headlights

I will focus on the "illegality" of HIDs..and I can say that ours HIDs are nothing short of amazing...what ever the brand name.

I could be wrong and will be the first to admint it but when I passed safety with these mechanics, I knew I was OK. However, enough was said to make me question my knowledge just as when a group of Ford company mechanics said my side exhausts was illegal..and that was after I spent the $$$. However, I wasn't wrong.


I have gone searching..

I went over the safety inspectation manual for my province. There is nothing in our safety inspectation literature that would make HID light bulbs illegal. What is illegal are tinted headlamp bulbs, blue, yellow and rainbow versions available from some automotive parts stores are not certified for use on public roads.

HID lights are not “tinted” lights. A definition if you will:

HID (xenon) light sources

HID stands for high-intensity discharge, a term referring to the electric arc that produces the light. The high intensity of the arc comes from metallic salts that are vaporized within the arc chamber. These lamps are formally known as gas-discharge burners, and produce more light for a given level of power consumption than ordinary tungsten and tungsten-halogen bulbs. Because of the increased amounts of light available from HID burners relative to halogen bulbs, HID headlamps producing a given beam pattern can be made smaller than halogen headlamps producing a comparable beam pattern. Alternatively, the larger size can be retained, in which case the xenon headlamp can produce a more robust beam pattern. The light from HID headlamps exhibits a distinct bluish tint when compared with tungsten-filament headlamps

From your own province of Ontario:

The restrictions are:

(a) are coated or covered with a coloured material; or
(b) have been modified by the attachment to the lamps or the motor vehicle of any device that reduces the effective area of the lenses or the intensity of the beam of the lamps. 2002, c. 18, Sched. P, s. 19 (1).or;

No motor vehicle shall carry on the front thereof more than four lighted lamps that project a beam having an intensity of over 300 candela. R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 62 (9).

This one is an iffy one that could be fought...There are standards on what a candela is and what a Lumen is but amazingly there is no accepted international standard on how to measure that in an automotive application. This one could be fought.

Thank-you.