Is spraying your sidelight reflectors an MOT failure?

[skezza]

Was going to post this in the Plod section but apparently I'm here troll

So yeah, any keen MOT testers know whether this is legal?

[McWigglebum4th]

Depends what you spray them with

[Riley Blue]

or whether you mean lenses...

[TooMany2cvs]

http://www.motinfo.gov.uk/htdocs/m4s01000101.htm
If it isn't under "reasons for rejection", it isn't a fail.

[skezza]

No I'm not spraying the lens. I want to spray the reflector satin black.

So this should be ok?

[Noble P4]

Yeh, great idea....lets reduce the efficiency of safety equipment on our cars during these dark evenings!

[55palfers]

skezza said:

No I'm not spraying the lens. I want to spray the reflector satin black.

So this should be ok?

Why would you want to do that?

[skezza]

Thanks for the compliment.

I've already improved the efficiency by retrofitting projectors. So umm... Yeah.

The side lights aren't exactly brilliant anyway and the reason I want to spray them is because the chrome has started to tarnish and once that process begins it's game over anyway...

[skezza]

If you know of an easy way to rechrome I'm happy to give it a go.

[Impasse]

Chrome paint.

[TooMany2cvs]

skezza said:

The side lights aren't exactly brilliant anyway and the reason I want to spray them is because the chrome has started to tarnish and once that process begins it's game over anyway...

If the sidelights are f'ked, surely a better bet is to replace them with ones that aren't f'ked, instead of making them even more useless.

Saying that you've already upgraded the headlights seems to suggest that you misunderstand the purpose of sidelights.

[skezza]

Of course I thought about replacing the reflector but it doesn't seem to be very possible without replacing the whole headlight.

I also know what side lights are for dude, no need to get personal.

I've decided to go ahead and do it to one. If it looks st/dangerous, I'll go ahead and buy a new cluster. It's not like this is worth anything anyway so it's a reasonable worthwhile experiment.

Thanks.


Also chrome paint? How can that work? Chrome plating must be far more reflective than paint?

[mwstewart]

Black works the best - anything else let's that annoying chrome shine through.

[Impasse]

skezza said:

Also chrome paint? How can that work? Chrome plating must be far more reflective than paint?

I'll bet you the ownership of your headlights that chrome paint is more reflective than black paint.

[Ozzie Osmond]

TooMany2cvs said:

http://www.motinfo.gov.uk/htdocs/m4s01000101.htm
If it isn't under "reasons for rejection", it isn't a fail.

Suggest you go and read all the detail; it's very broad with lots of discretion for the tester.

And the question you have to ask yourself is, "If I get failed, what am I going to do next?". Because the offence is a strict one of "driving without an MOT" and has nothing to do with the condition of the car. The roadworthiness rules are a completely different set of offences.

[TooMany2cvs]

skezza said:

I also know what side lights are for dude, no need to get personal.

Great. So you'll know why uprating the headlamps is irrelevant to whether the sidelights give out adequate light or not.

[r11co]

May or may not be an MOT fail by the letter of the rules, but if you were involved in an accident that wasn't your fault, if were the other driver I'd be taking pictures of your blacked out sidelights with my 'phone and forwarding them to my insurance company in mitigation.

There's plenty examples where people have cited insurance invalidation where it probably wouldn't have been the case, but on this occasion I suspect the loss adjusters will be very unsympathetic. Intentionally compromising the effectiveness of safety equipment that affects other road users' ability to see you and therefore increases the likelihood of collision is essentially what you are doing.

IMO it is an absolutely fking stupid thing to do. You are a moron even contemplating it. Just fix the headlights properly if they are flaking, and lose the 'tude because you are totally wrong on this one.

Edited by r11co on Saturday 29th November 17:46

[Sensibleboy]

It's a bit like swapping your brakes for smaller ones because you don't like the look of big brakes...

[Nigel Worc's]

Sensibleboy said:

It's a bit like swapping your brakes for smaller ones because you don't like the look of big brakes...

LOL, don't joke !

In the motorcycle world people actually change the modern disc brakes on Royal Enfields for 1950s style drum brakes .

[jagracer]

r11co said:

May or may not be an MOT fail by the letter of the rules, but if you were involved in an accident that wasn't your fault, if were the other driver I'd be taking pictures of your blacked out sidelights with my 'phone and forwarding them to my insurance company in mitigation.

There's plenty examples where people have cited insurance invalidation where it probably wouldn't have been the case, but on this occasion I suspect the loss adjusters will be very unsympathetic. Intentionally compromising the effectiveness of safety equipment that affects other road users' ability to see you and therefore increases the likelihood of collision is essentially what you are doing.

IMO it is an absolutely fking stupid thing to do. You are a moron even contemplating it. Just fix the headlights properly if they are flaking, and lose the 'tude because you are totally wrong on this one.

Edited by r11co on Saturday 29th November 17:46

He's not blacking out the sidelights, he's spraying the silver reflectors in the housing matt black for some odd reason.