So my STOCK Civic is lower than the legal limit in Texas.

[Cd]

I like the look of a lowered car, and like that it also has a side benefit of lowering drag.

So I looked up the laws on theTexas DPS site :

Head Lamps
Every head lamp upon every motor vehicle, including motorcycles, motor-driven cycles and mopeds, shall be located at a height of not more than 54 inches nor less than 24 inches to be measured from the center of such lamp to the level ground upon which the vehicle stands when such vehicle is without a load.

Guess where my STOCK headlamps are located ?

22" at the center to the ground, and "20 to the center of the filliment .


And the 54 " light rule ? Every.Single. Day I see truck after truck at my job that completely sails over that in height.

This is Texas.
Odds are I would get a ticket for having my car at stock height if rhe officer felt like it.

Should I risk lowering the car ?

[freebeard]

Pop-ups are for sissys. Get some Chevy/Buick teardrops.

[Gasoline Fumes]

I remember reading something about the Civic headlight height many years ago. It was lower than allowed, but I thought Honda got the law changed or something. I can't find anything on Google. Maybe it was in a car magazine.

[Blacktree]

If the car is stock, I wouldn't worry about it. What are they gonna do, force you to redesign your car?

[Piotrsko]

If the officer is being a dick, they impound it @a ridiculously expensive fee schedule.

Ask me how I know this.....

[Cd]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

If the officer is being a dick, they impound it @a ridiculously expensive fee schedule.

Ask me how I know this.....

My car was stolen, and then impounded.
By the time that I found it, it had racked up a $400 bill.
I had my car destroyed AND it cost me $400 to get it back.

I was never informed that the car had been found, and I had to search for it by calling all the impound yards.


Just to be clear, I'm not worried about getting ticketed for having my car as it was stock.
I was just posting about how absurd the laws are.

I would like to lower the car still.

[freebeard]

[hint] Is the windshield header less than 54"? [/hint]

[Caddylackn]

The purpose of the lowered law (headlight centerline to ground min.) is to prevent blinding oncoming cars. Headlights are to be aimed down a certain amount of inches at a fixed distance so the focal point of the light is on the road not straight ahead. On a lowered car the headlights are not aimed down but almost level so they can see down the road, so anytime the car is going up even a slight grade, they are blinding oncoming cars with the focal point of the light. You will notice this driving. Almost all lowered cars in the opposite direction seem to be blinding you unless they are going downhill. It also seems that most lowered cars have obnoxiously bright headlights and foglights.

there is also the law that the rim of the wheel has to be below the lowest point of the body, so the car can steer if there is a flat. Common sense, but I am always amazed at how many lowered tuner cars I see that looks like they violate this rule.

[freebeard]

The setup at Permalink#2 had sealed beam headlights at eye level. One could use that old yellow beam like a laser pointer on high.

Anything above eye level would be better on low beam.

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by Blacktree

If the car is stock, I wouldn't worry about it. What are they gonna do, force you to redesign your car?

Apparently in California.

https://www.drive.com.au/news/hyunda...st-california/

The US division Hyundai has stepped in to help an i30 Sedan N owner after Californian authorities suspended the performance car's registration for more than four months, claiming its factory-fitted exhaust is “too loud” in certain drive modes.

The owner has since been in limbo as the state referee claimed his car could not be re-tested until he could prove Hyundai had exchanged the exhaust for a quieter one, despite the factory-fitted system being deemed legal by federal regulators.

Over the following two months, the owner was subsequently sent back-and-forth between the head office of Hyundai US and the dealer which sold him the i30 Sedan N, with a case manager from the car-maker eventually stepping in to find a resolution.