I was driving to Galveston last night about about 7 PM and got pulled over. At first I did not even understand why because I was not speeding. So the TX State Trooper comes up to me and says that my headlights are blue. Not only that but he says that they are as blue as the flashing siren lights on a police car (there was another patrol car that pulled someone over in front of me - there were tons of cops in the La Marque / Galveston area pulling people over). OK, so if my headlights were really blue then that is fine but what he said is a complete BS. I have 8000K HID's - they are NOT blue - you have to be color blind to think that they output blue light. They do have a slight blue hue/tint but they are not blue especially like the lights on a cop car. So I have a few questions. What exactly is an equipment violation and how much is it? Does it go on your record? I am going to show up at court on the scheduled date and if that cop actually shows up I am going to plead not guilty because the lights are not blue. I heard people that use some cheap lawyer service to fight traffic tickets. Anyone have any information about this and how to contact them? It's just crazy. My brother is a police officer. He saw my lights many times. I asked him if they were legal and he said yes. I asked him about this incident and he said that the trooper was probably just picking on me because of my car, white grill lights, the area that we were in, etc...
8000k looks pretty blue to me. In fact, if you type in 8000k in a search engine, almost everything says "blue". I got this image from a web store. <img src="http://www.xtralights.com/categories/HID3colors.gif">
It has a blue hue if you look at it from an angle but the headlight and the color it emits is bright white. This is how it looks (random image of 8000K) Here is my car...
my guess is these didn't legally come on your car ..did it? a. you are one of those people who went and bought the HID kit and put it in a halogen housing. b. you retrofitted your housing.
They do look blue at night, those things are so bright. Funny, I was looking at MacHaik fords vehicles, and they have a shelbyGT advertised with those.
Yes - that is an HID kit. I did not install it, it was done at Executive Motorsports. They are bright but they are not blue. They do have a bluish tint depending on how you look at them. Obviously there is no law regarding HID's so you can't really say whether they are legal or illegal. TX DOT regulates color only. Otherwise these kits would not be installed by shops and sold freely everywhere. The cop did not say anything about HID's or their brightness, he only said that the headlights are blue. Here is 8000K again: http://www.xtremehidkits.com/Installation Pictures/Nissan Murano - Front Close-up 2.JPG Here are some blue HID's (to be truly blue it has to be 10000K or higher and even 10000K is not "pure" blue) http://www.xtremehidkits.com/Installation Pictures/QB - 14.JPG Also, here is are stock / factory OEM HID's on a Mercedes
That's why I wouldn't get 8000K. See if you had 6000K you wouldn't have this problem. Plus it looks better.. but that's my opinion.
I am going to call the shop tomorrow and have them change the bulbs to 6000K but I still have to deal with this equipment violation citation.
Those lights bug the **** out of me when they're A) behind me, or B) coming right at me on a 2 way street with no median. It's very distracting.
After market HID kits are illegal. If you look on the box, it'll say for OFF ROAD USE ONLY. HID kits are not DOT approved. That's why you don't see them at places like Walmart, etc. If you want HID's, do a retrofit instead of being cheap. The kits they sell at places like Executive Motors are a POS.
EXACTLY. the problem is that the reflectors were made for a normal halogen lamp. if you go park your car in front of a wall, there's a certain height at which the lights should cut off.
What law is there that states HID kits are illegal? I am just curious. NHTSA has been conducting "studies" since 2003 and they stopped some companies from selling them back then due to poor design but they are being sold again in great abundance and law enforcement does not know of any laws banning HID's - the only laws that are enforced deal with the colors that you can display on the exterior of your vehicle (no blue, red, purple, green, etc...) So why would it be illegal to use 5000-6000K HID's if some cars come with those stock and if you put a car with an aftermarket kit and the one that came with it pre-installed and can't tell the difference because they look identical. Also, you can get halogen lamps that are as bright as HID's at places like Autozone and if you have one of those bulbs and a 6000K HID kit you may not even know the difference it would look exactly the same but some people prefer HID's because they draw less power and use better bulbs.
I thought I was getting pulled over last night when I was at a stop sign and my car was flooded with blue light. Turned out it was just somebody with some very blue HID lights pulling up behind me. Annoying.
Transportation code allows white lights for headlights, red for brake lights, red for reflectors, white/amber for turn signal (front), red/amber for turn signal (back), etc. The colors mean something to other drivers, and deviation from those standards can be confusing as has been remarked in this thread. And the picture of your car's lights looks blue to me.
That's just the crap you have to go through for mod-ing your car. They look blue. Since u are running halogens and not real HIDs, the light is less focused and cops see that it is shining everywhere. There's a reason why those halo "HID" gen kits are only $50-200 and real HIDs cost $400 and up.
"You're making the road more dangerous than it already is by adding a HID kit to your car. so please do HID the right way by doing a retrofit. HID kits are illegal due to the glare that they cause. Glare is Light that is emitted in a Uncontrollable path. When light is traveling in a uncontrollable path it can hit other vehicle operators affecting there vision because of the High amount of uncontrollable light that is being Emitted from a HID kit in a standard Halogen housing. If you have ever turned a flashlight on right in front of your face while it is dark out, that is the same feeling that the other drivers on the road experience from a standard HID kit. OEM Vehicles such as Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Lexus are all equipped with HID or Xenon Headlights. Some use reflector housing’s without projectors. Others use HID projectors. The Lexus IS300 is a Prime Example of a HID reflector housing. It does not use a Projector. It uses a Specially designed Reflector housing that is meant to use HID. This does not create the Super sharp cutoff. But it does control where the light is being Emitted. Other vehicles such as the Honda S2000 Use HID projectors, These Projectors are meant to use HID. They are Specially Designed and have been tested Hundreds of times to get the right projection of light while maintaining a Good Cutoff."
