The driving experience is different for everyone. Someone has been spinning the steering wheel for decades, and someone has just recently received a license. But be that as it may, sitting behind the wheel of a car in the dark, everyone wants to see further and more. Bright light and the maximum possible viewing angle will allow you to navigate on time on the road.
How do drivers solve this problem? Differently. Some of them try not to drive at night. The latter make their car give more powerful light. To do this, they install xenon bulbs.
These light sources not only allow you to see perfectly in the dark, but also look very impressive. However, the traffic police may write a fine for xenon, which is undesirable for any driver. That is why it is necessary to study all the negative and positive aspects of using such bulbs and clearly know the responsibility of the car owner using them.
Positive aspects and application history
Xenon emits light similar in daylight to its characteristics. That is why it becomes much easier for the driver to distinguish objects at night. Driving people are not afraid of bad weather conditions. Xenon light is able to pass through drops of fog or rain, perfectly illuminating the roadway. This protects the driver’s eyes from excessive stress. In addition, xenon light creates a wider beam. And this his ability allows you to better see those objects that are on the sidelines.
Xenon lamps are durable. Their service life is from 2800 to 3000 hours (for halogen ones - 180-500 hours).
Xenon discharge lamps began to be installed in automobiles back in 1992. They favorably differed from halogen lamps in higher light output and low energy consumption.
Self-installation of xenon
Such bulbs can be purchased without any difficulty by any car enthusiast. This product, usually made in China, is offered in all markets selling spare parts. Some motorists acquire such bulbs so that the headlights of their car give a brighter light in the dark, while others seek to give their “iron horse” a more spectacular look.
However, everything is not so simple. A car equipped with such a light starts to look somewhat provincial, and on the driver’s road the police are constantly trying to stop the police in order to write out a xenon penalty. Why is this all happening?
The answer is pretty simple. Installing one xenon is not enough. The headlights of the car must be equipped with washer nozzles, in addition, for the formation of the correct light flux, a special corrector is necessary. In the absence of such equipment, you will definitely receive a penalty for xenon installed unauthorized.
There is one more nuance. The headlights of your vehicle must be marked with symbols such as DCDR or DCR. If not, then you will also receive a fine for installing xenon. There are cars with headlights marked DC / HR. They can be equipped with discharge lamps as a source of only dipped beam.
The negative side of xenon
Why does the traffic police take fines for installing brighter lamps in a car? The fact is that such a light blinds oncoming drivers and those who are driving ahead.
There are problems with car owners who decided to install xenon. Such lamps are quite difficult to adjust. In addition, computers of modern cars do not perceive them as a working element of the circuit, diagnosing a malfunction.
If the headlight is designed for a halogen lamp, then the installation of xenon threatens the appearance of flickering light. From this mode, the driver’s eyes quickly get tired.
Taking into account the fact that a blinding bright light can create an emergency on the road, the legislation of the Russian Federation has an administrative responsibility that allows the traffic police to write fines for the use by a car owner of external lighting devices that were not originally provided for in the vehicle design.
Changes to the Code of Administrative Offenses
Since 2012, the traffic police began to pay attention to what lamps in the headlights of moving cars illuminate the road for drivers. Such actions were due to some changes to the Code of Administrative Offenses. Art. 12.4, as well as 12.5 of this code, began to indicate that only those lamps that comply with the "Basic Rules for the Use and Admission of the Vehicle" should be installed in cars, and also do not conflict with GOST. These documents concern and xenon. They allow its installation only if it is provided by the car manufacturer.
The Code of Administrative Offenses imposed a fine for xenon in foglights if the car owner independently changed the design of his car. A citizen had to pay 2.5 thousand rubles and part with light devices. A heavier penalty was imposed on the enterprise’s transport - from 15 to 20 thousand rubles. As for the IP, then from him for the installation of xenon took from 400 to 500 thousand rubles.
The need for a ban
Fines for traffic police for xenon plunged many motorists into bewilderment. Why be punished for installing more efficient light sources? However, there are many reasons for applying this law.
For those who resented the innovation, it is worth saying that it can not always improve the visibility on the road xenon. Headlights of old models of cars are not able to create the necessary beam of light. In addition, the owner of the converted car has to solve a large number of problems. Among them:
- lack of concentration of light beams over a long distance, which allows you to see only nearby objects;
- Poor quality xenon made in China.
All this, as well as the creation of an emergency due to the blinding bright light, necessitated a ban on the self-installation of overly bright lamps.
