Is this legal? Lighting question

[Volf]

Short of spending the money and seeing how long it takes to get pulled over, I think I should be smart and ask first.

Would it be legal to put regular running lights (emit white light) into your clear corners and just run w/ fogs and parking lights? This would be sweet b/c the parking lights would work as headlights in city driving (street lamps everywhere) and then I could really show off the angel eyes (which are white so they are legal)

I've been pulled over for driving w/ my fogs and headlights on before though. "Failure to dim" any thoughts? This would look pretty sweet if we could get away with it.

[DeanP]

Usually if you have to ask, it is not legal. I am certainally not intimate will all of Nebraska and your local laws, but I would say it will be not OK. First I would bet that your headlights are not DOT appproved. Secondly, most jurisdications require amber in parking or corner lights. If you make yours all clear they will not be DOT compliant. There is probably some state law that requires the use of headlights sundown to sunup, and fogs and corners with angel eyes are not headlights as installed by the manufacturer. Now, none of this means it wouldn't look good or that you might get away with it, but I'll bet it isn't "legal".

[adsingl]

Not to be picky, but drivers of high performance cars should give at least some thought to being high performance drivers. To that end, if you want to do some cool lighting stuff fine, BUT an equal objective should be to see (and there's what and how to doing this) well too.
Your corners are NOT focused or designed to give any distance lighting, and there's research that says too much close-in light (like ultra blue and/or ultra bright fogs, as one example) actually diminishes your ability to see further out, like on-coming traffic. Same for adding any level of brightness to signal area. If you put out a lot of "near distance light", it affects how your eyes accept/use oncoming and your own headlamp light.
Adding lighting to look cool is ok, I have "eyes".
Doing things that detract from your ability to see and drive in the dark = not cool at all.

[Volf]

I have the glass lenses and they are stamped on there someplace to be DOT approved. And while I completely see your point as to how doing such a mod wouldn't do anything for visiblity, or perhaps hinder it minutley (sp?) I'm talking scrictly city driving. I would never dream of driving on a hwy, interstate, back road, with just said lights on. I have projectors and VERY bright bulbs for performance driving at night.

I'm talking driving in ONLY city situations when you have your main lamps on but can't hardly tell because of all of the street lights (the streets where I live are VERY well lit).

But I would agree that this is probably asking to get pulled over.

[deilenberger]

I have the glass lenses and they are stamped on there someplace to be DOT approved. And while I completely see your point as to how doing such a mod wouldn't do anything for visiblity, or perhaps hinder it minutley (sp?) I'm talking scrictly city driving. I would never dream of driving on a hwy, interstate, back road, with just said lights on. I have projectors and VERY bright bulbs for performance driving at night.

I'm talking driving in ONLY city situations when you have your main lamps on but can't hardly tell because of all of the street lights (the streets where I live are VERY well lit).

But I would agree that this is probably asking to get pulled over.

Interesting..

First - a clarification.

DOT does NOT "approve" anything.

Nothing at all. They don't test, they don't approve. What they do is write specifications that a manufacturer must certify they meet in order to put the letters "DOT" on something. Even some fairly reputable places advertise "DOT Approved" - it's just not happening, and it's not true. An item may be marked DOT only if it meets the applicable DOT standard for performance for that type of item on a car.

Your lights with projectors in all likelyhood do not meet the DOT standards for headlights. If they have glass lenses and projectors I can about guarantee they don't - and if they say "DOT" on them, it's actually illegally marked since the manufacturer couldn't really certify that they meet the DOT headlight requirements. It may say ECE on it - which is the Euro standard, but I doubt if it says DOT.

As far as probably getting pulled over?

I'd guess yes - 'cause a cop is gonna think it's another drunk who left the bar and never turned their headlights on. You're setting yourself up to be pulled over.

[pugliellidude]

You would most certainly be allowing yourself to be pulled over. I always drive with my headlights on at night, but one time I just left my parking lights and fogs on in a parking lot while moving to a parking space, and I was reprimanded by a police officer.

Also, your angel eyes are allowed because they do not project light forward, therefore they are not considered extra headlights (since you are only legally allowed 2 sets of projecting lights on at a time, hence the reason your fogs turn off when you hit the hi-beams). Now, whether or not this dictates that driving around with one set of projecting lights would be illegal (such as just fogs) sort of remains ambiguous, as does a lot of these questions at times. I think you would be asking for trouble though, and I would only do it up until early evening times before it becomes dark.

As far as cornermarkers, in my state, the fronts can be any color but red, and the rears can blink any color but white (of course excluding all ridiculous colors like blue or green, etc.) They are also not made to act as headlights so I would not even rely on it! Hope that helps!

-Eric