Another question on these. Are they DOT approved? I just did my vehicle inspection here in Virginia. I had put LEDs in my reverse and fog lights. The shop said they are not approved. Luckily I still had the old bulbs in the glove box, just swapped them out and passed inspection.
I asked about adding lights such as a light bar, rock, or camp lights. They said for those to pass all white light must be blocked when doing the inspection. The tech said some people remove the light bars, and one time he even passed it after they covered the bar with duct tape.
Maybe just a Virginia thing? I guess if they are not approved, I just keep the old bulbs and swap them before doing the yearly inspection?
It is a VA thing.
VA inspections are crazy. I don't miss them.
You are allowed to have 4 forward facing DOT approved, white filaments active at any time. So. In VA it's against the inspection to do the fog light bypass in such a way that the fog lights stay on when the high beams come on. Because that'd be 6 filaments. It also means that any other forward facing lights have to be covered at all times. I never got in trouble for having lights on the side or rear of my truck.
I had a buddy with an old Silverdildo with like 8" of lift and 35s that had 6" halogen off road lights installed on the roof. Every year for inspection, he'd just go up to the roof and turn them backwards. And that was enough so that the inspector didn't care.
Funny story though. I was a very early LED adopter. Like 20 years ago I was putting LED bulbs on my cars. Yes. They sucked. But it was cool. It was new technology. In like 2002 I had an inspector fail my Mustang because of 6K LED license plate lights. He told me, "you can't have BLUE licence plate lights." I had a very lengthily argument with him that my lights weren't blue. They were actually white. and the white he was used to seeing is actually yellow. The inspection code says that the light over the license plates has to be white. Not that it has to be halogen. Also, because they're not lights that project outwards for other drivers to see on the rear of the vehicle, they are not subject to DOT regs. I got the shop manager involved and ended up winning that argument. That tech was not very happy with me.
The rule of inspections is that you find a shop that cares about the important stuff. Brakes. Tie rods. Things that are actually about safety. Afterall, it is called the "Virginia Safety Inspection." And I'm sorry. Having a superior light source to stock is not "against safety." And then you make friends with the people at that shop. Bring them work. Hang out. Talk to people. Get to know the mechanics. That's in your interest in terms of modifying cars in VA.
But if the shop doesn't know you, they have a liability thing. If they don't 110% conform to the rules laid out by the state they can lose their license to inspect vehicles. And if they don't know you, they don't know that you're not working for the state police and trying to "test" them. So they have to stick to the rules. 110%.
I was fortunate to have many friends and clients in dealerships and shops. I miss those connections today.