[GST]

They officially made HID retrofitting illegal.

One of the arguments was that cars that were not factory-equipped
with HID's did not have the automatic adjustment system. This in turn
would cause HID retrofits to blind drivers.

Now Mazda comes out with this new car with MANUAL leveling HID's.

Doesn't this take some validity away from the HID retrofitting law?

If someone's headlight wasn't adjusted right (they adjusted it too high),
wouldn't that cause extreme blinding of drivers?

 

[mnemonicj]

They officially made HID retrofitting illegal.

One of the arguments was that cars that were not factory-equipped
with HID's did not have the automatic adjustment system. This in turn
would cause HID retrofits to blind drivers.

Now Mazda comes out with this new car with MANUAL leveling HID's.

Doesn't this take some validity away from the HID retrofitting law?

If someone's headlight wasn't adjusted right (they adjusted it too high),
wouldn't that cause extreme blinding of drivers?

I would think that manual leveling would be okay as long as the HIDs cannot be aimed any higher than a certain point. I believe that the reason they outlawed HID retrofitting is because people would retrofit HIDs in a mirror array made for a halogen light so it doesn't have a cut off rather than outlawing them because of the adjustment system.

This also depends on where you live (a location in your member profile would help on this) because I believe that automatic leveling is required in Europe, but not in the US. Also Canada's Mazda3 cannot have HIDs since they are required to have Daytime running headlights and the HIDs would not be up to specs.

 

[GST]

I would think that manual leveling would be okay as long as the HIDs cannot be aimed any higher than a certain point. I believe that the reason they outlawed HID retrofitting is because people would retrofit HIDs in a mirror array made for a halogen light so it doesn't have a cut off rather than outlawing them because of the adjustment system.

This also depends on where you live (a location in your member profile would help on this) because I believe that automatic leveling is required in Europe, but not in the US. Also Canada's Mazda3 cannot have HIDs since they are required to have Daytime running headlights and the HIDs would not be up to specs.

They didn't outlaw it ONLY because of the adjustment system, however
that was one of the big reasons they cited for outlawing it. I live in
California, and as of the start of 2004, I believe retrofit HID kits are
outlawed nationally all across the US.

There was a movement to ban HID's altogether because of all the
complaints from drivers. With the availablity of HID's from the factory on
more and more cars, I guess that's never gonna happen. I think it's
awesome that you can now get HID's on a sub $20K car from the factory...
just hope that cops don't pull you over and issue tickets for it, because
they think you retrofitted.

I've been issued a ticket for having "smoked headlight covers" before,
when all I had was stock, black housing headlights. The cop would not
believe that my car came with black housing headlights from the factory.

 

[n1smo]

This also depends on where you live (a location in your member profile would help on this) because I believe that automatic leveling is required in Europe, but not in the US. Also Canada's Mazda3 cannot have HIDs since they are required to have Daytime running headlights and the HIDs would not be up to specs.

Daytime running headlights are usually wired to the highbeam (running at lower voltage), not to the HIDs.

 

[vartex]

are these daytime running lights?

 

[VraiDiouf]

Those are the HID xenons fully warmed up. So the light is bright white.

 

[Slalom]

This also depends on where you live (a location in your member profile would help on this) because I believe that automatic leveling is required in Europe, but not in the US. Also Canada's Mazda3 cannot have HIDs since they are required to have Daytime running headlights and the HIDs would not be up to specs.

Daytime running headlights are usually wired to the highbeam (running at lower voltage), not to the HIDs.

not on the Mazda3 (or P5)... they use the low beam lenses on a lower voltage...

 

[n1smo]

This also depends on where you live (a location in your member profile would help on this) because I believe that automatic leveling is required in Europe, but not in the US. Also Canada's Mazda3 cannot have HIDs since they are required to have Daytime running headlights and the HIDs would not be up to specs.

Daytime running headlights are usually wired to the highbeam (running at lower voltage), not to the HIDs.

not on the Mazda3 (or P5)... they use the low beam lenses on a lower voltage...

Really? So they use the projector lenses as the daytime running lights? That is retarded... And I was thinking of finding a way to activate the daytime running lights on my 3. I think it looks sexy when you have the highbeams running at low voltage with the Xenons on. :wink:

I can see them using the low beam lenses when they don't have a separate assembly for the highbeam......

 

[NGNStrt]

They officially made HID retrofitting illegal.

One of the arguments was that cars that were not factory-equipped
with HID's did not have the automatic adjustment system. This in turn
would cause HID retrofits to blind drivers.

Now Mazda comes out with this new car with MANUAL leveling HID's.

Doesn't this take some validity away from the HID retrofitting law?

If someone's headlight wasn't adjusted right (they adjusted it too high),
wouldn't that cause extreme blinding of drivers?

Do you know of any gov site or article that I can reference HID's being illegal? I have a friend that wants to retrofit HID's to a eclipse and I want to show him this.