Tinting the lights - UK Law?

I

Ignitor

Member
 Cheshire
I'm sorely tempted to order the Z4 tinting kit from bimmian.com.
Can anyone tell me if these are OK with UK law? I'm thinking of the light smoke tints for the front and rear, so not too dark but a definite improvement on the originals. I'd hate to get pulled over by the police because of this simple mod or to invalidate my insurance due to them possibly being illegal so i'd appreciate some info if anyone knows any? Cheers.
 
From personal experience I can confirm that it is not legal to tint the lights of a car as it is a safety violation (so they say).

Regarding to your mod: why do you want to tint the head lamps? The range of the Z4 headlamp is already low as it is, tinting it means you will hardly be able to see much in the dark! Rear lights, I have previously tinted it (smoked) and have pulled over by the cops a few times telling me to take it off.... not happy!
 
funkdude said:
Regarding to your mod: why do you want to tint the head lamps?
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It's a purely aesthetic thing. I just like the look of the headlights being darker, when not in use. I just want darker lenses, not to actual dull the light. I've seen a few Z4's on this site with that mod and think they look awesome, especially on a black car like mine.
Thanks for the warning with the cops, thats what i'm trying to avoid :thumbsup:
 
Ignitor said:
funkdude said:
Regarding to your mod: why do you want to tint the head lamps?
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I just want darker lenses, not to actual dull the light.
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Unfortunately you can't have one without the other.



Funny how many chavved up hatchbacks you see with tinted / colour coded lights going unnoticed by the police if its so illegal though??

I can't speak for std Z4 beams but my xenons are awesome in terms of light emitting efficiency. You can't know a poor beam until you've driven an S1 Elise!!
 
I was thinking of tinting my headlights as well after tinting my tails. However, I was concerned with the loss of light. I assume if you have xenons ( I just did a swap from halogen to xenon) it will be less but I was considering changing my fog lights to xenon to offset the loss of light from the tints. If you do get the tints I am curious what the loss of light would be. Being in the US I can not say what the law is for you but if it is similar to ours you will get pinched if the light appear dull. I guess a lot has to do with the % of tint you use as well.
 
I almost hit a car the other day because he tinted his rear brake lights fairly dark. Middle of the day sun was out...not in my eyes at all. I noticed his bumper getting closer well before I could tell his brake lights were lit up. I'll admit, the tint on the lights (whether it be headlights or brake lights) look nice, but are stupid for driving.
 
Not my idea of a sensible mod to tint any area where light output for safety is required. Keep off the dipped and main headlight area and brake lights.

Tinting the amber front indicators I can see just to tone down the colour.
 
cj10jeeper said:
Tinting the amber front indicators I can see just to tone down the colour.
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This is the main idea, but i was interested in darkening the entire light cluster for a very dark overall look to the car (Black Sapphire car with black roundels). Now that i've been told about the possible legal issues i'll just try and tint the orange indicator parts and leave the headlights well alone 8)

Thanks for the info and advice guys! :thumbsup:
 
Ignitor - I can see what you want to achieve on a black car.
You could go for the black inserts (if you don't already have them) by swapping your lights with someone. I think there are plenty of folks who have the black from the <3.0 models that would swap up to the silver inners?
 
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