# PLEASE Read This First! How to Get the Most from This Forum



## Alaric Darconville

The Transportation Forum comprises an uncategorizable set of threads as well as the Bicycle and the Automotive, Motorcycles Included forum. If your thread deals with bicycles or with cars, trucks, or motorcycles, please use the appropriate subforum. For boats and watercraft, snowmobiles, ATVs, horse-drawn carriages, and the like, the general Transportation forum is the suitable forum.

The automotive and motorcycle subforum of this board is one of the internet's best resources for good, reliable information on this complicated topic. Here's how to quickly and easily make the best possible use of this forum:


Use keywords in the search box at the top right of each page (especially the Google™ Custom Search), and browse other threads before posting a new one; the information you need may well already be available. If you find a thread that's related but still doesn't quite answer your question, go ahead and add your question to that thread.


Stating your vehicle's year, make, model, trim level, and equipment specification (even if you just know a designation such as "Sport" or "XLE") will help get you the best answers. Also please state what country the vehicle was built for, and any modifications that might have been made to the lighting system.


Be mindful that there are a lot of bad ideas and bad products in the vehicle lighting world. All of them are hyped and promoted as great ideas. CPF Rule 11 is particularly important here because of the safety concerns with motor vehicles and their lighting.
This means (among other things):

Homemade headlamps, taillamps, stop lamps, turn signals, fog lamps, etc, are not safe, effective, or legal. We will not help you build or troubleshoot them. We will not argue this point.

"HID kits", "LED conversions", and "projector retrofits" aren't safe, effective, or legal. If you have one and it's not working, we're not going to help you fix it. (If you have one and you _think_ it's working, it's not; get it off your vehicle before someone gets hurt). We will not argue this point. 

Only very few of the "LED bulbs" for non-headlamp/non-foglamp use available on the market work safely and effectively; most of them are unsafe junk. The ones FOR headlamp/foglamp use are ALL unsafe junk. We will not argue this point. See here and here for two examples of "LED drop-ins" that are not legitimate, no matter how hyped on eBay and no matter how rave the reviews for them are.

For a large number of vehicles out there, there is a safe, legal, and effective way to upgrade the lighting. For some, it may require carefully-chosen auxiliary lights. Whatever the manner, we will try our best to help you find that upgrade. It might not always be cheap, and it might not always be easy-- but if it's worth doing, it's worth doing *right*. And _that_ is another point _noöne_ can argue.

There's another difference between this forum and other forums associated with automotive products, or fandom of particular automakers or recreational automotive activities (for example, a site oriented solely to Toyota models, or one for the Jeep, or perhaps an off-roading or motorsports forum): Yes, we do have some advertisements here, but you may notice that none of them make or sell regulated motor vehicle lighting equipment. We may speak highly of particular brands, or particular offerings from certain brands-- these recommendations are genuine, not shilling for a particular company paying us to do so. And speaking of paying us: Moderators volunteer their services and expertise. They are not paid to do this. 

Thanks for reading and applying this advice—when you do so, the board works better for everyone, including you.


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