Just bought this months Practical Classics and a guy on the "your say" section claims aftermarket HID conversions are illegal in the uk.

I know some of you have these fitted and i was wondering if any of you have had problems at the MOT test?

I thought they were legal and MOT friendly but apparently not?

My coop passed its MOT about a month ago and I have HID's fitted. No issues whatsoever.

To be honest I haven't heard of one coop with HID's failing an MOT because of them. There may be aligntment issues but these can be put right easily enough.

They are not legal, it's not a grey area, sorry.......


However, if you fitted a self-levelling system to the lights (expensive) and headlight washers, and the lenses were designed to take the HID's then fair enough.

That's the official line.

Also, you need to know that a car can pass the MOT but not be road legal, daft I know, but true

Ordinarily I would say that is daft.

But in England it is the normal.

Just aswell for us lot though really. Dont knock it guys. Heres to good ole British red tape & inefficiency.

I had a SAAB in the other day with HID`s and I was checking to see if the self-levelling worked on it.

I tried driving onto the ramp and sitting with just the front wheels on so that the car was pointing upward while watching the beam patterns against the wall. Now either the self-levelling was not working or it only does minute adjustments but I never noticed any movement at all .

I`ll try again with a local Jag S-type that has HID`s the next time it comes in to see if they move. If not then this makes me wonder if the car makers are even fitting self-levelling headlight adjusters .

Baz

They do fit them on a few for definite, especially the VW group. I think you'll find the adjustment is minute.......or it's broken

I didn't know these were illegal

How likely is it that police will stop you for them?

How come you've bought some then Stan?

I suppose the thin line on these is whether or not the tester/copper realises that you're running HID's rather than the standard poly's.

It seems most testers don't bother, or can't tell. Just as long as you don't end up with "Copper Jobsworth"...

They aren't an approved device so they contravene the C&R Regs.

Unlikely unless they are obviously *different* to what should be fitted

I haven't bought any

I had an MOT done last month with HIDs, the car failed first time round - but that was for LED Sidelights, put the standard yellow sidelights back in, and it passed with the HIDs.

If, in the immortal words of AlfO, you "JFSFI" you will find a thread on this where someone, Begbie I think, scanned a letter from "the authorities" which details what you can/cannot do.

That said, I have (had) a set in the Coupe and have ordered a set for the Monaro. I'd rather have the C&R discussion than go to the post-mortem, and they do make the most amazing difference.

I would have thought that as long as you're not silly with them, stick to 6000k or lower and set them not to dazzle, then you won't have many problems. On the other hand, if you add a set of 10000k to your Chavsa and point them at the rooftops, it may be a different matter....

That's another one not a lot of people know about



(LED sidelights)

Biggest problem for HID'S, is whether the headlamp is a 'Projector' type. Coupe is, so the pattern will be ok once adjusted. But for many cars with ordinary lamps, the pattern will never be right, and so you will always dazzle oncomers.

Andy.

And so is the 'Ro. Wonder if that has anything to do with them being so cack in the first place? I've tried 65w bulbs in mine and if anything they're worse (different bulb style).

I have LED sigelights and mine passed with those too

Depends who you know at the MOT station some will forget that the sides are LEDs Mine passed no probs with both LED sides and HID headlights , all he did was check the height of the beam and it was fine

Related but slightly off topic so apologies - these LED Rear Lights - will these pass an MOT but won't be legal either ?

Mine has passed the last two years with these. Whether that means the MOT station isn't that thorough or they are actually perfectly legal, I couldn't tell you. But I'd be surprised if they weren't legal, as a number of other cars have them as standard now (some the "supercars" have them, like the Konnigs, etc).

You learn something new every day.

Now I need to make a decision on whether or not to rip out the HIDs and LEDs for the MOT or leave them!

Paul (Motor-Mech) told me he knew a Coupe friendly MOT place, which surprised me a little since I thought he did them himself. He didn't mention either of the light issues when I asked if it looked MOT-ready, and I assume he's had plenty through there with these additions!

I`m pretty sure LED sidelight should be fine for MOT`s as long as they are white,blue ones are a no no . I`m just gonna check the testing guide though to be sure .

I just tried the same test on a Clio 182 with HID`s and there was no movement either .

Baz

So let's open up the insurance question then....

If you DON'T declare to your insurance, you stand the risk of your cover being invalidated, I guess, even if you argue that they are replacement "bulbs".

If you DO declare (and reading on PH, it seems many people do) then aren't they insuring a non-legal car?

How does that all work then? (Apart from the obvious statement to not fit them at all in the first place, but then you have cr@p headlights!)

There are some new halogen bulbs out by Phillips that claim 98% more light. Has anyone tried these?

Andy.

Just checked and I can`t see anything relating to whether they are standard bulbs or LED`s. As long as they are showing either steady white or yellow light for the front sidelights and a steady red light for the rears they`ll be fine .

Baz

I've got my HID's declared. But then it’s not like a decat where it’s automatically illegal. For all the insurance company knows you could have done a ‘proper’ conversion with washers and automatic adjusters.

my cars booked in on monday for its mot so i will post back here if they say anything

I've also got my HID's declared, they increased the premium Im sure but best to declare everything

Guess its all a bit of a grey area

So are LED sidelights MOT illegal outright? Or are you ok with white one's?

I assume its the latter as more and more cars are being fitted with them as standard e.g. Audi's.

White ones are ok

It's blue ish ones like mine that are illegal I knew about these, just didn't know about the HID's

Ah well, I've had many more illegal items on my other cars before now

I can see I'm going to have to take down your particulars madam.....

Yes, I think there's a bit of confusion again about the LED's, it's the *silly* multi-coloured lights that are causing the problems: strictly speaking only white and amber lights may be shown to the front of the vehicle, whilst at the rear only red and amber may be shown, with the exception of the reversing light in white obviously.

Anything else would leave you wide open.