MOT fail for 'wrong colour' indicators, but never been previously changed?

Wig

Inactive wrote: »

Do you have an American Air Force base near to you? They sometimes use American vehicles that seem to be exempt from our laws, not sure how.

They may be diplomatic, or have special rules as they work for a foriegn government or on a temporary 'visa' (a car visa IYSWIM) called a "carnet de passage"

They also wouldn't need to take an MOT test anyway.

darich

Inactive wrote: »

Do you have an American Air Force base near to you? They sometimes use American vehicles that seem to be exempt from our laws, not sure how.

Live near Glasgow....no american air bases near me that I know of.

Inactive

I recall seeing lots of these US vehicles on or near the A1 close to the USAF base at Alconbury.

All had red rear indicators.

Inactive

darich wrote: »

Live near Glasgow....no american air bases near me that I know of.

They are probably Chavs then, they do all kinds of things to their cars.:D

jase1

The only time I ever had a car fail for bulbs insufficiently orange was at a main dealer... but to his credit he replaced the bulbs for free "under warranty". Errr, bulbs I wouldn't have thought would be covered, but there you go.

I've had bulbs more white than those ones pass at my local garage -- he doesn't seem to much care as long as they have at least an orange tint. But seeing as you can buy replacements for as little as 30p, and replacing them is a very easy task, I replaced them anyway.

Strider590

Mine failed on wrong colour sidelights, i'd fitted pure white LEDs because one of my sidelights kept popping.... But next to halogen headlamps, pure white looks slightly blue (it's the way our eye's perceive light and blue is opposite to yellow on the color wheel).
Oddly enough the same lights have got me through the MOT for 2 years previous.

If anything id expect them to fail for not being bright enough (about half as bright as normal bulbs), but nope.....

Inactive

We all need the old type Lucozade bottle wrappers.;)

atrixblue.-MFR-.

http://www.hids4u.co.uk/382-led-18-led-360-degree-upgrade-indicator-bulb-amber-pair.html

cure your probs guys unless you have a silly offset bayonet, these offset ones can be purchased from dealers in led replacments.

rev_henry

darich wrote: »

It appears that red indicators aren't allowed then....but I've definitely seen them in my area.
Always catches the eye because when the car brakes while indicating, the brake light blinks on and off.....and always looks odd.

EDIT : Just did a quick search and it looks like many drivers of american cars do indeed have red indicators even if it's not strictly legal. Some of them for many years that claim. So I presume they're friendly with the MOT station and show the correct coloured bulb to the tester so he can at least see the car can be legal.
I did similar with my illegally spaced plate - legal plate in the car but illegal one on it. Spoke to tester who simply said as long as he sees the legal plates he'd pass it.

Every American car I've seen has had a conversion to yellow indicators in some way. Usually seems to involve a set of trailer lights stuck under the bumper (like this: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1996-CHEVROLET-SUBURBAN-4X4-Diesel-9-Seater-Estate-RHD-/180633340407?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item2a0e9609f7 ), or the reverse lights converted to indicators (which is what they usually do on Lincoln Towncar limos) and reverse and fog lights stuck under the bumper (like this: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1999-GMC-CHEVROLET-SUBURBAN-5-7-4X4-4WD-LHD-8-SEATS-LPG-/220751950378?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item3365d7722a ).

Never seen one without some form of conversion though...I digress...

skiddlydiddly

Wig wrote: »

I see loads of cars on the roads everyday with white indicators, because loads of MOT testers don't fail them when they should. It's something I always check on my cars before MOT. They need to be orange.

I've looked for orange paint like the French used to have for headlamps only that was yellow, to no avail.

I found some red paint before(local motormania i think) but it was a ballache to use and involved cutting out a potato for them to stand in and baking in the oven several times.It took hours and then I found out I could have just bought a red bulb for an old Audi.