Hi, Qdos.
Haven't got a reply from my son yet, but did have a look on a legal forum re LEDs on cars. The more I look, the more confused the picture seems. The key points seemed to be:
1) The law is way behind where we're at (so what's new...)
2) The law specifies watts, not lumens, so a LED bulb will fail on that basis by definition. Unless someone comes up with a "watts equivalent rating" or something stupid.
3) Someone reckoned that the police are unlikely to care so long as "it's bright enough". That certainly goes with my experience of years ago, but isn't reassuring because:-
4) ...the crunch is likely to come in an accident when the delightful insurance companies will have a ball if they think they can get out of paying because you've used LEDs (no, really, I love insurance companies... not...
)
5) There's a whole load of folk-lore out there about what is and isn't legal, most of it incorrect.
6) Fancy a test case...
?
7) Older cars didn't meet the legal requirements for wattage, so there's a get-out clause that says something like, "so long as there's enough light produced"... But this applies to any car apparently. It's just that no-one's sufficiently confident on how this one applies in practice, so it's back to 6...
None of that answers the E-rating issue. My feeling is that, so long as the car looks legal (i.e. doesn't dazzle in one direction, is bright enough, has a decent angle of spread) then I'm not going to worry until a policeman pulls me over to ask hard questions - which I don't think is going to happen.
In any case, it seems to me crazy to look too hard at car lights when bike lights are in practice totally unregulated. Some are fine, but far too many are too bright in one direction, are directed upwards to eye level, and flash (which I don't believe was ever made legal) in a way that totally confuses pedestrians and drivers as to how far away they are (a bit of maritime experience would help here...)
Regards, David
PS: Now been in touch with my son. The coloured lights aren't a problem in practice, but the whites are. He failed his MoT because the front whites were "the wrong colour". Now that's interesting, because the blue tint that he had was exactly the same as on the standard Audi kit. There's also some discussion about "warm whites" an the fact that this can sometimes mean purple. It's the whites I need to do next - my inclination is to try it and see - there's every chance that it won't really notice behind my old, discoloured lenses... -David