Artisanal xenon declared war

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Artisanal xenon declared war
03/01/2010
The automotive community was alarmed by the explanation published on the official website of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia about the use of xenon headlights. According to him, illegal xenon threatens with the deprivation of a driver’s license for up to one year and the confiscation of the source of danger.

It happened, the authorities heard the entreaties and curses of motorists blinded by Chinese xenon! Driving a car with non-factory xenon is now considered a violation of Part 3 of Article 12.5 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. Now, drivers who have replaced halogen bulbs in their headlights with xenon ones are threatened with deprivation of their rights for a year with the confiscation of the "instrument of crime." True, the explanation on the site is so vague that even those who paid a lot of money to install solid xenon clutched their heads.

For clarification on the site is attached a letter from the Research and Experimental Institute of Automotive Electronics and Electrical Equipment, which popularly explains why the installation of xenon bulbs does not meet the requirements of the vehicle design. And this does not apply to factory xenon installations, but only cases when instead of a halogen bulb, a xenon lamp is screwed in without replacing the diffusers and reflectors. This is a discrepancy with GOST R 51709-2001, which was adopted in 1999. You can determine the "legitimacy" of xenon by marking it on the headlamp unit - the symbols printed on the optics mean what type of bulb suits it.

The news caused a storm of indignation among motorists: the panicky rushed to change the xenon bulbs back to halogen ones. And those who are more cunning decided to ride without dipped, the penalty for this is only 100 rubles. In the best case, they will illuminate their path with fog lights, in the worst - with high beam, or no light at all, which contradicts the idea of installing xenon “so that it is better to see”. Enterprising sellers have already begun to raise prices for halogen bulbs by 50-100 rubles, and in car services, active recording has begun not dismantling xenon kits. Well, the workers of the whistle and wand, of course, do not disdain a great opportunity to get rich on alarmists, extorting from 1,000 to 5,000 rubles for their eyes closed.

Installing xenon at an authorized dealer is several times more expensive than in a conventional car service. For example, the owner of a Ford Focus dealership billed 18,000 rubles for this. And in a regular car service for xenon on the Mazda3 they ask for 6,000-10,000 rubles. But what about those who install on the old tinted Zhiguli Chinese xenon for 1,500 rubles, which shines into space? Apparently, it is precisely such xenonists who are fighting precisely this explanation. But in theory, everything sounds beautiful, but what about practice?

Checking the light and adjusting the headlights is usually carried out at a vehicle inspection - but it is clear that most of those who tune their cars simply buy it. Not a single muffled car with a “collective farm” xenon will receive a treasured coupon officially. So the option of an annual check at the post of the TRP disappears, special devices remain. Has any head light meter already been developed or will traffic cops detect a violation in the eye: “blinded - deprivation”? Will auto inspectors be given lists of foreign cars that can have both halogen and xenon lights? What to do for owners who spent a lot of money on installing high-quality xenon lighting, for example, completely replaced the headlights? Traffic cops themselves refuse to comment.

It should be noted that for more than a year now, cars with artisanal xenon have been caught in Tatarstan, and a scan of the Supreme Court’s decision to refuse to appeal the deprivation of a driver’s license for violating part 3 of article 12.5 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation has even been distributed on the Internet. The man walked for six months and after the expiration of the term he received the right back. And recently, after the publication of the explanations on the traffic police website, a resident of the Samara region was deprived of rights to drive an Oka car with Mayak lamps marked WL (White Laser) in headlights. Whether he will appeal against the actions of the traffic inspector is still unknown. But

Traffic police officers anonymously informed our editorial staff that at the moment no one was taking away their rights. “From above” there were no orders to capture illegal xenon drivers, the law is still damp, and they have no desire to run into trouble. But greed takes its toll - due to the hype around the "deprivation of rights for xenon" car inspectors will profit from the drivers of "ten" and "sevens". Traffic cops, eager for easy money, can be scared off by a technical inspection ticket. Owners of most foreign cars can declare that their car was purchased from an authorized dealer, and all equipment on it is certified. The hood should be opened only with witnesses and execution of the inspection protocol - with this document it will be possible to subsequently dispute the illegal actions of traffic inspectors.

Recall that in 2006 amendments were already made to GOSTs, according to which the headlights should be white, the turn signals should be orange, and the brake lights should be red. This caused outrage among owners of American-made cars brought to Russia - they have red turn signals. The hunt for the "Americans" lasted about a month, and in the midst of the scandal, the new version of GOST was canceled.

The Russian Federation of Car Owners of Russia plans to stage a protest rally on March 20, in which it will oppose toll roads, increase transport taxes, abolish customs duties, revise technical regulations and reform the traffic police. It is possible that the event will also stand up for the owners of high-quality xenon.
Source: AVTO.RU

 

[Матушкин Андрей Николаевич]

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