Are hid's Legal?

[cferb]

Aiming is the key. The brightness isnt what is illegal, its blinding people that pass by you on the other side of the road that is.
Besides, ever notice new SUV's with HID's? When youre sitting in a low car, and one of those assholes rolls by, you get temporary blindness. Its legal.

If someone's headlights are blinding my, they get my brights, I don't care if their highs are on or not. I specifically notice a lot of those Lexus SUVs, and GM SUVs that have badly aimed HIDs.

As for being legal, check the laws in your state, I can guarantee you have something on your car that isn't legal, doesn't mean you're gonna get a ticket for it. As everyone said, if you aren't blinding anyone, you won't get any trouble.

[ieatpeople]

in my other car i drive daily, (92 toyota tercel) i have 4300k H.I.D. lights and have never had a problem. i have followed cops, driven past them on many roads, and have never had a problem, ever.

i don't have the "conversion" housings or anything, just 9004 H.I.D. bulbs in the stock housings (not projecter)


if your lights are purple, blue, yellow, or any other color than white, you will probably get hassled, mine are slightly blue when first turned on, but after they warm up fully(10-15 seconds) they are pure white.

[smonkbmw]

in my other car i drive daily, (92 toyota tercel) i have 4300k H.I.D. lights and have never had a problem. i have followed cops, driven past them on many roads, and have never had a problem, ever.

i don't have the "conversion" housings or anything, just 9004 H.I.D. bulbs in the stock housings (not projecter)


if your lights are purple, blue, yellow, or any other color than white, you will probably get hassled, mine are slightly blue when first turned on, but after they warm up fully(10-15 seconds) they are pure white.

and i cant stand drivers like you. its ridiculous to have hids in a non-projector housing. all you are doing is scattering light everywhere, including oncoming drivers eyes. but to each his own.

[cferb]

and i cant stand drivers like you. its ridiculous to have hids in a non-projector housing. all you are doing is scattering light everywhere, including oncoming drivers eyes. but to each his own.

agreed, except I'm more of a "don't do it" than "to each his own"

[NC325iC]

i cant stand it when people have poorly aimed lights, and as for the suv comment earlier, its not just suvs with hids that blind you, its suvs in general, i cant stand having them drive behind me, their lights are aimed right at my mirrors

[LovableSheep]

i cant stand it when people have poorly aimed lights, and as for the suv comment earlier, its not just suvs with hids that blind you, its suvs in general, i cant stand having them drive behind me, their lights are aimed right at my mirrors

I feel the same way. And don't even get me started on those assholes with their huge trucks with lift kits that are like a freaking helicopter is approaching or something. It also doesn't help that I've got something weird that's been going on with my eyes lately where every light seems brighter than it should be.

[VT_E30]

yea when people blind me from the side view mirrors i adjust them out a little so that their headlights are reflected back to them. as far as the rear view i just knock it a little so its not blinding me anymore

[cferb]

yea when people blind me from the side view mirrors i adjust them out a little so that their headlights are reflected back to them. as far as the rear view i just knock it a little so its not blinding me anymore

I always try that with the side views, not sure if it works

[uofom3]

what is the sole attraction to hid's anyways? If you just want to blind the fuck out of other drivers... you have high beams... and if you want to see better... you have high beams... maybe I'm crazy, but I don't seem to follow the thought process between the ricers and new wave modder's who want to run crazy Godbright headlights with out puts probably closer to airplane headlights than most cars, and then they want to smoke out every other warning/indicator light on their car so no one can see when they are stopping/turning, assuming half the bulbs even work under the smoked lenses...

Just seems to be deteriorating your cars night time functionality over all... /rant

wow.

[Bimmerman325i]

I guess most the cars that are sold in the U.S. arent sold in Colorado? This thread is full of fail.

I should have said that HIDs are perfectly legal in Colorado, just not HID upgrade/install kits. The likelihood of being pulled over for the lights is very low even here(i've seen integras, civics, etc with HID kits in non projector housings ), so long as you have a color that's close to white output/visual look. If you have purple or vivid blue or some irritating color you will probably be pulled over for it if you are being a danger for other drivers. If they are aimed right and are white in color, the cop would have to be extremely bored to pull you over for that reason.

Stock HID systems from the factory, while perfectly legal, are just as irritating to other drivers on the road, especially in SUVs or any tall car. The fact that they don't get pulled over often enough is proof that you most likely won't be. Just don't be an asshat and put bright purple HIDs in non projectors and you'll be fine.

[CleanAzzE30z]

High five!!! ;)


Mariano

[bmw325csi]

If something says "for off road use only" chances are they aren't legal. But if you leave it to the laws, especially Cali laws everything is illegal!

[mikeedler]

I cant believe noone has said this yet.
but what makes them illegal is when you DONT have a headlight washing system or
self leveling headlights.
I have "upgraded" a few e91s now at my work with zenon kits/headlight assys.--BMW has it written clearly in the instruction manual.

not sure how it is in the U.S. nowadays, but 1 out of every 10 cars here has factory zenon, and it isnt at all blinding or annoying IF they are done correctly.

[Van Westervelt]

Self leveling and washing systems have no effect on the legality of them here in the US. The light source (HID) has to be approved WITH the housing (projector/smiley) by DOT.

Which no e30 light with an HID as a light source has come across their bench. Not to mention the fact that Euro Ellips are also illegal as they do not carry the DOT stamp.

[nando]

that's why I said you could have "legal" HIDs if you retrofitted an E46 housing.. and I know people have done it.

I'm not sure if the lense matters since most projectors just have a clear lense - but I suspect you'd need something without the fluting.