V50 General : LED DRL's?

[adam020290]

Looking at investing in some LED DRL's to wire up to my side lights and insert into the fog light area.
Few question though
1) heard roumers about these being illegal to have on at night, is it true?
2) anyone know of any good LED flexible strips and where to get them, waterproof ones etc.
3) who's done this already and got any pics?

especially need to know the first question as if i wire them to the side lights then they will still be on at night wont they?

[jasonb]

I wired up some LED rings inside the headlamps, see this thread:
http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=117940

i have to admit, they look truly awesome (to coin an Americanism!)

I have some LED strips in Black and toyed with the idea of what you are looking at.

Jonnie went a few stages further after the strips began to fail.
Ended up with Philips DRL's which he installed on his 2008 face-lift S40 (he has more room on the fog covers than I did at the time).

Since you have the pre-facelift, you'll have lots of room to play with.

Try not to buy something cheap, it'll never last!

Good luck!

[adam020290]

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/s...egoryId_165688

was thinking of getting them ones from halfords.

still need to know if they legal at night though lol getting mixed answers from search results

[Will22]

Yes it is legal to have them wired to your side lights because they are not counted as DLR's when wired that way.

DLR's are lights on the front of a car that are independent of the rear lights, ie. on when rear lights are off.

You can have any colour and type of lights on the front of your car except red in any type and strobe lights.

However a bit of copon has to be used with lights on any car, as long as they don't hinder other road users like having your foglights on at night, ok I think as long as they are not directed up at uncomming drivers.

As for jasonb's angle lights on his V50 I think they are the first aftermarket angle lights that I've seen on any car that don't look chavy and sh!t, very good indeed.

[adam020290]

Hi, thanks for reply

done a quick piccy of what it should look like once done, just a quick ms paint job few white dots showing where they'll be etc.

i want them deffinately to be legal before i do it

[jasonb]

make sure they're SMD based and pref. 5050's as they're pretty bright for LEDs.

Something like this would work!
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/30cm-Car-Truck...ht_4274wt_1139

[adam020290]

still plodding around verifying the legality, with the sounds of laws etc. it sounds like as long as they're wired to the side lights and not on their own switch then there not really any ruling to them.

found this if anyone can make any sense from it lol gobbledy gook really
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1.../contents/made

[Will22]

3. The electrical connections to the obligatory dim-dip device or running lamps, as the case may be, shall be such that the light output specified in paragraph 1 or 2 above is emitted automatically whenever–

[B](a)the engine of the vehicle is running, or the key or devices which control the starting or stopping of the engine are in the normal position for driving the vehicle,[/B] and
(i)the obligatory position lamps, but not the headlamps, of the vehicle are switched on, or
(ii)the obligatory position lamps are switched off.


Whenever the key is in the on/engine running position, guess they hadn't heard of keylees entry/go

[adam020290]

Contacted askthepolice who gave me a quick simple reply answering my question today
heres their answer for future use:

"Additional LED lights would be classed as novelty lights which are OK
providing that they do not replace existing obligatory lights ( which have
to comply with EC standards) . They must not flash or move and cannot be
red at the front of the vehicle."

this came from: pnld@westyorkshire.pnn.police.uk

So in short, if your not replacing lights with them, then your ok

[Will22]

Originally Posted by adam020290

Contacted askthepolice who gave me a quick simple reply answering my question today
heres their answer for future use:

"Additional LED lights would be classed as novelty lights which are OK
providing that they do not replace existing obligatory lights ( which have
to comply with EC standards) . They must not flash or move and cannot be
red at the front of the vehicle."

this came from: pnld@westyorkshire.pnn.police.uk

So in short, if your not replacing lights with them, then your ok

What I said a few days ago then!