Road Legal Side Lights

Where does it say they aren't? :confused:

But I guess (looking at some of the comments) that people are confusing them for the more blue-tinted replacements you get that are 6000k+. Technically the only colour light that can be seen from the front of any non-emergency vehicle are white and amber.
 
paradigm said:
Where does it say they aren't? :confused:

But I guess (looking at some of the comments) that people are confusing them for the more blue-tinted replacements you get that are 6000k+. Technically the only colour light that can be seen from the front of any non-emergency vehicle are white and amber.
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The first question, the seller response says they're not road legal for any exterior lighting use
 
Possibly because they're excessively bright for sidelights, at 3W 200 lumens for the halfords bulbs, in non directional reflectors that you'd typically find those bulbs in might be quite dazzling, a 3W LED will be ultra bright vs a 3W halogen. All I can think of.
 
If anything the osram will be brighter I'd have thought. A DRL is a different matter because the use case is theoretically different and less liable to dazzle if made too bright. Sidelights will be designed for dim bulbs.
 
DRLs will also be programmed to dim when indicating (or be the indicator themselves, changing colour).

Too bright a side light could drown out the indicator from the front.
 
Doubt that there are any rules as far as brightness looking at recent cars. I'd say colour is the only issue but those should be fine.
 
AFAIK they are not technically road legal because they aren't E-marked - in order to have this approval they bulb must be of the same type as the bulb it is replacing i.e. W5W, P21W etc. are all Group 2 Filament bulb types, not LED bulb types. Same reason why HID kits aren't road legal because H7, H4, H1 etc. are designed for Filament bulbs, not Gas Discharge ones.

Provided the light is the correct colour and not too dim/bright, it's unlikely you'll have any issues with Police or MOTs, but you make the choice yourself knowing they aren't officially legal.

Least you've decided to go with bulbs from a reputable manufacturer with good quality. They will be much better than the cheap blue tinge chinese LEDs everyone else seems to fit to their cars...
 
whilst in the subject of sidelights, asked on the ford owners club but to no avail

if anyone knows about the Focus MK2/MK2.5 the sidelights are rubbish, too dim for my tastes
so i swapped them out for LEDS, now match the headlights, which is nice, but they blow really quickly, its either one side flickers or 1 of them blowers and the other side is still ok

im going back to halogen, but not sure if there anything brighter than the standard ones

its the 501 capless (W5W bulbs)


anyone help ? thanks
 
Why worry if they're bright or not? They're bordering on the most pointless part of a car anyway, just put any old bulb in and carry on never using them like 95% of people
 
ShiWarrior said:
if anyone knows about the Focus MK2/MK2.5 the sidelights are rubbish, too dim for my tastes
so i swapped them out for LEDS, now match the headlights, which is nice, but they blow really quickly, its either one side flickers or 1 of them blowers and the other side is still ok
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I use Halfords white LED's in a MK3 Mondeo, nice and clean white, in fact I have them in the interior lights and number plate lights too. Only had 1 number plate light blow in 2 years and it took the fuse with it, the 501's I find I have to replace one of them every 6 months but it's better than having yellow sidelights next to a set of Xenons.
 
Kenai said:
Why worry if they're bright or not? They're bordering on the most pointless part of a car anyway, just put any old bulb in and carry on never using them like 95% of people
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I'm not worried about brightness (as long as they are legal) I just want them to give off a white light not yellow.
 
ShiWarrior said:
if anyone knows about the Focus MK2/MK2.5 the sidelights are rubbish, too dim for my tastes
so i swapped them out for LEDS, now match the headlights, which is nice, but they blow really quickly, its either one side flickers or 1 of them blowers and the other side is still ok
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I use Osram ones in my Focus and are still fine after just over 2 years, cheaper ones blow quite quickly.
 
Thanks guys, Im not a fan of osram, tried the night breakers and they didn't last, osram LEDs in my house, they went within 30 mins
 
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