Does anyone here know if it's legal to smoke out the tail lights here in cali?
Or does it need to be above a certain percentage?

I was lookin at 20% (tint shade) but maybe 35 and up is street legal??

 

I am just curious: WHY in gods name would you do something link that? You've got to realize that if you put a shade onto a light you're gonna get 20%, 35% oe whaever percent LESS LIGHT out at nighttime, This light can be the difference between living or not if you are driving at night.

I may be thick, but smoking lights is a customiztion *I* really don't 'get'

 

^ Agreed, leave the taillight and headlight tinting/ covers to people driving around 10 year old Civics.

 

i wonder if anyone actually knows the answer to his question...

check out SRT SIX 's gallery. he has smoked both the headlights and the tail lights. i'm not sure what percentage though. i saw it in person and it looked ok. i personally wouldn't do it, but it was a good fit on his car. all of the lights were very clearly visable as well when turned on. as for the law, i don't know and hope someone does have the answer to it, but as far as i know, i don't think it is regulated.

 

I want all the light I can get. How much does the headlight tint reduce the output?

 

Simple: if you put a 20% smoke on the light you get 20% less light out, The same applies for 35%. ... 35% less light.

IMHO some changes should be left to 16YO ricer drivers AND should be absolutely illegal. Come to think of that: Since even installing HID is illegal I am pretty sure ANY kind of tin it is illegal and could earn you a ticket. Maybe some of the LEO members want to weigh in on that.

 

If rear-ended, you are at fault if you deliberately dimmed your tail lights.

 

The tint blocking the light was a concern for me as well. After I applied them it appears that at most the light output has been reduced by a maximum of 5% in the front and negligible in the rear. I am not sure what the % is, but I asked for the "lighter" smoke material.

I have been thinking of replacing the headlight bulbs with the new Sylvania ultra brights. That should make up for any reduction.

 

I suggest the film. That was you can remove it if you get a fix it ticket or ????

 

from what i have heard from many friends is that in California they haven't really established codes for how dark taillights can be...so basically don't get crazy with it and if you do get pulled over they can write some sort of fix it ticket...but cant really enforce it too much

 

Truraja, dont listen to them, they're just misguided

Personally, I think the tint would set the car off rather well. For instance, I plan to smoke my taillights, tint the windows, and powdercoat my stock rims black, along with painting the calipers red.

I do believe that the insurance quip is false, but I have not looked into the matter for quite some time, so no hard feelings if I am wrong

 

A few of the guys out here in SoCal have had their Crossfire tail lights tinted, and Justin (Z28toXfire) has his pretty darn dark with the white area masked off and still white. I've followed him in bright sunlight and when he puts his foot on the brake pedal you still see a very definite red brake light come on. Just looking at them in daylight you'd think nothing would come through, but they look perfectly normal when the lights come on.

And they look damn good on his white car.