RVC

I have a 2011 C300 and I installed HID's from the retrofit source. I am stationed in Jacksonville FL but my family lives in Virginia Beach. I am going home for Christmas and I will have to get my car inspected. A friend of mine is in the tinting/customizing business and he is telling me that my car will not pass state inspection with aftermarket HID's. The inspection stations are sending them out with rejected stickers. Anyone else experience this in Va Beach or anywhere else?

RLE

How often is the inspection required? If it's annual, just remove and reinstall.

Amir_AMG

what temp are your bulbs? if its obvious blue then yes, but if its >6k i dont think there should be a problem

ltcinf

I'm in Gainesville, VA and have the AZN HIDs. Just passed inspection with no problems.

dcjwlee

I'm not trying to "hate" on aftermarket HID's. But, to be completely honest it is really f***ing annoying when a car with halogen reflectorss comes up behind me at night with their bright blue aftermarket HID's that are not only spraying light all over the road, but they are misaligned and pointing WAY too high up.

I really hope more inspection stations start rejecting these cars. They are DEFINITELY violating some kind of DOT regulations. It is unsafe, unattractive, and it makes you look incredibly stupid.

Amir_AMG

I agree with the halogen aftermarket kits, especially when they are aimed up way too high...but when aligned properly, and not blue, purple, or yellow, they look great in my opinion

finger360

Yea, I passed several inspections with my old vehicle and reflector housing with 6000k HID no issues. I'd say if it ever is an issue just go to a different shop. I don't really see how they could know that they aren't factory; because they can't be experts on every car. I suppose they could look for sloppy installation of ballast but beyond that you shouldn't have an issue.

jctevere

They CAN reject you on inspection, although it isn't very common.

If you have a vehicle with reflector styled halogen headlights with HID kit installed, you are much more likely to be rejected for inspection. However, 2008-2011 W204 sedans have projector styled halogen housings, which have a cut-off and look very similar to Bi-Xenon housings. You shouldn't have any trouble passing inspection with that.

finger360

Yea, any aftermarket HID kit is technically illegal for street use.

tanktube67

How is it annoyed, when your car is equipped with automatic dimed rear view mirrors?

MDMercedesGuy

It's still annoying. Auto dimming mirrors can only make up for so much stupidity.

finger360

I will agree with you that they should fail the vehicles that are not aimed properly along with those who put a 55w kit in their low beams.

RVC

Mine are aimed properly with 35w ballasts. They are not even looking at the lights or cutoff of the lights. If they open your hood and see the ballasts or wiring for aftermarket HID's they send you packing.

ed4

It's most irritating when it's coming head-on towards you on a dark, 2-way road.

dcjwlee

This is not an argument I'm going to take you up on.

https://www.aaafoundation.org/sites/...lightGlare.pdf


I take that back I'll give you one good line, "A controlled field study (Theeuwes and Alferdinck 1996) tested three levels of glare illuminance (namely 0.28, 0.55, and 1.1 lux, or 350, 690, and 1380 cd, at 500 m) and found that even the lowest level of glare resulted
in reduced detection distances and, in some situations, greater speed reduction and more steering reversals (thought to be a surrogate measure of fatigue-inducing workload)".


In case there was any misunderstanding. I am complaining about misaligned headlights in general, but more specifically misaligned HID lights and HID lights using halogen reflector lenses instead of "projectors" with level adjustment.

MDMercedesGuy

Let's not go into the fact that it's a selfish attitude to have.

NCBob

Now to back on topic. I installed the Philips HID kit in my '12 GLK. Recently had it inspected and it passed. I'm in North Carolina. However, I did take it to the local Mercedes dealer. May or may not have had anything to do with passing.

snowmuch

I hate it when those civic douche bags had them so high that it literally blinds me from incoming traffics.