Hey everyone. I was wondering, have any of you gotten a ticket for smoking your tails. I think its a really cool thing to do to the G35, but was wondering if cops care or not. Thanks a lot!

 

nope.......i got a warning once.....but thats it

 

Thanks for the quick reply

 

nah they wont bother you, i smoked my 240's tails and they are fine with it

 

Probably depends on the cop...

 

Some people should

 

really depends on the cops I guess, some can be complete a$$holes about the whole thing. Really tho, it's just a minor thing so go for it.

 

For you California folks, California Vehicle Code section 25950:
c) All lamps and reflectors visible from the front, sides, or rear of a vehicle, except headlamps, may have any unlighted color, provided the emitted light from all lamps or reflected light from all reflectors complies with the required color. Except for backup lamps, the entire effective projected luminous area of lamps visible from the rear or mounted on the sides near the rear of a vehicle shall be covered by an inner lens of the required color when the unlighted color differs from the required emitted light color. Taillamps, stoplamps, and turn signal lamps that are visible to the rear may be white when unlighted on vehicles manufactured before January 1, 1974.

And note from CHP's "Street Legal" site (http://www.chp.ca.gov/html/streetlegal.html):
Tail lights that incorporate a bulb with a red tint or coating. In general, custom tail lights that incorporate a clear outer shell and red inner lens are legal (24011 VC). If they don't incorporate reflectors, they must be added to the vehicle (24607 VC).

Seems to me that as long as it glows red AND as long as you have proper reflectors (also red), you should be fine in California. Note that I'm not giving legal advice.

 

thanks a lot guys!

 

Also in California (at least):

24600:
(e) Taillamps shall be red in color and shall be plainly visible
from all distances within 500 feet to the rear except that taillamps
on vehicles manufactured after January 1, 1969, shall be plainly
visible from all distances within 1,000 feet to the rear.

24603:
(e) Stoplamps on vehicles manufactured on or after January 1,
1979, shall emit a red light. Stoplamps on vehicles manufactured
before January 1, 1979, shall emit a red or yellow light. All
stoplamps shall be plainly visible and understandable from a distance
of 300 feet to the rear both during normal sunlight and at
nighttime, except that stoplamps on a vehicle of a size required to
be equipped with clearance lamps shall be visible from a distance of
500 feet during such times.

24607:
(a) Every vehicle shall be equipped with at least one reflector so
maintained as to be plainly visible at night from all distances
within 350 to 100 feet from the vehicle when directly in front of the
lawful upper headlamp beams.

Curt

 

Quick story..

Many years ago I had an Eclipse with smoked taillights. I was visiting a friend in South FL. We went out one night to a grab some food and a cop came up behind me and followed me for a couple miles so I drove the speed limit the whole time and used my turn signals. Finally after what seemed like an eternity of him following me, he turned his lights on and pulled me over. When he came up to the car I asked him why he had pulled me over. He said, "I noticed your taillights were a little hard to see" then he started spouting off a bunch of numbers about the distance they have to be visible from. Then he says, "And now that I am up close I see your windows are too dark as also". So I acted like I did not know they were too dark and he tells me to hold tight while he runs my info. He comes back and tells me my license is suspended. What had happened was I dropped my insurance with one company and picked up coverage with another company. The first company turned me in for letting my insurance expire and in FL they suspend you license. I had no idea that had even happened. So the cop asks, "Is it ok if I search your car?" I ask him if that is necessary, he says, "Well I can arrest you for driving on a suspended license and then I can search your car or you can just let me do it." So I let him search my car and he finds a roach that on of my good friends must have left down in my back seat. Or maybe it was mine, who knows. After he found that he would not believe me that there was not anymore in the car. So he calls the K9 unit to go through my car. After about 2 hours and finding nothing else, they decide to ROR (release on own recognence) me and write me a couple notices to go to court and a couple of tickets for improper equipment. So I did not go to jail, but I had to drive back to South FL several times to go to court and pay off the probation and go to a stupid drug awareness class. So good luck to you all with smoked tailights. I like the way it looks, but not after that. Also, this did happen 10 years ago.

Ok so it was not a quick story....sorry.

 

i thought car insurance wasn't required in FL

 

^thats not true at all

 

anything you do to the outside of your car, is probable cause on wheels. they can use it as an excuse to pull you over and do whatever. if that's the only law you're breaking, then you're ok. but if you're breaking more than 1 law at the same time, they can use one, obviously visible thing to pull you over and give you a bunch of violations.

 

The great thing about my Overlays is that the reflectors are still quite visible from afar .

Bat™