STAY LEGAL WHEN INSTALLING LED LIGHTS
About 20 years ago, I remember swapping out the sidelights in my Mk 1 Golf GTI for newfangled LEDs. They gave a feeble blue glow and rewarded my efforts with an MoT fail. But fast-forward 20 years and the situation is very different, with a variety of retrofit LEDs designed to replace filament bulbs.
LEDs’ major advantage is their brighter, clearer light, a great improvement on halogen headlamps. The best ones give a crisp, dipped beam pattern that will not dazzle other motorists. They also last far longer than filament bulbs.
Fitting a replacement LED bulb is a doddle, but before you rush out and buy them, there are a few legal aspects to be aware of.
Part of the testing for legal conformity is to test the lamp holder (for example, the headlight unit) and the light source as one entity. So E-marked all-in-one LED headlights are fully road-legal. But LED retrofit bulbs (to
