KillerG

Broskis;

Broskis.

As you all know, I have had a raging erection to make clear headlights.

But I just wanted to ask, for those of you who already cleared and sealed em up already sans reflectors, is there any downside to doing so / does it look weird at all at any times? Like in day light or at night?

I plan to get switchybacks.

Also, I would LOVE to hear the legal ramifications of this type of mod if anyone could chime in on that !

Yasser22

I have not cleared the tsx or baked any headlights so good luck with that, and take lots of pictures.

On the legal side of things you could get equipment violations (fix it tickets), and depending on your state/local laws the fines and penalties can get more expensive if you get multiple violations for the same item. If you had a legal set of lights you could maybe swap them in, and get it signed off by a peace officer. However a record wil exist of the violation and if you get busted again...

You could possibly be sued and loose for an accident that normally would not be your fault. "It's Killers fault I hit his parked car at night because there were no orange reflectors on it. He should pay for the damage to my car"

You might be denied coverage by your insurance company for operating an illegal vehicle on the highway. (unlikely though that they will even notice)

That being said I hope you do it and take lots of pictures. I cleared the side lights on my VW and it made a great improvement to the look of the car.

I'm sure Ceb will be along soon to site the FMVC...

mrstak

iTrader: (1)

broski, if you decide to do it, lemme know. had the same erection for clearing when i had my 09. good thing i didn't do it yet cuz it got wrecked....but after ceb spewed all his legal ramifications and shit my boner has shrunk. still on the fence for this.

lemme know when you're back and if you're gonna clear it out.

MC MiYoung3269

someone should get us folks in the states a hookup on the clear reflectors :\

BobbyC

i want to clear mine as well but im terrified that ill screw it up.
get condensation or worse, melt the headlight...

unless i can pay someone who will offer replacement if they mess up, im not doin it. lol
plus, id have to buy another set of laminX if i bake em

KillerG

If anything, ceb just grows my boners more whenever he posts. Weird that you had the opposite effect dudemeister

Ima def do it. Also be getting the v-leds TRITON V38==D~~~O: SWITCHBACKS

Im basically just trying to do all my aesthetic mods this winter break but it depends cause the reflectors might not get to my house till well after that depending on a few factors.

I have such limited time with my car this year part of me tempted to just fuck it and just clear em out (visit AckTl05) and disregard the reflectors and just enjoy my car more.

But part of me says like, "bro, chill"

mrstak

iTrader: (1)

even if we got side reflectors, it's not amber, so in case of an accident it's still a viable cause for denial of claim i'll bet.

BobbyC

i thought about paiting the amber reflector and leaving a small strip of amber or clear.

kinda like what folks were doin with the AP1 headlights




i think it would look pretty good and cut down on the amount of amber.

KillerG

I dont give a shit about the law

I just want the clear reflectors for aesthetics

If you do that though bobby thats alotta work just to slightly darken it. Might as well tint it from the outside. And you dont get to put 5ks up in that bitch!

ceb

OK, so you guys want the background on the sidemarker lights regs.

This reg came about in the same way that the TREAD Act brought us TPMS systems.
In the mid 60's there was a spate of T-bone accidents (I'm thinking in the midwest) where the hitters all said that they thought that the hitee had cleared the intersection when in fact they had just entered it. Somebody at point decided that if we mandate an amber reflector and light up front and a red light and reflector at the rear, then cars approaching the side can determine both the position and the direction of travel of the vehicle being approached (I guess the moving headlight weren't good enough)

That was the reason for the regs, so on to the possible ramifications.

Here is an odd thing about Federal vehicle safety regs. While no state can change them, they can choose not to enforce them.

Some states (PA comes to mind) actively check for sidemarkers during periodic inspections. Many other states don't care - however - they are still a Federal reg and a "defective equipment" charge in all 50 states, DC and territories.

You might get a warning, a "fix-it" ticket, a "real" ticket and - because it is defective and/or unsafe equipment - you could get your car impounded. An impound comes with a search and a stiff towing/impound fee in addition to the ticket.

Speeding and defective equipment are the most common reasons for a traffic stop. If a cop is looking for a reason to stop you, then any violation (going over a lane marking or missing side markers) is a perfectly legal reason. They want to search your car? Impound it for unsafe equipment.

That said, impounding a car for missing side markers is very rare. The most likely scenario is that it gives them a reason to stop you and you'll drive away with a fix-it ticket (if your state has them) or a regular ticket.

A word about fix-it tickets - they are getting rare and in most jurisdictions are issued for violations that you couldn't really know about - a burned out tail-light or the like but were never intended for willful violations of the law - no front plate or modifications.

Only you can determine what the cops in the areas where you generally drive care about. If they go after tinted windows (they do in some parts of DC), sidemarkers (like PA) or exhausts (CA) then those are the mods you might want to avoid.

I'm sure we'll get a bunch of guys here from PA saying that their inspection station doesn't care and that they've been driving without sidemarkers for 55 years but I wouldn't hang my hat on someone else's experiences unless I live in, and drive on, the same exact streets.

Funny thing about sidemarkers - they are illegal in Germany. When I sold my 'vette there, I had to remove the bulbs and paint over the reflectors before the car would pass inspection. The sidemarkers were fine while I drove the car over there for 6 years on GI plates.

Sometimes the laws can be a bit peculiar.

Then there is that point that your insurance can deny you coverage if they think they can show that the equipment violation (no sidemarkers, tint, whatever) could have contributed to the accident. Insurance companies can be ruthless.

