RCW for automotive lights?

[08LGT80]

anyone have the washington state code for automotive headlights? any officers on here that can answer my question?

 

basically, i want to install "JDM yellow" 3000k HID kit on my headlights! is this legal?

[mk6933]

It should be, since the JDM yellow should be the fog light color. Look at the IS300s, they come with factory JDM yellow fogs.

[TSiWRX]

By federal code, yellow/amber fogs are fine - but headlamps need to be "white."

[08LGT80]

so i cannot have yellow hid headlamps? do u happen to have the code for that? thx.

[TSiWRX]

^ That was a thought-provoking question, thank you.

 

Here's why the thanks:

 

Headlamp statues are governed by SAE J578 (J578 May88?) and NHTSA/Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108.

 

In so far as I can read/understand, FMVSS 108 simply refers back to SAE J578. I can't, for the life of me, find a full-text version of SAE J578, which is where I suspect the "white" definition for low-beam headlamp resides, as various semi-legal guides online keeps referring to it, when they, themselves, document the need for headlamps of US vehicles to bear "white" light. But in so far as I can tell from the text of FMVSS 108, strangely enough, the HIGH beams of your headlamps can be "white," "yellow-white," "selective yellow," or "yellow." :shock:

 

In a previous conversation with Forum lighting guru outahere, he searched up SAE J583, which governs vehicle fog lamp use/design, states anything from "white" to "amber" (which is a deeper/darker yellow than simple yellow, if that makes any sense ) is allowed for that particular usage.

 

And in going with how many state laws are modeled after federal codes, here's a posts that I'd cited to outahere, one of my previous conversations with a local Subaru enthusiast, which took place on NASIOC (my screen-name there is "LGT+WRX"):

 

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showpost.php?p=24276116&postcount=467

 

I'm not a lawyer, so this is just my very lay understanding:

 

http://codes.ohio.gov/oac/4501:2-1-09

 

^ By that, you'd seem to be OK, but....

 

http://codes.ohio.gov/oac/4501-13-05

 

^ It would seem that you'd be in violation of section A of that particular code, as well as:

 

http://codes.ohio.gov/oac/4501-15-01

 

^ section F of that one.

 

So, FWIW, it seems like for the low-beams, particularly if your locals are harsh on enforcement of the lighting code and/or you have inspections to worry about, then you're smarter sticking with "white" light.

 

But if you're willing to chance it, switching to selective yellow for high-beam use may carry less problems - and as long as you're able to maintain beam throw and shape, as well as insure that the light lost to get it "yellow" is recovered in terms of brightness, having a selective-yellow high-beam may be of considerable benefit, optically speaking.....