Headlamp Regulations
 

The Highway Traffic Act subsection 62(7) prohibits the use of headlamps that are coated or covered with a coloured material. Recently, regulations were amended granting an exception to this prohibition by permitting lamps to be coated or covered with a material IF they meet the requirements of section 4.1 of Regulation 596 (“General”). This also required a change to clause 6(1)(h) of Schedule 1 of Regulation 611 (“Safety Inspections”), which is used by all Motor Vehicle Inspection Stations when issuing Safety Standards Certificates or inspection stickers for motor vehicles. Note: The Highway Traffic Act and associated Regulations can be accessed via the web site – www.e-laws.gov.on.ca


When inspecting a vehicle for a Safety Standards Certificate or inspection sticker, the following procedures must be followed to ensure the headlamps meet these new requirements:

Halogen sealed beam lamps and replaceable halogen bulbs that are coated or covered with a coloured material are permitted by this new exemption provided they:
- Are a halogen type lamp or bulb, and
- Emit white light only, and
- Meet the federal manufacturing standards as indicated by the required certification markings.

Certification markings consist of:
- the manufacturer’s name or trademark, and
- either DOT symbol or the ECE symbol (a circle surrounding the letter ‘E’), and
- in the case of removable bulbs, the type of bulb is indicated by a designation starting with the letters “HB”.

Markings on removable bulbs are located on the base of the bulbs. Removal of the bulb may be necessary to see these markings. Halogen sealed beams are marked on the outside of the lens.


RECOMMENDED INSPECTION PROCEEDURES FOR MOTOR VEHICLES WITH HALOGEN HEADLAMPS

Step One:
Turn the headlamps on and check that each headlamp emits white light only. The best manner to do this is to hold a white piece of paper about one foot (300mm) in front of the headlamp and observe the colour of light emitted onto the paper. Disregard any small spots of coloured light projected to the far left or right since this is sometimes caused by the ribs of the headlamp lens and is not due to headlamp tinting. Determine which of the following three conditions apply:

A – The headlamp emits white light onto the paper and there is no colourization visible at the light source. In this case, the headlamp passes the requirement for white light only – the test is complete.

B – The headlamp emits white light onto the paper however when viewing the light source directly, there is some colourization visible. Proceed to Step Two.

C – The headlamp emits coloured light onto the paper or the light at the source appears multi-coloured or significantly coloured. In this case the headlamp fails the test and must be rejected for not complying with Regulation 611-6(1)(h). The test is complete.


Step Two:
- in the case of a halogen sealed beam headlamp, pass the headlamp if it has the appropriate certification markings on it.
- in the case of a headlamp with replaceable halogen bulb:
- if the bulb is visible or partially visible through the headlamp lens and does not
appear to be coated or coloured, no further inspection of this item is required. The test is complete.
- if the bulb is visible or partially visible through the headlamp lens and appears to
be coated or covered, proceed to Step Three.
- if the bulb is not visible through the headlamp lens, proceed to Step Three.

Step Three:
Remove the halogen headlamp bulb and check for tinting on the glass envelope of the bulb and check for certification markings. If the bulb has:
- clear glass with no tinting present, the bulb is acceptable.
- Tinting on the glass and the required certification markings, the bulb is acceptable.
- Tinting on the glass and does not have the required certification markings – reject the headlamp.

* Note: The light from High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps, although white by technical standards, may appear slightly blue. These lamps are not tinted in any way and have this appearance because of the manner in which the light is produced (electric arc). These lamps therefore are not prohibited. HID headlamps are generally marked “D2S” or “D2R” on the lamp lens.

- October, 2003
Peter Hurst, Director
Vehicle Inspection Standards

hmm.. i bought all the headlights that were supposedly street legal.. they shine/glow white even though they are blue glass.. hmmmm

What bout HID??
I know before it was illegal to put HID on cars that didn't come with it.. so based on this new finding.. is it still illegal?

i have my angel eyes as DRL's its illegal but a cop hasnt said anyhting about it yet.... yet *knocks on wood, desk**

Read the regulation again and mostly STEP 2 of the proceedure for inspection.

There is no law saying that the car must have DRL's. It's not in the HTA. However it is required of original manufacturers after model-year 1991 to equip all new cars with them, however there is little definition as to what a DRL is.

scott

i love my blue bulbs i find the difference they made on back roads for work was unreal.

