Q&A - Headlight Chameleon Tint

Q&A ImageI saw a car with chameleon headlight tint. Apparently it's a super clear transparent film pretty much like 90% transparent...maybe more??? ...with just pigments. The pigments make it have that look where you see a puddle of oil/water on the ground and it has that rainbow effect. I know it's bad to have tail lights blacked out as it can make it harder to see you braking...but what about these headlight film that is almost clear? It appears to be legal in other places.

It's not legal in British Columbia, and all of the sites that I visited to look at examples of this fail to mention anything at all about "street legal." That should probably be a first clue that this isn't going to be something that traffic police will pass on.

Headlamps

4.05  (1) A motor vehicle must be equipped with either one or 2 headlamps mounted on each side of the front of the vehicle and capable of displaying white light.

General maintenance

4.04  (2) Lamps and reflectors required by this Division

(c) must not be shielded, covered or obscured by any part of the vehicle or load or by dirt or other material.

The federal standard, Lighting System and Retroreflective Devices (Standard 108), mentions white light as complying with SAE standard J578 or various ECE standards. Unfortunately one must buy copies of these standards in order to read them and find out what they say. No doubt some sort of instrument would be required to insure light from a non-standard source met that criteria. The two sections of the Motor Vehicle Act Regulations above renders this unnecessary for law enforcement to have to do.