Legislative innovations
In 2015, the Code of Administrative Offenses was published in a new edition. The xenon penalty in the form of payment of monetary amounts is not provided for in it. A driver who drives with improperly installed xenon will be disenfranchised. In this regard, many are thinking about what it would be worth to buy ordinary halogens for the headlights of your car. Indeed, the new fines for xenon are quite severe and threaten with deprivation of rights from six months to a year.
Opinion of road users
It is too late to talk about the legality of innovations in the Code of Administrative Offenses. Changes to the Code have been made, and this has to be put up with. However, there is still no unity on this issue. Some drivers completely agree with such a severe punishment. They explain their position by the fact that the bright light of xenon often becomes the culprit in the creation of emergency situations on the road. There are other opinions. There are drivers who are convinced that the bright light of xenon helps them to notice a pedestrian or a dangerous hole on the road at night in time, which prevents a possible accident. Of course, both sides have powerful arguments.
Compliance with technical parameters
Of course, the light of car headlights should allow the driver to move safely at night. However, not every xenon will meet this requirement. It is important to pay attention to the direction, shape, and also the strength of the light beam. Compliance with the norm of these parameters can only be established during inspection. How to use bright light and at the same time avoid the risk of changing from your own car to passenger transport?
Visual inspection
How to avoid the penalty for xenon deprivation of rights? First of all, it is necessary to understand how the traffic police officer can visually determine whether the lighting devices comply with the technical regulations. In road conditions, this can only be done by marking on the body or glass of the headlights. If the design feature of the car allows you to install only halogen lamps on it, then we can see the symbol H. For xenon headlights, there is the designation D. It happens that there is no marking on light devices at all. This suggests that the headlights are designed for ordinary incandescent bulbs.
As a rule, the inspection of the traffic police is limited to checking markings. He simply does not have the necessary authority for the remaining actions. This is in the hands of many drivers. They apply stickers that indicate a xenon type headlight. Such markers are simply erased by the old marking. Of course, the question can be solved in this way. However, this is very dangerous. If the inspector of the traffic police determines this trick, then they will not be able to escape punishment.
Legal solutions to the problem
Avoiding punishment in the form of deprivation of rights and securing a bright light at night can be done in another, simpler but not cheaper way. It involves the installation of legal xenon headlights on a car. On their case will be marked D, announcing the legitimacy of bright lamps.
However, such re-equipment of their "iron horse" will not be affordable for many owners. In addition, there are such car models that it is impossible to find full-time xenon. In this case, tuning lights equipped with lens modules will help to solve the problem. In them, you can install xenon lamps with a glow temperature not exceeding 4300 K. This is a great option. It will allow the light to retain the necessary power, and the color to be similar to halogen. Recognizing behind the lens whether it is xenon or not is almost impossible.
There is another legal way to amplify the headlights. You can just polish the glass. The effect will be obtained when replacing old headlights with new ones, because plastic loses its light transmission over the years due to various external influences.
Legal advice
Traffic police do not make any claims to legal xenon. At the same time, it is worth remembering that only state inspectors of technical supervision can establish the headlamp compliance with existing technical requirements. And they can do this either on the inspection line, or going with the traffic police to raid.
The use of illegal xenon is classified as a violation of Article 12.5, 3 hours of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. Recall that according to this article, the driver faces a deprivation of rights from six months to a year. Professional lawyers know how to find a loophole in the law, replacing such a harsh punishment with a fine of 500 rubles. To do this, you will need to prove that your actions can be qualified under article 12.5.1 of the same Code, which prohibits the operation of a vehicle in case of a number of malfunctions. The list of restrictions includes the color of the lights, as well as the non-compliance of the mode of their operation with the requirements put forward by the "Basic Provisions for the Admission of a Vehicle to Traffic".
In paragraph 3.1 of Art. 12 of the Administrative Code states that the deprivation of rights is possible if the design of the machine does not match the type, quantity, color, mode of operation and location of the lighting devices. Which of this list is violated when installing xenon? Location, as well as the number of headlights, their operating mode? Not! GOST will correspond to the color of the lamps, if their radiation temperature does not exceed 6000 K. As for the type of lamps, the instructions for the car usually do not indicate the prohibition of installing xenon.
As a result, all these actions can be summed up under Art. 12.5. Part 1 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. And this threatens with a warning or a fine of up to five hundred rubles.
