Morris Minor Owners Club

LED LIGHTS

The item in issue 5/2004 on the use of LED clusters for the rear lights on old vehicles was either over simplistic or unnecessarily complicated, depending on your point of view. It ended with the words ‘if it has an e-mark, and works, it’s legal.’ In the context in which it was written, the phrase could have been simplified to ‘if it works, it’s legal’. The benefit of using LED clusters is that they give a better light and use less power than the conventional bulbs they replace.

Although regulations normally require that lamps are e-marked, this of course does not apply to those vehicles that were in use before the relevant European regulations were in existence, so the e-mark element is a red herring as far as all but the very youngest classic vehicles are concerned and the lights and charging systems fitted to those youngsters are unlikely to have need of assistance from modern technology.

Further research (with the help of Mike Lowe at the Department for Transport) into the Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations (1989), its schedules and three subsequent amendments reveals that the regulations for each type of lamp differ. For vehicles first used prior to 1972, no lamps need to be e-marked. For vehicles made between 1972 and 1974, the front lamps have to be e-marked while for those made between 1974 and 1986, the indicators do not have to be e-marked, but most other lamps do. Going back the other way, where lamps are not e-marked, there is sometimes a specified power requirement, but for others there is no standard set other than that the lights should be visible from a reasonable distance and angle. In the case of stop lamps, a power range of between 15 and 36 watts is specified, but there is no stipulation in respect of front and rear position lamps.

Consequently, there is nothing in law to stop anyone with a vehicle first used prior to 1972 fitting LED front and rear position lamps (or fitting LED rear position lamps to vehicles first used in 1972 and 3) whether they are e-marked or not. For later vehicles, such lamps MUST be e-marked, so (presumably) the LED rear light sets available for many popular modern cars must have been Type Approved and be so marked.

None of this, of course, addresses the issue of whether it is practical to fit such lamps. For those who use old vehicles after dark on today’s roads, it is far more important to be seen than it is to maintain total originality in the lighting department, and that means being willing and able to use headlamps when all other vehicles are using them rather than having to conserve battery by driving on side lights alone for as long as possible, so the theory is excellent – but does it work? Feedback to the secretary would be welcome.