Can someone point me to a good source for a Yellow film to install under the glass of the headlights. I've checked they are legal in my stae and I'd like to see how much it will improve visibility.

 

How about these? http://www.lamin-x.com/products.php?...products_2.inc

I have the yellow ones for the fog lights and they work great.

 

Thank you, I've been wandering around Google with out much luck, plus i'd like to support a company thats helped out fellow motors, didn't know if any vendors carried a similar product. Are these ext. or int.? Doesn't matter much, I'm debating which will look better.

 

If you can get the heavier film and put it on the outside, they will protect you headlamps from rocks as well as altering the color.

 

Thats my most recent plan, but I'm also wonder how cleaning bugs and such will be and how often I'd need to replace the film do to greater elemental exposure. But install would be slightly easier as I'd only need to remove the chrome ring. Also an interior install looks more OEM IMO, which would be nice to keep.

 

mini-madness sells them

http://www.mini-madness.com/index.as...PROD&ProdID=95

 

Sweet someone within the MINI community and I can see photos beforehand Thanks MSFIT!

 

I think Moss Mini has the exterior ones as well, and they have them for the headlights and fog lights. At least I think I remember seeing them in their last catalog.

 

How does making your lights shine through a yellow cover help visibility? Maybe in snow you'd have less glare, but other than that I can't see how it would help. Even though those may be legal in Ohio I bet the state troopers pull you over to see what's up with your lights.

 

Yellow lights (where legal) are a great boon in fog. I used to run yellow headlights as well as yellow fog lights when I lived in the mountains of Guatemala. They were fantastic in that application. Later I moved down to the coast where there was very little in the way of fog. And within a couple of months, I switched back to white headlights. I just found that the yellow light was too non-reflective in an area with poor street lights, not providing much background lighting.

I'd think twice about going yellow, unless the weather conditions warrant it.

They might look cool, but if your night vision is affected negatively, they aren't worth it.

 

Well it took lots of convincing for me to go ahead and give this a try, but here is how I see it. The claim is yellow light is low glare but also (more importantly) it increases the contrast by which you see things, so your world become black and yellow instead of black,blue,green,brown and so on. This reduces reaction times, making driving safer. Also at night you use the rods not the cones of you eyes to see, the rods are much more sensitive but take in light in a different manner,now blue light has a wavelength closer to to white so it is brighter sooner, but because it is closer to white light your eyes end up useing the cones not rods to see and so when you look beyond your lights or to the side of them, it takes your eyes longer to adjust, the manner in which I drive I can't legally have my headlamps aimed far enough in advance becuase on the highway I generally look 40-70 seconds ahead of where I am. Driving with yellow lights was regquired for a while in France because of the supposed increase in saftey, but led to lots of false alerts of cops catching the car at the wrong angle, having to investigate and finding out that the lamps were indeed yellow. Now you must also understand that this isn't yellow like the stock non-xenons come, I have the highest power legal halogen lamps in there to compensate for the fact that I am cutting out much of the spectrum so these will be just as bright, if not brighter than stock. Also I have seen these covers used during the Rolex races at night and didn't find the beam they cast to be uncomfortable to look at, but I knew where all the yellow headlamped cars were on the track because they are different, so I will be safer in simply being different I will be notcied (which can emd up being ethier good or bad). And if I get stopped for the yellow lights they are legal, I tend to carry the vehilce code with me anyway after a few incidents so I'll have the proof to back it up and if they really want to take me to court for a fix-it then they more than welcome to earning their overtime and I'll still get let off cause everything will be in order.

 

I'm really quite open to seeing an active debate on this and hearong from those who have used the yellow headlamp covers, I am doing this as an experiment and if I find they help my vision then they'll stay, if they mak it worse I have afew other things I'm looking to try (mixing yellow as fog or driving lights with a blue/white couterpart) and if that still makes things worse then full removal and I'll apply clear lens covers.

 

Read this....excellent write-up!

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...ght_color.html

with that said. Perhaps an authority on the subject could comment on how film or tints differ from true yellow band lighting. I would gues that tinting white light is not the same as true yellow light

 

My friend ran yellow low beams in his mr2 for a while. They definitely made things easier to see...not more light...just easier to see. Then a campus police officer at UCF pulled him over to tell him they were illegal. I guess the law is pretty vague about light color.

I run yellow bulbs in my Hella fog lights and it definitely helps things out in poor visibility, even with Xenons.

