omega0684
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| posted on 10/4/10 at 09:25 AM |
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Headlight height
Morning all,
today im looking at swopping my old 7" chrome headlights for a set of twin dominators. Now for SVA and IVA they Headlights have to be a minimum
of Xmm from the ground.
now that i have passed SVA do i still have to position the lights a minimum distance from the ground? im thinking with regards to future MOT
inspections etc?
what is the minimum height?
Al
I love Pinto's, even if i did get mine from P&O!
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richardlee237
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| posted on 10/4/10 at 09:59 AM |
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The positioning of lights is prescribed by law not the IVA book. The IVA is an inspection to certify that the vehicle complies with the law. So the
simple answer is that if it is not compliant it is illegal. That said I can only think an MOT inspector would check the positioning if they were
really different from the norm
From a road safety point of view the position of lights on a car gives a very accurate picture of the shape and size of the vehicle at night and
people rely on this picture for judging relative speed and distance. Changing the height and spacing of lights can be very confusing.
Here in Yemen half the vehicles have defective lights and driving at night outside the towns is more dangerous than any terrorist threat.
Quote Lord Kelvin
“Large increases in cost with questionable increases in performance can be tolerated only in race horses and women.”
Quote Richard Lee
"and cars"
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deezee
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| posted on 10/4/10 at 10:56 AM |
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Wow dramatic much! The law (Road traffic act) makes no specific requirements for the positioning of headlights. Don't confuse regulation with
actual law. Even the Road Vehicles (Construction and use) regulations don't make specific requirements for headlight positioning.
The requirement for driving a car with headlights is simply that they work correctly and are adjusted correctly. If they are in the same area as your
existing lights, no one will be able to do anything. It simply is not in the public interest to take any legal action against you.
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richardlee237
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| posted on 10/4/10 at 12:22 PM |
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Having re-read my post it does seem a bit heavy , so my apologies for that.
However !! At the risk of being even heavier ......
The positioning of headlights is prescribed in Statutory Instrument 1989 no 1796
Road Vehicles Lighting regulations 1989 Schedule 4 Part 1which came into force 1st November 1989.
Basically a car with 4 wheels needs 2 headlights each being max distance of 400mm from side of vehicle, min 500 above ground and max 1200 mm above
ground.
So it is a legal requirement, but I doubt anyone would enforce it unless the lights were seriously out of position.
Quote Lord Kelvin
“Large increases in cost with questionable increases in performance can be tolerated only in race horses and women.”
Quote Richard Lee
"and cars"
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speedyxjs
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| posted on 10/4/10 at 01:42 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by richardlee237
Having re-read my post it does seem a bit heavy , so my apologies for that.
However !! At the risk of being even heavier ......
The positioning of headlights is prescribed in Statutory Instrument 1989 no 1796
Road Vehicles Lighting regulations 1989 Schedule 4 Part 1which came into force 1st November 1989.
Basically a car with 4 wheels needs 2 headlights each being max distance of 400mm from side of vehicle, min 500 above ground and max 1200 mm above
ground.
So it is a legal requirement, but I doubt anyone would enforce it unless the lights were seriously out of position.
Il bet the lights on this arn't above 500mm!
How long can i resist the temptation to drop a V8 in?
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richardlee237
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| posted on 10/4/10 at 02:00 PM |
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We should all ring him up and ask him for the name of his SVA/IVA inspector- seems a good guy to know 
Quote Lord Kelvin
“Large increases in cost with questionable increases in performance can be tolerated only in race horses and women.”
Quote Richard Lee
"and cars"
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deezee
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| posted on 10/4/10 at 02:14 PM |
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Whoops  I stand corrected. didn't even know about those regs. Always wondered why the construction and use regs were so vague in places !
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iti_uk
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| posted on 12/4/10 at 11:17 AM |
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I was under the impression that the Fury guys went through SVA with the weird (to my eyes) raised-headlight front clamshell in order to pass, then
swapped to the lower headlight version (Claire's car, for example) once SVA'd. I understand many people have done this, and I
haven't heard any problems anyone's had with doing it that way...
Chris
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snowy2
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| posted on 20/4/11 at 07:25 PM |
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Headlights are some thing i have been looking into a lot just lately;
The MOT: there is no requirement for the headlamps to be marked with an "approval" mark.
C+U regs say that any car first used on or after 1/4/86 must used approved marked (E) lights and they must be designed for lh drive vehicles, those
used before need not be so approved.
any car first used on or after 1/4/91 can ONLY have two dipped lights in use at any one time.
This implies that vehicles used before that date may have any number. The only requirement is that they form "matched pairs" there are
minimum wattage (something like 25w) requirements but not maximum or intensity.
Dipped beams are regulated under C+U regs, Main beams escape most of the requirements,
The Minimum height for dipped beams are as stated above 500mm from the road surface, you can measure to the beam cut off point on the lens (in
practice half way up the lens)
The edge nearest the side of the car of the dipped beam light must be less than 400mm to that side (excluding mirrors)
Main beam lights can be positioned anywhere on the front of the car (there is no minimum height ) But they cannot be out board of the dipped beam
lights. The maximum height for dipped and main beams is 1200mm from the road surface.
Do not believe that the old bill wont stop you and check your lamp position, there are some coppers who are already doing just that, and issuing fixed
penalty fines!!
sometimes you are the pigeon, most of the time the statue.
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snowy2
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| posted on 20/4/11 at 07:38 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by deezee
Wow dramatic much! The law (Road traffic act) makes no specific requirements for the positioning of headlights. Don't confuse regulation with
actual law. Even the Road Vehicles (Construction and use) regulations don't make specific requirements for headlight positioning.
The requirement for driving a car with headlights is simply that they work correctly and are adjusted correctly. If they are in the same area as your
existing lights, no one will be able to do anything. It simply is not in the public interest to take any legal action against you.
Not true the C+U regs specify very clearly where the headlights can be placed, and as i have noted elsewhere some police men are now stopping and
checking kit cars for position of headlights as they are aware of folks moving them after the IVA and they are fining those found not to be legal
sometimes you are the pigeon, most of the time the statue.
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