You obviously either have reading comprehension issues or just skimmed through my post. What part of hid projectors being fitted into halogen housing didnt you understand? This isnt a $50 kit u slap on. Oem hid projectors from a an acura tsx, lexus sc430, honda2000 etc are used. They have proper light dispersion, cutoff etc designed for HIDs. I would bet a $100 that if a car with retrofited projectors was coming towards you, you'd have no ides it wasnt oem.

 

IMHO ambulance chasers (trial lawyers with high student loans and too few clients on retainer) might see this sort of thing as an new revenue source, where accidents were involved. Once that starts, insurance companies will get involved by increased premiums, etc. State legislators will soon join the fun, it will get added to vehicle inspections, etc.

 

I understood it fine.
What part of what you typed did you not understand?
What part of the OP did you not understand?

Go argue your case with the NHTSA and see how far you get.

 

This is where you are misunderstood...If i take the OEM housing and OEM lens and i retain the HID, Its exactly how it left the factory. The only difference is the clear plastic that surrounds it.

And i dont have to argue it with NHTSA, since i'm in Canada...but then again, half the LR's on this forum are raised with aftermarket suspension and steel bumpers that probably do not meet NHTSA requirements either so i dont know what your big issue with HID's is...

Go America, land of the free

 

Halogen lenses and HID lenses have different designs because the bulbs produce different shaped light. The lenses are not interchangeable.
If an HID light option was available from the factory, you can fit those, or equivalent parts, to your Halogen equipped version of the car. Which is what I said in the OP.
Where there is more allowance is if you have headlights that can be replaced by a complete HID assembly, such as the 7" round headlights fitted to Series, Defender and Range Rover Classics.

The NHTSA doesn't have regulations regarding aftermarket suspensions. The only regulations they have for bumpers are that they are supposed to prevent a certain amount of front end damage to the vehicle in crashes up to 35 mph. That's from the factory. There are no regulations about aftermarket bumpers. Some states have regulations about the height of the bumper from the road.

 

Maybe you're thinking of the '99-02 DII, but on the 03-04 the housing lenses are indeed clear, and not fluted. In that case, retrofitting a HID projector housing, lens, and bulb into the DII housing is in fact legal.



For reference, this was my friend's '93 Taurus SHO (Hurricane Sandy had a hand in the was). The retrofitted projectors are from an Acura, and the housing lens was reformed without the fluting.

100% legal.

 

Show me where they conform to FMVSS 108 or to the NHTSA interpretation in the Federal Register linked to in the OP, or a statement from the NHTSA saying it's legal.
Otherwise, just stating your opinion doesn't make it fact.

 

The Acura projector complies with the federal safety standard, using it in another application doesn't void that conformity.

It's the same as using passenger car and truck headlamps in RV and motor coach applications, using the housing in another applications doesn't void the conformity to the standard.

 

"Complete assembly" seems to be a complicated concept.
But it's extremely simple.
If you don't replace the complete assembly it's not compliant.
If you replace the complete assembly it is compliant.
"Housing" is not an interchangeable term with "complete assembly".

 

FMVSS 108 is a 180+ page guide outlining what is and isn't allowed with regard to vehicle lighting on US highways.

The recipient housing conforms. The light pattern, color, and intensity of the HID lamp and optics assembly conforms. Putting one into the other will cause no change in either's relevant features. Explain to me how taking the HID lamp and optics assembly from an Acura housing, in which they conformed to FMVSS guidelines, and installing them in a Ford or Land Rover housing, with a non-fluted front cover, which also conformed to FMVSS guidelines, causes the new pairing to be non-compliant.

I'll save you some time here, you can't.

Nevermind what whoever it was on the phone you spoke with said, as the FMVSS is currently written (or at least when it was written last year when I had to last deal with this, did it change last year), the new pairing will still meet FMVSS 108 guidelines, making the new headlight assembly legal for US highways.