Plod and mods

[meadow_knight]

Some of the guys (and gals) on here must be adding mods which are a touch dubious, legally.

HIDs, funny number plate fonts/spacings etc spring to mind.

Do you have to keep a set of legal spares? (tungsten bulbs, proper number plates) for MOT time or if the local plod are not getting enough speeders and decide to have a zero-tolerance purge

MK

[Rickzayne]

Some of the guys (and gals) on here must be adding mods which are a touch dubious, legally.

HIDs, funny number plate fonts/spacings etc spring to mind.

Do you have to keep a set of legal spares? (tungsten bulbs, proper number plates) for MOT time or if the local plod are not getting enough speeders and decide to have a zero-tolerance purge

MK

most just keep them spare.

but for reg plates, tints you get 2-3 warnings before they do anything.

[Bigfeet]

The problem is the law is the law I'm afraid, but in my experience it does depend on the police officer dealing with you at the time. Some will give a friendly telling off and others will follow the rules to the letter. Best thing to do is not to argue and be polite.

I think Den would be the better person to answer this question but I would say that anyone who mods their car and breaks the law have no come back or place to moan about it.

[dave_beast]

Tungsten bulbs? Heck, I keep spare candles I think you mean halogen lol?

Imo, if you don't go above 6000k you should be alright with HID's, even with reflector lenses rather than projector, it's when you start getting into the bright blues and purples of the high kelvins that you'll start attracting the Police.

[Rickzayne]

I bought a black vectra n had tints on the front side windows up to 70% i think.

They did a police check on a road i went down... pulled me over gave me a fine and said i had 2 weeks to get the removed or my car will be towed... and made me drive away with my windows down in the middle of winter 8-)

took them off tho n sold the car cause it didnt look the same xD

[John S]

From what I know of the law, if your plates are illegal ie not correct font/spacing etc then your quite likely to get a pull, same goes for illegal window tints.
The cops are entitled to impound the car if its not street legal.
There is also the question of declaring mods to the insurance company, if you don't and there's an accident you could well find that your insurance cover is null & void, could prove exceedingly expensive.
There is a lot of debate about the legality of fitting HID's...Having read the rules on them I would have to say that fitting them to a DS3 is actually illegal as the car does not meet the specs for HID's.
In practice Dave's advice about the light colour is about right, go silly with the colour and plod will more likely take notice of you.

[dave_beast]

There is a lot of debate about the legality of fitting HID's...Having read the rules on them I would have to say that fitting them to a DS3 is actually illegal as the car does not meet the specs for HID's.

The only legal way to fit HID's would be to retrofit specific HID projectors (such as Honda S2000) into the DS3 headlight, fit a washer system and auto levelling system.

The grey area exists as there is no legislation on HID's replacing halogen type bulbs in aftermarket applications, the legislation only covers new cars from manufacturers.
However, if you're glaring other road users with un shielded HID's in reflectors, it won't be long before you get a pull, and in reality, the lights are working less efficiently than the halogens that were taken out.

Also, a common misconception is as the K number gets higher, the light output increases exponentially, the reality is that the light ouput diminishes, and anything higher than 8000kelvin is putting out less lumens than a standard 55w halogen bulb!

Take a looksy here http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/forum.php