scoonie089

i just got pulled over again last night because apparently i have "no taillights" ..........i had my tails tinted really dark and only a little light shines through so i was wondering if anyone knew of any brighter bulbs i could put in the tails to maybe shine more light through ?

clover168

LED or undo your tinted taillights to lighter color

Peabody

You're going to have to redo the tint otherwise you will need to increase the brightness of the bulb by magnitudes and science just doesn't make a 40,000 lumen tailight bulb that you can remove 98% of the light transmission from to get the necessary 800 lumens.

AkaSigFreak

Hopefully, you don't rear ended. Why would you tint them so dark that they are a safety hazard?

JonMBZ

I don't understand this either, I think the mod is ugly as well.

Ron Jr

A friend of mine was sued (and still paying) when he was rear ended because the other driver didn't see him because of his heavily tinted tails. His insurance company dropped him.

bigigg

looks good on a "blacked out car" goes with the theme of the car.. but i dont agree on REALLY dark tails, like black..

i_am_amused

Clearly he thought only about himself and how cool he wanted his car to look.

I bet he has a Type-R badge on there, too. Blacked out, of course.

Sportstick

Hey, I've got a new trend for everyone who blacked out their taillamps to follow....just as worthy of a Darwin Award, too!

Get a razor blade and scrape down your seatbelts to make them matte instead of shiny....you know, like matte vinyl wrap.....make sure you scrape 'em hard......matte seatbelts...sooo cool, sick, dope..........whatever.

eminnet

+1 .There should be some limits on modding a car.
"Common sense is not very common!"

bigigg

I have an idea.. dont ride up people's @ss and you wont rear end any1 .. love how people with stock cars have soo many opinions

QuadBenz

Whether you're "riding up someone's ***" or not, it's a hazard if you're not able to tell when they're braking.

Sportstick

I understand your sentiment, but the OE light output is designed to be effective at safe following distances. Diminish the light and even what are regarded as safe distances are no longer so. So, you don't need to be where you so poetically suggested to wind up with a possible problem. We all like mods, (check my sig), but as with all things, many may make sense, but some won't. This topic is an example.

C300Sport

Although I really, really dislike tailgaters, your post really sounds pretty stupid. Modding a car is something most of us like to do and the extent of the modifications varies massively. Doing something that makes your car unsafe, just to look a little better, is just plain dumb...and I happen to like darker tail lights...to a point.
And let's not forget, as with Ron's friend, if Scoonie is ever hit from behind and has any amount of tint left on his lights, he may be paying the price for all expenses and injuries/deaths, whether it is his fault or not.

Spec_Davis

where in Jersey?

scoonie089

you people honestly need to think about what your saying.....did i ever once say in my post that you cant see my tailights when i break? NO! the tailights are extremley bright enough to see when pressing the break and it does help that mercedes installed a LED tailight bar in the rear window?!? im not stupid people like some people who obviously talk before they know the facts. and the tint is a spray tint so therefore it cant be "SCRAPED" off with a razor blade....light shines through enough to see that they are on the only problem is when another person is up ur *** their headlights are so bright it makes it so you cant see the light shining through the tails....hope this helps and as for I AM AMUSED...TYPE R'S bumpin all day B****

scoonie089

can anyone with any decensy help me find a bulb or not it was a simple question not that hard

RLE

I posted a message long ago about this very thing when all the excitement about "tinted tails" began two years ago.

Kid stuff.

C300Sport

Yes, I believe we are thinking. Your tail lights are there to indicate where your car is in the dark and in inclement weather. So, even though you seem to feel you have no visibility problems since you can see the lights when you brake, you are not as visible as the car was designed to be. If someone's bright lights are enough to drown out what light you do have coming through your taillights or stop lights, you really do have a problem.
And what really sucks is if you have just had enough with someone running up your *** and you give em the brakes, it is your fault if anything happens.

Yeah, but it was more fun to discuss the bigger picture...anyhow, LEDs will give you more light output but from what I have experienced and read about, they are not very reliable and may end up burning your light socket with a bad resistor. If you run higher wattage incandescent bulbs, you also run the risk of overheating your lens and/or socket.

AMGTTV8

do you see all the trouble you are going through just for these damn tinted taillamps???

common sense should have told you not to do it in the first place, but that wasn't enough. so fate threw a cop on your a$$ and THAT wasn't enough.

now you are having trouble finding a bulb a) on your own, and b) now on the forum.

how many more signals do you need before something else happens? i can't wait for someone to rear-end you and claim that it was your fault because they couldn't see your BRAKE (not break) lights.

had a change of heart yet? go rent a buffer and take that ***** off.

your time and money is better wasted elsewhere imo.

scoonie089

noone will rear end me because they are bright enough to see from any distance as long as the car isnt 2 feet behind your bumper thats the only time someone would have trouble and i would hope when someone is 2 feet behind my car they would be able to see it.

Brian GT PRO

My personal feeling is that if you like tinted tail lights, you might want to consider using LED's and doing a light tint, otherwise it really is a safety issue, and I'm sure the police are going to keep hassling you. I think your tint might be far too extreme, that's my 000.2cents

imboom

Oh, you underestimate the stupidity of other drivers. Do you really trust someone else behind you on the wheel? Even 10 feet is a bit close for some drivers out there, especially if you are going above 45 mph.

I personally follow the mantra of modding to your liking but don't compromise your safety and attraction of the police. Having tinted tails might look good but when you get sued because some incompetent driver "doesn't see" your brake lights in the day, then you're pretty much screwed for a LONG time. Never mind the night visibility, tinted tails really screw with the day visibility of brake lights.

scoonie089

this makes the most sense out of anything anyone on here has said....even during the day when the brakes are applied you can still see the light.....my ONLY problem is at night with a car directly on my a**. other than that its fine.

laneshift

Perhaps scraping off the tint and calling it a day would be the best choice. Some cops pull cars over for tinted tails regardless if they're visible or not. My opinion.