BobbyC

na. they paint the diffuser to match the rest of the inside of the light and leave a strip

http://honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=2641594


i think it would look good to paint the entire housing a flat black and have a horizontal strip on the amber.

opboarding

Bobby, that is an awesome idea.

On ours, you should be able to take out larger the Z shaped amber plastic from the headlight, since it doesn't actually reflect anything. Looks like its there just to make the bulb orange. The smaller rectangular reflector you could do this to and might look good. I can't remember exactly but the Z shaped piece might be holding in the reflector, so there might be a problem.

BobbyC

ive wanted to do it since i got the car but too scared to bake em. lol

plasti-dip would prob do the trick if you dont want it to be permanent.

ssjoeboe9

The Z does hold that other piece in. I remember.

To Killer.

The only drawback is all the women I get now that I cleared my headlights.

robpp

iTrader: (2)

i left a small bit orange when i did my jeep lights......

that whole piece was a reflector but the light only comes through that trapezoid shape. so i painted it left just that bit orange.



here are my LEDs all on



and quad bixenon = 4 Hella E-55

Yasser22

Now that's a serious farkle robpp. I think if you just took the colored lenses out but left the reflector in the light would look quite good. Especially if you put something in to cover the bulb like in the JDM lights.

opboarding

You can do it, I believe in you. Just set aside a weekend day and take your time. My car was only a few months old and it was one of my first mods ever on any car. Read kowloon's DIY and it's not too bad.

ed_423

killer, i'll make you a video on how the turn signals look in a bit so you can decide if it looks weird or not. it def. doesn't have that reflector look, but idgaf haha.

here's a crappy pic to show you, it almost look like there's a slight gap or cut off line between the turn signal and headlights

tobwac

lets do clear headlight meet lol
i found clear reflectors while ago but they wanted 250 for them

KillerG

@ed: I see what you mean... It does look weaksauce there. Maybe Ill just try to replicate the inner piece. Hopefully the v-leds I get are so bright that they burn retinas and negate the need for reflectors.

http://www.v-leds.com/V3-TRITON-6K-W...p9815099.html#

@tob: ...group buy :p?

You gonna try to get em done by acktl05?

tobwac

yeah i think it would be best option to get it done by him sync he does it everyday lol

opboarding

You wipe your ass with $250. Don't be a cheapass, you really want these.

KillerG

thats for the 1% man, i stick to 100s on my college budget

#realtalk #obama2012

Grigio09

iTrader: (1)

I want cleared headlights also dammit.. How about you guys meet me in Chicago

kowloonsniperhk

KillerG, so I've cleared my headlights for a good 1 year or so. I think 2 years. Had no issues with condensation. I did buy new putty stuff for the headlight. It was a Nissan OEM part that I bought online.

My VLED switchbacks still works. However, a majority of the LEDs have burnt out probably because of my occasional hyperflashing. It looks sort of weird during the daytime if you're up close. It looks fine from a far.

I plan to get the VLED tritons too and this time get some resistors. or something. I've been out of the game for a while.

BaoZZeR

^The god who gave us clear headlights has returned!

KillerG

Good to see you OG. The game never changes, only the players.

Thanks for the honest feedback, kow, everyone;

I just pulled the trigger on the tritons. There is no going back now.

mrstak

iTrader: (1)

lol at the video that vled has for those tritons...they have epic movie music and show someone connecting the wires and putting the bulb in. only to have 1 second where you actually see the light. sigh

KG you're making me want to pull the trigger on these bulbs too...

kowloon, i thought yours didn't hyperflash? thought your ecu adjusted to it by itself? or does it randomly hyperflash?

opboarding

Those triton bulbs look pretty sweet.

kowloonsniperhk

haha thanks. i've been MIA because of school.

kowloonsniperhk

definitely post some videos and let us know how they are! I'm waiting to get these.


yeah it didn't hyperflash for a long time but recently in the past 6 months or so, it would hyperflash more often. Plus a good amount of the white LEDs burnt out already. still looks amazing at night though

ssjoeboe9

I want the tritons but I'll probably never get them because my switch backs still work.

Probably on my next vehicle... Sigh

opboarding

You mean...you aren't going to be keeping the tsx until you die, like I'm going to?

BaoZZeR

I wouldn't want to keep this car for life. by the time i get a stable job and stack the stacks i'm getting something more modern lol

KillerG

Ill have my car for a LONG time. Will keep her till it dies. Only 24k also!

Grigio09

iTrader: (1)

Do they have a drl for triton..

KillerG

They can be used as DRL

You can also use these: http://www.v-leds.com/5K-WHITE-6-LED...16978-1-2.html

I also ordered my own LED DRL setup... more info on that when i update my progress thread in January (hopefully)

ssjoeboe9

Oh, I plan to have multiple cars...

I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep this car till it dies. Plus not having to put a down payment on a car is REALLY gunna save me a lot of money right after school. (which is annoying that all my business major friends are graduating this year and I still have a year left) 5th years senior FTW?!

robpp

iTrader: (2)

if you want LED DRL you need 12v going thru them.
otherwise they just arent bright enough in sun light.

now maybe the triton or I see on autolumination some 17 and 22w LEDS but rememeber DRL lowers the voltage to like 3 volts.....

thats only if you care about the warning lights/ if not just get a relay for 9005 and a switch and run them that way.

KillerG

i bought the tritons for switchback turn signals

for my led drl i bought these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-9005-CREE-...535994&vxp=mtr

They come with resistors. And then I also bought the v-leds DRL module to increase voltage to 12w. I tried to gather what I could actually from your thread since im not too well versed in electronics and i saw you got em to work well

You think this setup will work out?