Question about state/provincial vehicle safety inspections

eggsalad

Enlightened
Joined
Mar 30, 2013
Messages
268
Couple of threads lately made me ponder this...

Preface: I last lived in a state that required vehicle safety inspections in 1985 (New York). Back in those days, certain inspectors in certain states would fail a vehicle if it had so-called "e-code" lighting units installed. PA was particularly notorious for this. People who had installed Hella/Cibie/Marchal, etc. fixtures in their cars would routinely swap them out for old sealed beams before taking vehicles in for inspection, then swap the "e-codes" back in as soon as they got their sticker.

Fast forward to today...

Recently there have been a couple of threads regarding the legality of certain bulbs in specific jurisdictions. I'm curious... are state/provincial inspectors (or contractors) physically removing bulbs from headlight fixtures in order to look at the bulbs' compliance markings? If that's the case, I'm astounded, because several-to-many vehicles today require significant disassembly to remove headlight bulbs.

Can someone please enlighten me?
 

Alaric Darconville

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Sep 2, 2001
Messages
5,377
Location
Stillwater, America
Recently there have been a couple of threads regarding the legality of certain bulbs in specific jurisdictions. I'm curious... are state/provincial inspectors (or contractors) physically removing bulbs from headlight fixtures in order to look at the bulbs' compliance markings? If that's the case, I'm astounded, because several-to-many vehicles today require significant disassembly to remove headlight bulbs.

99.9% of inspections are to see if the horn honks and lights do slightly more than flicker.
 
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