This may not apply to all the shops around the Virginia area that do the state required safety inspection. Most places don't care but every once and a while you'll get a cocky greese monkey who will give you some grief over the HID bulbs you have in your car.

Heres my story:

I brought my g35 in for inspection at the James Madison Shell in Vienna, VA. After waiting about 15 min for the inspection I see my car roll up with a big pink rejection sticker.

I asked them why and he tells me:

"I looked into your headlights to see if your bulbs where stamped DOT, your low beams where not stamped. Meaning, they are after market and illegal."

He gets me to look inside the headlight housing directly at the ring around the bulb. I told him "Well, yeah, of course they look like the fake HID bulbs when you turn them on and see that faint blue glow when you first turn them on, but these are the real deal HID, not some ebay bulbs."

He still argued that the DOT stamp would be on the rim visible through the Headlight housing.

I fully believed this guy didn't know what he was talking about. I told him to take the bulb out and look for the stamp on the back. Then he just walked away.

Fumed at this point, I ran home, took the bulb out, and took a picture of the bulb and it had the brand: Phillips Germany
Type: D2D HID
and of course in pale yellow letters it said DOT

Keep in mind, getting the headlight housing out to check the bulb is a pain in the *** on g35s'

I brought it back, threw the photo in his face. He still didnt believe me. So again IN front of him I removed the bulb and showed him.

Got my safety inspection sticker and left.


My point in writing all of this is so that if any of you run HID's in your g35 and you run into the same problem getting inspected here in Virginia; imediately tell them where to find the DOT stamp. Otherwise you might be thinking of spending $120+ on what you think are DOT approved HID bulbs when your g35 already has them.

I think the guy just wanted to give me greif because I had a CAI.

 

thats real fucn petty to go inside your headlamps to see if your bulbs were stamped DOT.. WTF thank god i live in VA.

 

You mean, thank god you dont....

Yea, Im stationed here atm, but I got my car registered in TX, screw that crap....VA made me take a sticker off the back of my Pathfinder that blocked out the light so it would show "Pathfinder"....saying you need all that brake light....im like wtf....if the person cant see my two huge red brake lights on the side of my car, wut the hell is this 3rd one gonna do...its stupid....

 

OK, I'm kinda lost here. Did you replace your High/Fog lights with HID units or are you talking about your normal HID low beam?

If you are talking about the High/Fogs, what system did you use?

Thanks,

Tx

 

Geesh that sucks. Kind of reminds me a few years back when I was told that my car couldnt be inspected because of my Stillen front bumper. I was like WTF does my bumper have to do with inspection....nothing!

 

You should have jammed the broken bulb in his eye!

 

Sorry for the long reply. But yes I was talking about my normal Low Beams.

I'll bet all of you who do have the stock HID's in your ride; you'll notice they have a slight blue tint when you first turn them on. Any lazy would-be inspector will be quick to call them after market.

I think it was bull **** that I had to show them the bulb, and I never recived an apology for having to remove my front bumper (Because all of us G owners know how much of a pain it is to get inside your headlights).

Also as an update, another friend of mine had his G fail the inspection because his headlights jiggled just a little. I fail to see a safety issue in a headlight that bearly moves 2-3cm because 1 f*ckin screw out of 3 were loose.

I think some (if not most) of the inspection laws here in Virginia make some sense, and I can respect that.
A lot of these rules really have to be re-considerd. In Wisconson I was allowed to have any muffler I wanted as long as it was under a 95db sound rating. Here in VA I can get a ticket for anything louder than stock.

I had a GSR Integra with a Mugen Twin Loop(damn near noiseless cause I hate fart cans) get pulled because my exaust note was slightly deeper and louder to the cop's ears.