Hiya people im new here

B

Bosco

Newbie
Points
21
Location
Dublin, Ireland
Car
Alfa 156
Hey all im new here....

My names Bosco(richie) and im From Dublin came across the forum when i was looking for screamer pipes for my car.

Currently im driving an Alfa Romeo 156 it was a selespeed till a few weeks ago i converted her as the silly box gave up and was costing too much to fix.
Its lowered 60mm on the front and to be lowered 40mm the rear, Has a set of HID lights, I smoked the headlights today for her as id a spare set and will be on by the weekend hopefully, also has tinted glass for security purposes, standard carbon dash centre console and few other lil bits n bobs..

Plans are to get a magnaflow exhaust with screamer pipes into her, drop in air filter, alfa 146 cloverleaf side skirts with the opel calibra side skirt blades fitted under her and maybe a rear lip if i find the right one..

Anyhow enough about me il get pics up the weekend when i get the lights etc fitted.
 
Hello and welcome.

On the HID lighting point, be careful if these are aftermarket fitments. I am not sure about the law in Ireland, but in the UK aftermarket HID kits are not lawful for road use.

Of course, if the were fitted at manufactuirng time then they're totally legal.
 
So far ive had nothing said to me about the HID lighting here and theyre on a while now. Lot of the lads i knwo also have them aftermarket ones too and everythings ok. Reason they're nto lawful is you may need to run projector lights with them which has a different setup from some factory lights as they scatter the light. Ones i got are fitted all within law as i made sure before fitting them
 
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Bosco said:
So far ive had nothing said to me about the HID lighting here and theyre on a while now. Lot of the lads i knwo also have them aftermarket ones too and everythings ok. Reason they're nto lawful is you may need to run projector lights with them which has a different setup from some factory lights as they scatter the light. Ones i got are fitted all within law as i made sure before fitting them
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You don't necessarily need projector lights. There are OEM HID systems which use conventional optics.

I suspect that the legislation is EU wide, perhaps with some country specific points.

In the UK the vehicle must have either self levelling suspension or self levelling dipped beam angle. There must also be a headlight wash system which operates every time the windscreen washer is used whenever the headlights are turned on.

However, simply meeting these two requirements is not enough. The headlight enclosures themselves must have been originally designed for use with HID lamps.

The aftermarket kits designed to fit into H4, H1, H7 or other incandescent enclosures are certainly not lawful for highway use in the UK.

With an HID lamp the light source is an arc, and it burns in a different geometric orientation to a filament lamp. This leads to a different beam pattern.

If you have fitted OEM HID enclosures, and your car also has the levelling and washing systems then you should be OK. Technically you do need to have the car inspected and gain SVA (single vehicle approval) for legal road use. Again, the law might differ in The Republic of Ireland, but do check carefully.

The reality is that your average road police officer will not know the difference, nor be especially bothered. But this does not mean it's lawful for road use.

Neither does the fact that no-one has spoken to you, nor to your mates of any consequence. It's certainly no help in defence.
 
HDi fun said:
You don't necessarily need projector lights. There are OEM HID systems which use conventional optics.

I suspect that the legislation is EU wide, perhaps with some country specific points.

In the UK the vehicle must have either self levelling suspension or self levelling dipped beam angle. There must also be a headlight wash system which operates every time the windscreen washer is used whenever the headlights are turned on.

However, simply meeting these two requirements is not enough. The headlight enclosures themselves must have been originally designed for use with HID lamps.

The aftermarket kits designed to fit into H4, H1, H7 or other incandescent enclosures are certainly not lawful for highway use in the UK.

With an HID lamp the light source is an arc, and it burns in a different geometric orientation to a filament lamp. This leads to a different beam pattern.

If you have fitted OEM HID enclosures, and your car also has the levelling and washing systems then you should be OK. Technically you do need to have the car inspected and gain SVA (single vehicle approval) for legal road use. Again, the law might differ in The Republic of Ireland, but do check carefully.

The reality is that your average road police officer will not know the difference, nor be especially bothered. But this does not mean it's lawful for road use.

Neither does the fact that no-one has spoken to you, nor to your mates of any consequence. It's certainly no help in defence.
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She went thru the NCT over here with them fitted on many cars surely this would then be showing they are road legal here. NCT being the MOT equivilant but a lot more strict
 
Quoting Bosco: "She went thru the NCT over here with them fitted on many cars surely this would then be showing they are road legal here. NCT being the MOT equivilant but a lot more strict"

Just because it's passed the NCT (which is, as you say, significantly more stringent than the UK MoT) does not automatically mean that they [aftermarket HIDs] are lawful for road use. But do check domestic legislation. UK law is not necessarily the same as the law in Eire.

I'm only advising caution on your part. No legal precedent has been set just because other folks' cars have gone through the examination without comment.

Let's take a ridiculous hypothetical situation, by way of illustration:

You have murdered a child and that child's body is underneath the passenger seat of your car, contained in a plastic bin liner.

You take your car for a road worthiness test. During that test, the examiner does not notice the bin liner underneath the passenger seat.

Clearly, that does not mean that it's OK to murder people.

It's a far fetched example but I'm just trying to illustrate the point.

Don't get caught out on a technicality. That's all I'm advising.

Kind regards,

Paul Anderson.
 
But they do notice the lights as they do a test in a cente on light focus and scatter and so on thats why im saying its obviously legal cause we're not allowed have visors that our wiper blades go over, our tint degree must be allowing 65% light into the front of the car, DB level within the centre must not exceed 90Decibels and on the road its 72 i think. Again all tests are conducted on these thats why im leaving them be as they have passed the national car test being a government run system that check even your brake fluid for contamination....
 
Bosco said:
But they do notice the lights as they do a test in a cente on light focus and scatter and so on thats why im saying its obviously legal cause we're not allowed have visors that our wiper blades go over, our tint degree must be allowing 65% light into the front of the car, DB level within the centre must not exceed 90Decibels and on the road its 72 i think. Again all tests are conducted on these thats why im leaving them be as they have passed the national car test being a government run system that check even your brake fluid for contamination....
Click to expand...

I know this. The NCT is a better testing programme than the UK's MOT.

What I'm saying is that even though the beam patterns are within the prescribed limits it does not automatically mean that the car's front lighting system is lawful for road use.

Cars here are fitted with aftermarket HIDs. They, too, pass the MOT. But that does not mean that they are lawful for road use. Sadly, it's not obviously legal. I wish it was.

If only the authorities would pursue drivers of cars with bald tyres and defective brakes and defective steering assemblies.

I am totally on your side, just trying to help you avoid the attention of a petty minded but legally aware traffic policeman.
 
hey and welcome to the site mate.

agree with HDI yes they will check the beam pattern at the NCT / MOT but if it can be adjusted into range then it will pass.
projector lenses are a joke. basically because most OEM HIDs come with projectors then people have thought ALL HIDs must be in projector enclosures. sadly most projectors are designed to take halogen bulbs and not gas discharge so the beam pattern is not correct.
the only correct HID lamp (bulb) that im aware of is a D1 or D2 (slight variations such as r on the end) if your still running H1,H3,H4 or H7 then you have the wrong bulbs

im trying to upgrade mines but im wanting to go down the OEM route but at close to £500 for the set - only running on manual leveling.
ive seen reports of people running the aftermarket hids then going to OEM and being shocked at the difference when used in the proper enclouser
 
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