Blacked Out Tail Lights

Yep. And I've seen cars that come directly from the factory with even darker tail lights than what I would want to do on my Prius yet it is still technically not legal for me. Sorta lame.

 

Blacking out a taillight does not mean making it invisible or disabling the bulb. You can see the red light through it when lit. It's the same as window tint. You can see out through window tint just fine when there is light shining through from one side. Blacking a taillight has the same effect. The lens is black yet you can still see a lit red bulb through it without any problems

 

Kind of off-topic: has anyone noticed Prius, second gen in particular, running around with NO tail lights? I'm not sure but it looks like they've got headlight, just nothing 'round back. I've seen a few.

 

I'm finding an increasing number tinted so heavily that the brake lights are not easily visible in bright daylight. They can be detected when I closely look directly at them, but don't stand out to peripheral or averted vision. I.e., they are no longer performing the proper function of brake lights.

 

As far as I'm concerned, anything you do to diminish the brightness of signal lights puts you closer to the threshold where someone doesn't see it, and could cause an accident.

Years ago, signal lights weren't mandatory and hand signals were used. Imagine the problems with that. Some of the first signal lights used tiny bulbs and were about the size of a quarter. We've come a long way.

 

When an OEM uses a tinted lens they have to demonstrate that it produces legal color and brightness.

When you tint a legal taillight it ends up darker.

 

Which is why you should swap to LED bulbs to compensate. I'm not saying that all tinters do this, but the same can be true. The majority of people on this site assume that every tail light tinter leaves the bulbs stock.

 

I found that the LED bulbs were less bright.

 

Some can be, that's true. Depends on which one's you buy.

 

More directional, independent of brightness, and must be color matched to lens.

 

The issue is that there are so many ways to get this wrong (and I see the results every day).

 

Agreed, some I would judge intentionally, since amateurs couldn't get it that wrong.

 

I'm not going along with more directional. Less-directional means it's more visible from different angles.

 

That's correct, however, LED sources tend to be very directional unless an integral or supplementary lens is used to beam form/spread.

 

. What brand are these lights? Are they the Aqua lights over in Japan?

 

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OK, These OEM tail lights are NOT blacked out, but tinted with VHT Night-Shades spray paint and then polished with meguiars 105. The sides are painted with body matched paint. You can easily see the light bulbs in the 'windows' that I masked off. If you can see the unlighted bulb, you should have no difficulty seeing it when it is lit. RIGHT? From a distance the rear of the car looks integrated without the garish chrome monstrosities Toyota provides as standard.

I'm not bothered by the center stop array, so it remains un-tinted. I don't feel this set up endangers me or anyone else.

Regulations - there are tens of thousands. In fact, you are probably in violation of at least one right now. Most are intended to control you and extract revenue from you. The excuses are always 'for your own good and the good of others.' Unless, of course, they are pure political BS and then - your safety be damned. Let's open up our borders even more and invite people from Liberia and Sierra Leone with open arms. Ebola? We ain't scared of no Ebola.

 

Just got my Valenti SBs installed and I would love to send my factory tails to someome who could safely experiment with their tinting project without risking their factory OEM lights. Please email or messgae me... looking to pass them on cheap...

 

I might be interested- how much? I live in Vermont.

Just noticed your post is from a year ago.