 

If you look at the PIAA site, they sell yellow bulbs just for the H3s, not for H7 or other normal low beam lights.

In general, yellows are for fogs ... Daniel Stern is right and very knowledgable.

 

Fortunately my car is register out of state where the say
Also as far as Daniel Stern is concerned he seems to have lots of good theory but I am yet to scientific backup of any of his theory or any references for his information. And he is also a vendor looking to sell his products. I think there is some good information there, but I don't think it has the definitive lighting information that it is made out to show.

 

Really? I thought that this, which was linked in the article is the most technical and scientific study I have see on this particular subject

http://www.lightingresearch.org/prog...01-01-0320.pdf

 

Where is that linked from his site, and where does hes ever s\cite that work? BTW good link, digesting it as I type.

 

Hey Drew,
I am also a big fan of the yellow lights, however be careful with the po-po!
I have loved the yellow lights on cars since the 24 hrs of Daytona in the late 80's and early 90's, my favorite team (Joest Racing) used to run their team Porsche 962's with yellow lights on one side, and whites on the other. It helped the team pick out their cars on teh banking, and through the tri-oval at nearly 200 MPH.

Ever since then I have toyed with the idea of doing my cars like this. On my old VW Scirocco, I did the lights like this, 2 yellows on the passenger side, and 2 whites on the drivers. I had no probs for about a year, then some over officious OCIFER O' da LAW, pulled me over and gave me a ticket for it. I used the same code you quoted above, but he cited me anyway. I thought about fighting it in court, but ultimately just gave in, and took them off to avoid the headache.
And if you need a more recent case, just talk to Shawn (Swarley), he did the yellow covers on both his lamps similar to the ones for sale above, and he was stopped and told to take them off. He wasn't ticketed, but he was STRONGLEY warned to remove them, or risk un-needed harassment. You know the police around us don't have any real crime to tend to, just car enthusiasts to hassle....
Here is an option for you to still go Yellow:
You may have seen my pic on SSM, but here it is again, in case you missed it. I have changed my daytime running lights (H7) to yellow. It looks SICK!


Let me know how it goes.

 

I would advise against using film and instead switching to an amber colored bulb as pictured above.

I have been using these PIAA Ion-Crystal bulbs for my high beams for several years and really like how they produce tons of light that is not harsh on the eyes, especially in rain or light fog.

http://www.autothing.com/catalog/pia...bs_1395090.htm

 

Looks good, I'll be sure to post when I get some of the results. One thing I thought of recently while going through my 24 at Daytona photos was why would they Race teams be using the yellows if they were only good for bad weather? Also the car with yellows always seemed more noticeable if not brighter, just a thought. I know the big draw back with the yellows is that it becomes harder to seperate the white from yellow lines, I'm not too worried about that as it is usually pretty easy to tell just by the markings. I know what you mean about the local PD, I've got a court date in June for avoiding an accident, apperently the officer thought I was impatient. I'm back in IL roght now and have already seen several cars running yellows and yellow is explicitly legal up here, so I'll probably give them a try before I head back down. I know I saw a MINI with Yellow headlights (I think it was PW but it was nighttime so I'm entirely sure) going south on 95 around melbourne back in Nov. I wonder if they've been able to keep them. Hadn't heard about swarleys experiance. I'll keep you guys updated.

 

I'd be more inclined to go that route in a year or two but I've already picked up several elctrical gremlins so I'm trying to keep the MINI approved equipment on the head lamps for now, which meant switching to the Osrams as they are the only approved aftermarket bulb. Did you ever try film before the bulbs, I like the sense that the film could serve a dual purpose of protection and color shift. Not to say I could run a clear film as well. I think while I'm experimenting I'll get an idea of what the effect will be be using color gels for theatre lighting, then if I like the effect expriment with different means of achieving the the most visibility.

 

I totally agree with you, but man it does look good with the film. I have exact same bulbs as coobah...

 

I used to go quail hunting and skeet shooting. All of my "shooting" glasses had a yellow or amber tint. It really made things stand out. I now use my shooting glasses to drive. I took them to Driving School and take them to the Dragon. It may just be psychological for all I know, but it sure seems to make it easier to see definition.
Annette

 

yeah, i've used lamin-x for many different cars and used them for the taillights and side marker lights for my mini. they are very good atwhat they do. Otherwise, you can go buy a bulb that emits yellow light.