AU Bake and Painted Headlights-Tinted Tailights

[Uncle_Ken]

Its Monday night and pouring rain in Sydney. I was felt better when the cars I was following had clear rear lights (one I was near had one light out).

UK

[my671fordv8]

1. The first pic is of both the 4 bolt and H4 mounting method installed . The 4 bolt is the pic that the reflector looks dark because the carbon shroud sits further back
2. 4 point mount pic
3.My first ebay hid lights with painted reflectors ( looks like a ricer upgrade)
4.H4 mount easiest mounting method but shroud sits right on the lens
5. chrome hid shrouds
6.carbon fibre printed shrouds
most projector upgrades have the reflector painted to stop stray light since they arent used
You can get a miniD2s kit that is a little smaller

[JC]

Originally Posted by AUIIPURSUIT

any modification of the standard headlight, even painting the bezel, will change the output of the light, and therefor render its current ADR approval useless, and thus defectable.
How long you get away with this, is up to driving style, locations, and luck.

Incorrect. All AUs have some sort of coating on the bezel (the bezel is the non-reflective part of the headlight). Some came chrome, some came silver, some came black, and some came body coloured. So....as the rest of the headlight is exactly the same, painting an AU headlight bezel ANY colour is fully ADR compliant because the factory lights came like that and the HAVE to be ADR compliant.

Painting the reflector is a different story, and just because they do it on youtube, doesn't mean it's legal, and how are you to know that wasn't the last thing they ever did before driving into something because they couldn't see (there may however be a difference in light out put for projectors and black reflectors versus halogens and black reflectors - the halogens definitely need the chrome reflectors to work).

[robbyj]

i say just paint the bezels black (many have done this)
and get some aftermarket altezza's

With tinted lights, if a car runs up your ***, tinted tail lights will void your insurance.

As for the legal issue with tinted tail lights, worst comes to worse they'll make you change them over, and your up for some new tail lights.

Funny how a lot of people recommend not doing this for legal reasons, but are happy to chuck 100 cpsi cats on their cars.

They style of altezza i have would suit a black au nicely i reckon, imo, they dont look tacky and adds a great deal to the look of my car

[Beer Baron]

Some "altezza" style lights are illegal too, The fuzz generally look for sets with no red reflectors built in.

Also having a 100cpsi catalytic converter is different to having something that can potentially injure or kill someone.

[robbyj]

Will emissions eventually kill everyone? =p

Na i hear you mate, you'd be pretty silly to purchase tail lights without all the reflectors built in. I'm against tinting the lights too.

[JC]

Originally Posted by Beer Baron

Some "altezza" style lights are illegal too, The fuzz generally look for sets with no red reflectors built in.

Also having a 100cpsi catalytic converter is different to having something that can potentially injure or kill someone.

100cpsi cats are only illegal for post 2001 models, IIRC.

[robbyj]

Each car produced from a factory has to follow a standard of emissions which is approved at that time.

These standards have been around since the 1970's and are forever changing (becoming more strict)

So a stock standard AU, may fail an emissions test by today's standard, but not the standard at the time of production.

I'm unsure whether a modified exhaust has to follow todays standards, or the standards for the year of production. But generally speaking, a 100cpsi cat will fail a cars emissions test, be it an old standard, or new standard.

Emissions table:
http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roa.../emission.aspx

[Beer Baron]

My Corolla is pre ADR's. PCV ? pfft there just a pipe hanging out of the tappet cover dumping at the back of the head and there is only a fuel feed line, No carbon canister or rear seat belts.

It would be interesting to see an emissions report from an AU fitted with a standard ford cat and a 100cpsi high flow cat.

[JC]

Originally Posted by bobuleh

Each car produced from a factory has to follow a standard of emissions which is approved at that time.

These standards have been around since the 1970's and are forever changing (becoming more strict)

So a stock standard AU, may fail an emissions test by today's standard, but not the standard at the time of production.

I'm unsure whether a modified exhaust has to follow todays standards, or the standards for the year of production. But generally speaking, a 100cpsi cat will fail a cars emissions test, be it an old standard, or new standard.

Emissions table:
http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roa.../emission.aspx

And a 10 year old cat performs nowhere near as well as a brand new cat, but does every motorist change their cat/s after a certain time? No - most only get a new one when the old has melted or collapsed, which can be anything up to 15/20 years or so old.

Now....what does any of this have to do with headlights again?

[Antwon]

Well i would just like to speak up, because ive had 3 different cars with tinted tail lights, my EB was very dark in fact, but you were still able to see the light very easily. In some cases its actually easier to see the brake lights when their tinted, because theres contrast (not sure if thats the right word) when the lense is a darker colour, and lighting up red.

You have to use Night Shades though, as its a translucent paint, meaning it still allows light to shine through, although obviously if you tint them so dakr their virtually black, probably no light will shine through. Yes it is illegal, and it says so on the can, but in 2 years and 3 different cars, ive never had any troubles with them. (touch wood :P)

[Antwon]

Just some pics of my cars with tinted tail lights, and with the lights on. (Dont have any pics of the fairlane with lights on though.) Also keep in mind this is just the head lights on, so brake lights are even brighter.

[Antwon]

The one thing you will have to be careful of is the reflector. Notice on my EB their very dark, but its slightly lighter over the reflectors. once your finished shine a torch at them and just make sure they still reflect alright and you should be right.

As long as you can still see the lights alright, and the reflector still reflects, most people wont look twice.