So today I was driving at night in a fairly low traffic area...I was rounding a corner and saw 2 bright yellow lights in the left left hand turn lane at the intersection I was planning on turning left at. As I was approaching, planning to turn left in the right left hand turn lane, I turned my high beams on, trying to illuminate what was in front of me, thinking a car was stopped facing me in the left left hand turn lane with only its parking lights on. The left hand turn light turned green as I was pulling into the right left hand turn lane, and the yellow lights started moving away from me...I was thinking the car facing me must have been backing up, then I saw a red reflector next to the yellow light, and the silhouette of an 88-98 Chevy/GMC pickup turning left came into view. As I caught up I saw that the truck was equipped with clear taillights, no rear reflectors, red side reflectors in the taillight housing (?) and yellow bulbs in the tail/brake light sockets. The truck had no rear facing reflectors at all.

My question is...does anybody here run yellow tail/brake lights? Seems like a stupid idea to me. California vehicle code allows for yellow brake lights on vehicles manufactured before 1979 but requires at least 1 red taillight (2 for vehicles manufactured in 1958 or later). Every vehicle is required to have at least 1 rear red reflector, and every vehicle manufactured 1965 or later requires at least 2 red rear reflectors.

 

I would never run it due to the idiot people out there that doesnt understand your braking...


Our 1929 and 1930 ford both have Amber as there brake light it was pretty much standard as the brake color back then instead of red...

we have swapped out the Amber lenses with Red one's because of moron's that wouldnt figure it out

 

my ambers and brake lights light when i step on the brake due to me being lazy about wiring up my mazda bed. bright as hell and no one has said anything about them. But like i said both amber and red light.

 

I see a lawsuite happening

 

Well,yellow tail lights sounds rather stupid and unsafe...not to mention a ticket magnet.

I have gripes about the law and all clear tail lights with red bulbs...so you look at them and they're clear,but they light up red. That's legal enough isnt it? Apparently not, I almost got my truck pulled off the road because of it.

 

There are plenty of Ford's, and other cars like this stock. Think of cars with stock LED tails... when you look at an LED that is off you cant see the color. when you turn it on you can. Plenty of cars have clear lenses, with LED.

 

It has nothing to do with the color of the light while it is OFF. There are presently no red tinted replacement light bulbs that meet the specifications of the federal DOT for candlepower and color. You can buy them (APC junk for example) but they are inferior and fall way short of meeting any requirements. This is why there is no vehicle made and sold in America with stock clear tails with red bulbs. The only way to get the required color and candlepower is with a regular white bulb and a a red lens.

LED's are a different animal. They can meet the DOT's standards for color and candlepower very easily.

 

umm i had tyc altezzas on my integra and they were DOT approved

 

One of these? http://www.elegantebytyc.com/ford-truck.cfm

Those look like red lenses to me. There is no such thing as a DOT compliant tail light that requires the use of a red bulb to make the red color. It does not and will not ever exist. There is no such thing as a DOT compliant red bulb. Does not and will not ever exist. Anything that is actually DOT compliant utilizes a red lens to make the red color.

Notice I use the word compliant. The DOT does not "approve" anything. They make the standards. It is up to the manufacturers to comply with the standards. If the product does not comply, it must be not be marketed as such to the public and can not be used by dealers, automakers, and repair shops.

 

Yellow tail lights, yellow headlights and purple HID kits look ghey IMO.

 

There are alot of new Ford vehicles that have clear lenses and red bulbs

The Taurus and Sable
The Mercury Mountaineer
and a few others

 

I think those have some kind of filter to disperse the light more evenly. Or they could be using LEDs

 

No they aren't. They either have a red lens inside the clear housing or they have LED's. They are not red bulbs.

 

If you want bright red led's in your tails that are clear L1224R's will definately work perfect. (buy them from me ahem!) I have PLENTY of RF customers that can vouch!

 

I'm already one of your happy RF customers for those, remember!

 

Oh yeah, I have so many I am forgeting people now..

 

Just because I was curious I looked up the vehicles and all of them are running the L1224Rs.

 

This is so funny, because I was in my truck on my way home last night after I went to the bank. It was about 6PM, and pitch black outside. I was going about 30 in a 35 zone, and a black scion TC blew by me going about 50. I saw he had white running lights (I could tell they were incandescents) because he had those clear style lights, the ones your supposed to use the red bulbs with.

Anyways he got to the red light first, and I beeped at him and motioned him to roll down his windows. "you know your running lights are white right?" I said. He said "yeah but thats because they are clear". This kid was like 19, and totally unaware I could tell. I said "Pull into the gas station up next I'll show you something".

So of course I was going to try and sell him some L1224R, I pulled into the station and turned my flashers on. I started showing him my lighting, and I explained how if he wanted to keep the clear lenses looking clear my LEDs light up colored but look colorless when they were off, and he got real turned on by that idea. So I think I'm going to have another customer. He wants me to do his cluster like mine is, I've never done a Toyota cluster before - so right now I'm trying to find pictures on the web of how it comes apart.

I was thinking the whole time how relevant this was to the thread.. hah.

 

Not touching that one with a 10ft pole!

I made a video of the back of my truck that is now all LED except the reverse lights. This includes the L1224R LED lamps in the tail lights, the Line-of-Fire, and the signal mirrors. If you don't know I'm making a turn, you're an idiot.

MOV version (4mb)
http://www.nmvfc.org/matt/ledtail1.mov

MP4 version
http://www.nmvfc.org/matt/ledtail2.mp4

 

Links no work.

Jp7--------- How the heck do you keep getting all of these L1224Rs.

 

 

Fixed

 

I apologize, i looked at them closer when i got to work and there is a red lens inside that covers up the bulb...i was having a dur-duh-dur moment

 

They look really bright in the daylight even (haha I knew that)

 

It's not so much the lens they are worried about,it's having red REFLECTORS that they make a big stink about. If your lights are off,such as your vehicle being parked on a dark street at night, and you have no reflectors, or clear reflectors on the back of your vehicle, that is generally illegal in almost all jurisdictions.

You look at new vehicles like Lexus RX350's and they have completely clear tail light lenses,but light up bright red when the lights are on. They do also have red reflectors,making them legal.

The point in case with my old Mazda when the cops gave me crap,was that I had OEM style lenses,but they were completely clear,including the reflectors. I had red running/brake lights and amber turn signals,all of which lit up correctly and quite bright,just using 1157 and 1156 bulbs. However, having no visible red reflector made my set up completely illegal according to the Highway Traffic Act in Ontario.

Here's a pic of my tails. The officer gave me 15 days to change them to stock or else if she saw me again without them fixed,she would pull my plates off the truck and impound it on the spot.


So,to become compliant with the laws and lose some heat, I painted the brake light section of the lens red with some Duplicolor Metalcast anodized red paint.