Mismatched Headlights - Legal?

[Clivey]

Hopefully, this will be an easy one to answer. - Is a car legal to drive on the road if the offside headlight design is different to the nearside?

[Cyder]

Headlights are different from left to right anyway because of the optics in the projector/reflector and often the mounting points and it's not a problem. You might need to give us a bit more detail here.

[Clivey]

Cyder said:

Headlights are different from left to right anyway because of the optics in the projector/reflector and often the mounting points and it's not a problem. You might need to give us a bit more detail here.

OK; say, for example, you had a Ford Escort with this on one side:



And this style on the other:



Please ignore any "Why would you want to?"-type thoughts. - I'm only interested in legality.

[Cliftonite]

Presumably not as it would fail an MoT.

Extract from MoT Manual:

Check that a headlamp that is intended to be one of a matched pair, emits light of the same colour and is the same size or shape as its counterpart.

http://www.motuk.co.uk/manual_170.htm

[Clivey]

Cliftonite said:

Presumably not as it would fail an MoT.

Extract from MoT Manual:

Check that a headlamp that is intended to be one of a matched pair, emits light of the same colour and is the same size or shape as its counterpart.

http://www.motuk.co.uk/manual_170.htm

Thanks.

[barker22]

bloody bikers get away with allsorts

[grumpyscot]

But on this bike, the lights work separately. i.e. one if for side / dip beam, the other for full beam. the lights do not work in pairs for a single beam setting therefore are legit.

[Cliftonite]

grumpyscot said:

But on this bike, the lights work separately. i.e. one if for side / dip beam, the other for full beam. the lights do not work in pairs for a single beam setting therefore are legit.

Parrot?

[Nickyboy]

I was thinking that

[Clivey]

I do wonder whether the requirement for a "matching pair" will change in the future as technology allows for all sorts of different possibilities (e.g. one large LED array).

[Digitalize]

I wouldn't put it through an MOT but if you needed to use the car, especially if you aren't using the lights, then I can't see it being a huge problem.