rayman009

Is it legal to have cleared head lights? Someone told me that he got pulled over for having cleared headlights, so i was wondering what's the big deal with having cleared headlights, and what's the fine? Does this also apply to having a clear bulb in the taillight instead of a yellow one?

pianoman41

I posted this in a similar thread a few weeks ago:

As some have pointed out here, clearing the headlights or sidemarkers themselves is not illegal. However, per DOT requirements (and that's federal so it applies to all 50 states) a car must display (read: reflect) orange from the front and red from the rear at night without power. This is so if your car is broken down on a dark street and you battery is dead, if someone approaches your car from the front, side or rear it would still be visible and hopefully avoid a collision. Also, the orange reflection has to be visible from a certain angle on the side at the front and red visible from the a certain angle on the side at the rear (like side markers). That's why you have the orange reflector bit in the '02 marker lights. The orange bulb satisfies the DOT requirement for orange on front/side under power and the reflector satisfies the requirement when the car is off. This is also why clear tails can be illegal. Having just red bulbs under clear tails is illegal. You need to have a DOT-certified reflective lens back there as well. Look at the IS300 tails--it's a clear outer lens but the actual bulb is covered by a smaller red lens (to satisfy the DOT requirement).

Some places/jurisdictions either don't know or don't care about the DOT requirement, but it *is* illegal and you can be cited for it. Now if you go out and get yourself some of the 3M Scotchlite reflective orange tape (that's certified by the DOT) and put a spot the same size as the reflector on your bumper just below the light then this would also satisfy the requirement. However, I think this would look far worse than the reflector in the housing.

SLVR TL

I agree. That'd be the ugliest thing evah.

wtTL14

$10 dollar fine. Fix it ticket.

songoku

It's not the clear lights. Maybe he pulled-over because he had different colored bulb on the corner. It's illegal to have different colored bulb other than clear/orange on the front.
Just my thought!