Headlights - UK Law - EU Type Approval
 

Working for a Main Dealer Service department has its benefits of interesting daily banter.

My car was in for its 6 month oil change and the technician kindly pointed out to me my dipped beams would fail an MOT because they are yellow and not white. I told him that the bulbs I purchased from Halfrauds were E-Marked so they were fine. H4 55w All Weather upgrades, emitting a mostly yellow light, with hints of purple and green. They are excellent for driving in rain, fog and snow. Throw is a bit poor but I love them.

After doing some hunting about I discovered something interesting. UK law only permits 'white' dipped beams. However since the bulbs are EU Type Approved it makes them legal for driving anywhere in Europe including the UK. Thanks to the wonders the EU brings, EU law superceeds UK law. Perfect. However since the MOT is governed by UK law and has its own rules it will still fail an MOT.

So legal to purchase, legal to use, but an MOT failure. Mindf***

Interesting.... On many levels +++

Selective yellow bulbs are not even allowed in France since the 1990s, but these bulbs with an interference/dichroic coating are not yellow enough to be deemed yellow (not white), they are broad spectrum and simply send different wavelengths of light on different planes..

Not according to my MOT tester friend. :tuttut:

His view was that there was no real definition of the colour of headlights that a tester could refer to, so as long as they were the same colour as each other it would pass. Unless very obviously not white; red for example.