failure to use beam convertors then I doubt they are going to give a rats about HID fitted into projector headlamps.

Fair enough a 55w 8000K HID in a non projector but without having a profesional check the car they cannot be sure as they are not qualified to give a written report to prove that they are illegal.

All they can do is summons you which is pretty unlikely to happen to projector using people.

[fenton_jd]

Judge for yourself, heres my car:

On the left Philips Xtreme Power 80%+
On the right Ebay HID kit - 6000k

Beam cut-off and light pattern are *IDENTICAL*

Why are these illegal?

[Harvey1512]

Ask the law makers. I quite agree with you that it is a nonsense. I doubt anyone on here disagrees with you about them being okay but it still comes back to the validity being questioned by the insurance people if you are unlucky enough to be in a prang. 9 out of 10 garages may not pick up on it but if the other 1 does....... Equally how more likely are you to have a prang when you can't see the road because the standard lights are so damned useless? Maybe you should have a discount over normal Volvo drivers because your lights are safer than ours? Could that be a line of defence?

[fenton_jd]

I've made the choice to have HID's so I can actually SEE where I'm going. On country roads, the setup Volvo had given us is just asking for a fatal crash. Remember the people on this forum are the SMALL PERCENTAGE that attempt to do something about it. Imagine how many owners just 'live with it'.

The fact that I need HID in order to match the Halogen bulbs on my old fiat says everything....

[Guru]

This thread is getting very spicy, especially with the accidents mentioned.

I almost knocked down a pedestrian myself once, but lucky for me she was wearing reflective training shoes so i managed to dodge her at the last moment... you may have noticed; the headlamps only illuminate the ankles of pedestrians, and never higher than their waist

fenton_jd> don't forget It's Projectors vs. Reflectors!

HIDs in projectors will not blind opposing traffic, and therefore should not be illegal IMO. On the other hand, when HIDs are mounted in reflector assemblies, they become an absolute nuisance to other drivers, and they should be illegal.

The only damage the HIDs can cause is to your own headlight units, word has it that they can damage/fade out the inner chrome linings. And besides that, some people report burnt-out windscreen wiper motors after installing HIDs in these cars because the right? headlamp is earthed along with the wiper motor.
to avoid this happening, it's advised to earth the HIDs directly to the chassis of the car and not to connect it to the already existing earthing wire from the previous halogens. The burn out does not occur immediately but takes time, i.e. the longer you use you wipers.

Do you have a warning canceler with those? btw, love the color of your car