Quote:
Originally Posted by sworks
Having a quick look at the manual and section 4.1.4 it may come under defect b
(b) Product on the lens or light source which obviously reduces light intensity or changes emitted colour to other than white or yellow
I don’t want to be negative or cause upset but some MOT testers could have the opinion that you must prove that light intensity hasn’t been reduced by the etching? You can gauge this to some extent via the headlamp tester but looking and making a judgement I think will be different from one tester to another. There won’t be the luxury of comparing with another car. I think this modification looks absolutely fab but in my opinion there’s some potential doubt to how the manual is interpreted. It’s difficult to make an accurate mot decision via a photo or video so it may not be an issue but mot testers can be difficult to please if there’s some ambiguity
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If the MOT tester were to interpret 4.1.4 the way you're suggesting, then he/she should fail every single 75/ZT on that basis that goes though that MOT test garage. Reason why? Because no 75/ZT projector headlight performs as good as it should do and would have done when it was new.
This is because the projector lens over time collects dirt/grime and dust which over time makes the lens go a milky colour and cloud over time and reduces the light output.
See below, here's a projector lens removed from a facelift headlight, and you can see the layer of dust and dirt which coats both sides of the glass lens.
And after a clean here's how it should look:
Again here's a before pic with the projector switched on:
Same projector after a clean:
for a better comparison here's half the lens cleaned
Now here's a comparison of light output with a lux meter at 50cm from the lens, measurement taken from the center of the beam:
Light output prior to cleaning the lens:
Light output after cleaning the lens:
and as a further test, here's the projector with one of my etched lenses fitted with the xpower design:
And here's the light output test. Only the tiniest drop in the reading.
So this dirt built up causing clouding on the projector lens reduces the light output which is noticeable. If you took your headlights apart, cleaned up the projector lenses, reassembled and tested the lights at night you would notice a difference as I have.
Therefore if you wanted to interpret 4.1.4 in that way, i.e. fail the headlights because there is a product on the lens which reduces the light output (even if the light output is still at a satisfactory brightness) then every older car with projector headlights should fail under this rule. As this cloudiness is visible when you switch the projectors on.
This cloudiness paired with headlight lenses that need a refurb significantly reduces your light output, and yet very rarely does a 75/ZT fail on reduced light output due to badly frosted lenses. And I've had some very had ones well overdue a refurb here over the last few years, so bad that you couldn't see into the headlights at all.