I got pulled over for having improper headlight color. My lights are a golden yellowish color. Possibly "JDM" yellow or something. I bought them off blackonblacktc like 6 months ago and nobody has ever given me a problem beyond cars flashing me once in awhile.

The law that I broke was 46.37.040

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=46.37.040

I'm not mad, I'll change my bulbs and pay my fine. I just wonder how yellow bulbs are any worse than purple, blue tinted, or regular white? Yellow has a higher visibility from what I understand and they light up the road better than my stock bulbs ever did.

Does anyone have any input?

 

cops hate us and want to have a reason to hate them even more?

 

well crappage...i was going to order some purple HID's for the box.....

 

That doesnt say anything about color just height and there needs to be two lights.

 

Sorry to hear about your ticket and subsequent bulb changing.

I would think all those colors would be improper and not just yellow?

 

Maybe the vibrant yellow could be distracting to other drivers.

 

hmm.. other than not being blatenly blue or red... i dont see anything in that link or any subsequent link listed that states color issues.....

but its gonna be up to each cop at that point... too yellow for one may be perfectly fine for 10 others...

 

P.s I've had my JDM yellows for over a year now and no issues with cops.

 

It's gotta be the small town. Cops have nothing better to do in Sequim / Port Angeles area.

I just read in the paper someone got pulled over for not singaling their right hand turn with no other cars in the intersection. 101 dollar fine.

Oh well can't win them all. Sucks though everyone always liked my headlights around town, my friends always knew it was me.

 

I installed my Nokya yellow bulbs yesterday are they illegal or just up to thee butt cop that hates them

Tomas where you at? save me money

 

actually i am just really amused that getting a 101 dollar fine made it into the newspaper... sorry... there is a law i guess that is a catch all for mods... i cant remember what they write it as but its along the same lines as being charged with mischievious mischief... thats not a joke... its a ticketable offense... and the way its written its really just a catch all bs offense that you can be sighted for...

 

Well SOB I carry the old ones with me just in case

and that reg says no Blue, Red, or Green unless your a cop or firefighter

 

that is why I went with the 6000k hid's instead of the 8000k mine have the slightest hint of blue, but not enough to get pulled over.

 

I would fight it, what about yellow fog lights? I have been pulled over for brightness (in other cars), but never for yellow or "super white" I call BS on local Popos!

I would take the RCW with you and one o the bulbs, so they can see the wattage. Does the package state DOT legal? If so take that too!

BTW my wife is from PA and her step father used to be a cop in Sequim!

 

HID bulbs are not illegal, however if you don't have them installed properly (like in a projector) then they are illegal. They actually are illegal on any car that was not equiped with them from the factory, either standard or as an option.

To the OP, was it a state patrol or local cop that pulled you over? State Patrol has the authority to do something like this, if they feel that it is impeding your visibility or the visibility of you by other drivers. Typically, a yellow or amber colored light will have less of a "lighting distance" than a normal white light has.

There is a chapter in there somewhere that says the front auxillary lights shall be displayed as either white or amber. Amber is an orange color, and is typically reserved for the turn signals...however in another chapter it will state that front or side turn signals shall be white or amber.

 

Fog lamps have their own RCW section.

 

Well Brian, the intake, steering wheel, light kit and I'm sure much more on my car is illegal but I'm not worried about that either.

I did order a pair of glare shields for my hid's, I don't want to give up the light output though.

 

It sounds to me like he wrote you up under the wrong section of the law. I'd say fight it.

 

yes he accidently wrote the wrond rcw or whatever so contest it whats the worst thatll happen your guilty

 

Yeah, my HID's were illegal. There were no projectors available for the xA, and I didn't have any glare shields. It was just a risk I was willing to take.

As for fighting the ticket based on being written up for "the wrong law", I am about 95% sure you will lose that one. In the RCW that he wrote you for, 46.37.040, it states:

That means that anywhere in Chapter 46.37 could be the actual infraction. It's kind of a "catch all" type of violation. While you might not be in direct violation of .040, you might be in violation of a different section. And by citing you for .040, you would still be in violation, even if it is indirectly.

What you would need to do is prove that no where in Chapter 46.37 (or related Chapeters/Titles) does it state that the color of the headlamps can only omit a white color.

And before you say HID's omit a blue color, there is already a section which applies only to cars that have HID lighting available from the factory.

I hope that helps a little bit. Good luck to you if you decide to fight it. I just think you'll need a very strong case. This will probably be a little tougher than fighting a speeding ticket.