LED headlights

George_Michael wrote: »

If you have motor insurance then the insurer is legally required to provide 3rd party cover irrespective of what you do to your vehicle or how you behave on the road.

But they can pursue you for anything that the Law required them to pay out if they wouldn't have had to otherwise because you were acting other than in accordance with the terms of your policy.

Chrishazle wrote: »

Read the T&C's of your car insurance, you'll find something about maintaining the car in roadworthy condition - and if you fit LED lights to a car not designed for them, you are not doing that and your insurance is invalid. Chances are side and tail lights would not cause a problem, but headlights could/would. Fancy a driving ban and a big bill after an accident??

Read the Road Traffic Act 1988 S.148 (Avoidance of certain exceptions to policies or securities).

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/section/148

It specifically states that any terms in the policy seeking to restrict or avoid liability for any of the reasons stated are of no effect. The reasons stated include (b) the condition of the vehicle.

Legislation always trumps contract terms, so anything in the T&Cs saying your insurance will be void because of the condition / maintenance of the vehicle will not invalidate your insurance because the Road Traffic Act (which is what creates the requirement to be insured in the first place) says it won't. It's one of the biggest myths out there, repeated far too often even by people who really should know better.

Note that only applies to the legally required part of the insurance - extras like own damage or fire / theft cover can be invalidated by the T&Cs.

The insurer can also sue you to recover anything they pay out as a result of the above, but that doesn't alter the fact that your insurance is valid for legal purposes, so no points, no ban and no fine.

Richard53 wrote: »

I am a member of several motorcycle forums. Some bikers (often American, and what I call 'road warriors') ride with main beam on intentionally, day and night. They justify this by saying "if I dazzle them, at least they have seen me".

A similar reason, seemingly popular in the US Harley community, is used to justify ear splittingly loud exhausts. “At least they are aware of my presence”.

Chrishazle wrote: »

Friend of mine is a highways lighting engineer, recently emailed this to me :

"[FONT=&quot]Was looking at replacing some of my bulbs with LED on the car when I came across this, don't know if you were aware that it's illegal to fit led's to a vehicle that did not have them as original equipment, you can be prosecuted and it also makes your insurance invalid. I checked this with a traffic officer yesterday who confirmed that it is right![/FONT]

This is cobblers - Both the claims about OEM bulbs and about insurance..!

The official position on insurance had been done so often now that there is really no excuse for anyone to be trotting-out this lie.

As for bulbs - Its only illegal to replace certain lamps - ie those directly concerned with safety/visibility/signalling - any other/additional lamps are ancillary and can be replaced at will. Even your main beam is not subject to strict regulation, only your dipped and anything "below the bumper" is similarly unregulated - eg spots etc are fine so long as you respect the colour rules - and yes, many LEDs are probably too blue to be strictly legal.

And no forward-facing Christmas trees!

spadoosh wrote: »

Id like to think theres a benefit unless of course the benefit is dazzling other drivers.

Its a clearer/cleaner spectrum light, closer to the approx 5000 kelvins of natural light (Halogens are around 3000K) so better definition, colour and clarity and less stress on the eyes in most conditions/normal colour vision - Although halogens may still have the edge in thick fog?

The dazzling element mostly comes from poor alignment though - not the lamp itself and can happen with any kind of poorly fitted lamp - even OEMs. IF you change lamps you should always re-check its alignment as well.

Many LEDs actually output at over 5000K though, esp cheap ones, which is too far into the blue spectrum to be any way legal - and false claims about colour temperature are common. The 4000K of Nightbreakers/filtered lamps are a good compromise on colour temperature and fully road legal.