Hello

I've seen it stated in these fora that the white tail lights are legal in
conjunction with the correct form of red reflector.

The authorities in CT seem quite unwilling to take my word for
it; so I was hoping someone could direct me to the
correct DOT document that corroborates the statement

Last week I was pulled over with a warning and told to
replace red tail lights and report to my local DMV in CT
I'd like to avoid doing that if at all possible. Can any one help?

Does the law vary by state? When I lived in NJ no cops cared

Regards ARD

 

CT Motor Vehicle Regulations

Check out section 14-96, it's in there somewhere...

 

Do you have the tail lights from MINI or do you have some aftermarket ones.

If they are from MINI, they will have a DOT approval stamped on them and are legal. Other ones may or may not be.

 

even the ebay ones carrie the DOT stamp.

they are EXACT replicas of the MINI ones, even the DOT # is the same,

 

Neat-o! Then go show them the DOT stamp, and then get them to give you some paper declaring that your lights are legal!

 

If they are the factory white tail lights the dealer should have certification for you. At least my dealer did. The only nice thing they did for me I think.

 

I believe that the only way the white lights are legal is to install the necessary additional retrofit reflectors on the back of the car - see the diagram:

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...35&hg=63&fg=95

This is also, of course, with the use of the bulbs that illuminate the legal colors.

Funny, there is also this kit shown as supplmentary for the white light kit:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...55&hg=63&fg=95

 

Here's an example - Crevier has them listed and states that:

"This part requires the installation kit (63 12 0 146 748) and bumper-mounted red reflectors (63 21 0 142 518 or 63 21 0 142 223) for DOT approval."



Link:
http://www.parts.com/partlocator/ind...catalogid=3751

You can search for the regulations here to show them that you conform:

http://search.google.dot.gov/DOT/DOT...nocache%3Dtrue

http://ntl.bts.gov/faq/dotapproval.html

Hope that helps

 

Yep, that's the way they look on my MCS (dealer installed).

 

Thank you all.

 

This is to increase the brightness of the lights so they look red instead of pink. I think this is why some people say their lights look pink. Most likely they installed the lights themselves and didn’t add the wiring harness. Mine was dealer installed with the harness and my lights are bright and red.

 

Interesting, thanks for the info :smile:

 

JEEZUS! those butchers cut your bumper for a reflector?? I would have killed them!

I dont see the need for a reflector back there, i used to have one of those reflective plate frames instead of a reflector, but them pitched that too cause it added unnesecary color to the back end of my car, lol

 

The wiring harness is totally unnessecary! They incuded it to add shop time to a quick and easy project.

The bulbs dont need any more juice to make them red. if they look pink, the will look pink no matter how much juice you put to them.

I run the Ebay tails with LED brake light and white turn signals. plent bright, very RED and alot of the japanese cars i se have clear turn signals, so i dont see a problem with that.

 

I agree that I would rather have not had the reflectors added but it is a requirement to have red reflectors somewhere on the rear. I think to say that they butchered the bumper is a little much. I prefer the look of the OEM installed reflectors to others I have seen including a red reflective license plate frame.

 

Gee I wonder what else the engineers added to the design of the car that is unnecessary?

 

Well, aside from being the law and maybe getting you a ticket, the reflectors are there for safety - they reflect the ambient light and help people see the parameters of the car whether or not your lights are on.

Also, you mention using white turn signals - I don't know about other states but in Cali that is not legal and people do get ticketed for it sometimes:
"Incorrect color of turn signal. It must be white or yellow to the front, red or yellow to the rear" - from http://www.chp.ca.gov/html/streetlegal.html.

I've used silvervisions so that the lamps look clear but light up amber - seems to be the most attention getting color for clearly indicating turns or hazards anyway.

 

its a joke. tail lights are plugnplay, even if they went LED from the factory, the would require LESS power to light up. so, no need for a wiring harness.

 

well, i'm not letting anyone cut or drill into any painted part on my car.

i would call that butchering it, its not going to be going back to stock anytime soon, short of a new bumper cover

 

I don’t know exactly why MINI says that this should be added as part of the retrofit, it could be that it has something to do with protecting the BC1. All I know is that I had it installed and if I didn’t and had a problem I could have been denied warranty repair. For the $150.00 or so it cost for the harness I think it was worth it. I think the kit also turns on the top section (rear fog lights). I know there is a cheap retro fit for this but this could also affect the light circuit. Even if it didn’t it would be something the dealer could use to deny a warranty repair.

Bottom line I have the harness and am happy it was installed you don’t have the harness and your happy about that.

BTW thanks for the tips regarding LED tail lights on your web log. I will be replacing my bulbs with LED bulbs when they burn out. I would need to get the standard bulb holders to replace the stock clear ones as the stock clear bulbs are soldered in.

 

Good luck should you get a fix it ticket or get rear ended and have insurance claim issues for not being DOT approved.

 

i dont haven any problems running without reflectors. the car is plenty visible and the refletors are just another BS U.S. regulation.

i'm not going to sacrifice the look of my car for some stupid regulation.

 

All the harness does is run another set of plugs back to the rear of the car. ive seen the harness. all it does it tap into the same wires that are already running to the back of the car, and it adds another set of plugs. it even taps the foglight circuit, so your still turning on the fogs independently, it does not turn them on with the brake lights.


you can simply heat up the old solder and yank the bulb and not have to pay another 30 bucks for MINI replacement parts. Just another example of how MINI is trying to screw you out of money....

 

I installed the OEM white tail lights myself.

The bulbs they came with are white..maybe slightly yellow.
As far as I can tell these bulbs need to be replaced to
render the car legal with red bulbs for stop and amber for turn.

From reading several threads it seems that some people
have white tail lights with the same bulbs as I do but that
others have coloured bulbs that were original.
Now what is going on here? I am going to replace the bulbs
and then see if the wiring harness is necessary after that
I will go with led red to avoid the pink (problem) and amber silvervisions
for the turn signal. Does this sound OK?

The top light never went on. Does the wiring harness turn this to a
additional brake light?

I have purchase the red reflectors...Anyone install these themselves?
I would appreciate a how-to.

Thanks

 

Mine do as this picture showes





Agreed I would try this first before getting replacement parts.