Are sidemarkers illegal to not be reflective? Texas. Aftermarket AAC
 

Are sidemarkers illegal to not be reflective? I just got pulled over by a state trooper recently during the day saying my sidemarkers had to be reflective. He thought I put white tape over my sidemarkers (I have the AAC ones).

I got a ticket and was just wondering what the law was on this so it didn't happen again. I thought the purpose of sidemarkers was to let your car be visible at night. Some cars looks like they have lights, others reflective. Both accomplish the same end, but maybe I overlooked the cars with lights being reflective since it's at night.

Yes, they must be reflective. Technically I think you have to have reflective surfaces visible from the sides and rear. the side marker lights satisfy this requirement.

Were you pulled over for only that? Or initially something else? You just got a trooper with nothing better to do or he/she is brand new. Technically the sidemarkers need to be reflective. I've had mine for over a year and never had a problem.

Yeah, he said he I put white tape over my sidemarkers to make it look cooler. (AAC Painted White Sidemarkers. No Tape). He said he doesn't like people who don't take safety into consideration. On my ticket it said "ILLEGAL SAFETY SIDEMARKER. NOT REFLECTIVE. MISSING CORNERS). No clue what missing corners means.

He was an older state trooper. Definitely not new.

Yes they have to be reflective, the only "legal" LED side marker is the Showstopper ones.

That's why I haven't considered changing my side markers or tinting my tail lights. I've been told by a few police that if a car with tinted tail lights is rear ended, they'll assign the fault to the car that was rear ended. It's not worth the risk, or hassle of trying to fight the accident report.

Yeah, I'm going to switch from AAC to Showstoppers. It was just weird that I was stopped for that. I've seen higher-end cars with lights on the side that aren't reflective. To me, reflectiveness helps for at night when other car's lights shine on you. Instead of having reflectors, they have LED lights. I think lights are more easy to see than the standard dull reflectors. During the day, I don't see the point of reflectors. But that's just me. Just..weird.

have had mine since last oct-nov and have driven by many many cops in day and night since then. nothing yet. i am in arkansas though and pretty much anything goes here which is pretty cool

They have to be reflective in case you are parked or don't have your lights on, their lights will have something to reflect off of. Some colors are pretty hard to see at night at a distance, especially to those who have bad eye sight, so someone may not be able to see your car and only be able to see the reflective surface of the lens at a safe enough distance to stop in time.

Each state differs on tinted tail lights so look into tour state. I know here in Hawaii as long as the light can be seen from 200 feet you are ok. I have the kit from headlightarmor.com and no problems in the 2+ years I've had them. I have had AAC sidemarkers for over a year and also no problems.

Ive had the plain tinted sidemarkers.




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they dont reflect to be honest but I've been fine since 2012 with no problems.

I wanted to upgrade to led and don't want to be stopped over to ruin my day...

when people above say showstoppers r legal what do they mean? because they come in plain, tinted and ghosted.

i would imagine the aac ghosted and showstopper ghosted would be the same legal issue.

I was wondering the same since I have ACC and not showstopper ones. Why are the reflective ?

Showstoppers might only be legal if you have the top strip unpainted, since the reflector would still be showing but I'm pretty sure it's still illegal at least in CA. I've got showstoppers and never been ticketed for it even when I got pulled over for missing front plate, but I drive with them on so I doubt it looks like it's unreflective just because the LED is almost always on.

I'd say drive with them ON and maybe you won't get hassled, otherwise deal with fix-it tickets and keep changing old with new

[QUOTE=linvol20;8284165]Ive had the plain tinted sidemarkers.




You are asking about a post from 2 years ago. Not sure if any laws have changed. I tried to look the rules up here in Florida and the only thing I saw was that red had to be used for rear and yellow for the front. Nothing about being reflective. I figure no one would pull me over during the day and at night they will be on so they wouldn't know that they are ghosted.