DRL (daytime running lights)

this is in the HTA, Ontario Regulation 587 (10)

1) No person shall sell or offer for sale a daytime running light system that does not conform to the requirements of the Canadian Standards Association Standard CAN/CSA-D603-88, Daytime Running Light Systems.

2) For the purpose of subsection (1), a daytime running light system means a group of electrical components including the control unit designed for installation on a motor vehicle to automatically activate lights used to improve the conspiciuty of the vehicle viewed from the front at all times other than when headlights are required.

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Headlights are required 1/2 hour before sunset until 1/2 after sunrise OR in inclement weather as per HTA 62.

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There is no fine yet for no DRL, but for a car safety check, I would think they should function properly???

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These DRL are sometimes why you see dumbasses driving at night without their proper headlights on, they are so stupid not to know the difference between the DRL and their headlights.

Somewhere in there I missed a legal requirement to have them? That's just a legal definition of what they are. There has yet to be a law requiring them.

Do you happen to have access to CAN/CSA-D603-88? I don't think the qualifying criteria will prevent him from using his angel-eyes as DRLs.

scott

i love mine.. but they are so bright white there not as great in fog

You actually see LESS with ANY kind of tinted bulb than with a regular clear glass bulb.

It's because the tint acts as a filter and only lets a small part of the light spectrum through, compared to a clear bulb would let through. The worst part with blue coatings is that the halogen filament barely even produces any blue light rays to begin with! So you're trying to get something to output blue... that barely produces blue to begin with. This is why Silverstar's have disturbingly short life spans; because they have to make the filament work a shitload brighter in order to overcome the coating and put out an amount of light that's NOT illegally low.

It's like putting an 8" sub in a bandpass box and expecting it to play only 20hz notes in your home theatre.

That's the first problem; the cutting down of light bandwidth.


The second problem is that higher frequency/shorter wavelength light, IE: stuff past white, like blue, UV, etc, diffracts/scatters easier... that's why blue neon in cars gives you that nice aura or glow. This is also a problem when projecting blue light into rain... you really dont end up seeing much.
Anything shiny really, even a wet road; the light will diffract all over the place with asphalt or concrete.


The third problem is with our eyes. The very center of our eyes that does the focus has a hard time focusing on stuff illuminated in blue light. This is because there's very few cone/rods dedicated to blue/purple light in our eyes compared to yellow/red/white light. Our pupils end up opening too much to view this blue light compared to yellow light, so you end up literally looking at GLARE as you're driving down the road. This is why even though the bulb is tinted blue and it is spraying blue light... it looks whitish. Our pupils open too much and the blue gets glared out and appears white. Our eyes have a much easier time focusing on stuff illuminated with white light. This part mainly applys to blue tinted bulbs, but extends to bulbs such as Silverstar's; they still have a bit of blue/purple in them to help them look whiter.


Note how pretty much all streetlamps are some shade of yellow. Like the ones on the 403 in Mississauga... they're not bright and they're very high above the highway... but you don't even need headlights to drive on it!


So in the end, tinted bulbs bulbs put out a very small chunk of light, the light scatters more when it hits reflective objects, and our eyes have a hard time dealing with the light that the bulbs put out.


Now that you know why tinted bulbs suck, please, don't buy them
Grab some Sylvania XtraVision's from Canadian Tire for ~$12 a pair, or some clear or yellow Hella foglights, and actually see more :thumbsup

I was happy with my 25$ hid rip off bulbs they looked great still

Alright we had a MTO officer in at honda when i worked there giving us tickets for havin and expired license to write safetys. and he told us that theres so many holes in the law and the officers inforce them wrong. he said things like you can have any color lights (if u want to be a ricer) ie nipple lights, corner lights, etc. he did confirm that head lights are supposed to be white, but he said u can have any color undercar licensplate frame etc. he said the law only states that the colors are reserved for emerg, snowremoval, etc if they are flashing.
he also said that a honda can be certified safe for the road with 1 white headlight, reflectors and 1 red light on the rear for runnin light. that seems like bullshit because if anyone would ever drive a car with 2 lights, id hit them.
just thaught id share this twisted inside look at it. feel free to prove him wrong

Agreed. I will NOT part with my blues unless they arrest me for inciting a riot. :salook:

blue lights are uber jdm fast...when i see blue lights, i think...holy that cars fast.