Thursday, March 27, 2008

HID is illegal in M'sia? Nobody really knows.

Was reading HID.com.my on whether HIDs are illegal or not. These are some info that I found from that thread:

- JPJ website says yellow and white lights are OK to be used. Blue, Green and Purple are illegal. However, no information on HID found there.

- Sin Chew Negri Sembilan Edition (Dec '07) says HID is banned due to continuous complains from road users.

- A forummer (TitanRev) wrote in to Sin Chew, and the e-mail got published with a JPJ officer responding to his points:
  • TitanRev: If JPJ want to totally "ban" HID, they should go after shops.
  • JPJ Officer: Those who sell HID is not illegal..... only those who use them is illegal...
His response to that:

"You can sell drugs, firearms or plan a robbery and it's not illegal. but...
Those who buy and use drugs, firearms or rob the bank is wrong...

If like this I also go sell drugs loh~~can make big money and legal too...Stupid, really stupid. I know some might think it's a different thing. YES, they are different but the concept is 100% same.

My feeling is, JPJ don't have the intention to totally ban HID. Why? because it will be like cutting down their own money highway. If they cut it 100%, no more extra income for them. Then they will have to search for another fault to fine the road user."

"The officer (also) said they will judge whether a car's headlight is glaring or not by just observing it with their eyes. Yes, you heard me right "Observe with their chicken eye" to determine whether your head lights is glaring or not....Hahahahahahahaha. Joke of the year.
No special equipments or light measuring tools to judge the brightness of the light. If like this die lah~~This is how "high" tech our Malaysian JPJ is. I hope they keep staring into the lights until the eyes become blind."

TitanRev followed up with an e-mail and official letter to JPJ. He took photos, modified a glare shield and finally switched back to halogen lights.

Few forummers and friends have been summoned RM 200 and requested to go to JPJ for inspection. Few have bribed, and mentioned its more worth it to bribe (RM 10 - 50). One guy got caught 3 times on a highway, and bribed 3 times in a night.

Another thread here:

- There is a Star article here. These are my comments:

  • "The Road Transport Department (JPJ) will act against vehicle owners who modify their headlamps with bright Xenon lights that are blinding to other motorists at night." ME: So what if the Xenon lights are NOT blinding to other motorists at night?
  • " JPJ Director of Enforcement Salim Parlan said the Xenon lights could blind drivers of vehicles coming from the opposite direction or in front of them." ME: Yeah, if they are not angled correctly, or don't have a proper glare shield or HID cover.
  • "He said the JPJ had received several complaints from the public on these modified headlamps and would take immediate action against modification beyond the set standard under the Road Transport Act 1987." ME: What the heck is the set standard in Road Transport Act 1987? Where the heck are the details? Nobody really knows. Cheesy!
  • "The Road Transport Act provides for a RM200 fine for modification to a vehicle without the approval of JPJ's technical authorities." ME: This is such a general rule, provisioned SOLELY to allow JPJ officers to "cari makan". If this rule is really enforced, when you upgrade your battery to maintenance free batteries, please fill up the JPJ modification form. Same goes for performance air filters, grounding cables, car audio equipment, strut bars, etc. Stupid rule, quoted by a dungu.
Check out the carmakers reply on this issue:

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/6/25/nation/18075051&sec=nation

More news (Oct '07):

"Transportation Minister Seri Chan Kong Choy said today (Tuesday, 17), the government has not banned Xenon lights (Xenon HID bulb), However, owners of the use of xenon gas lights must comply with the regulations and standards. He said that the Ministry of regulations and standards is in line with international standards UNEEC. Therefore, as long as the owners comply with these standards and access to the land to the Department of Transportation approval, we can use xenon gas lights."

A funny story from Nismo:

"that day they kacau me asking me "ni lampu kuasa berapa?"
me : .....
ni lampu putih salah tau?
me : ha ye ke? surat khabar semua tak tulis pun?
ye ke, tapi memang salah lah, i saman rm200, mcm mana?
me : .... tapi setiap minggu saya ada pergi laman web jpj dan update, website mereka tak tulis pun?
iya lah, lampu putih salah ni, xenon kan
me : hmmm saya ada document laman jpj juga, nak tengok? (i did print it out to keep in my car)
ok bagi saya tengok.
me : (finding the page) they actually wrote halogen white and yellow is allowed, so i`m trying to show him the "LAMPU PUTIH" since he so fav the word
while i was searching.....
ni ada tanda tangan tak?
me : tak ada lah, ni website jpj, i check setiap minggu
oh tak ada tanda tangan tak boleh lah..... u kena minta tandatangan siapa tu?.... ermmmmmmmm ahhh tan kong choi, kalau ada surat dia, kita boleh lepas
me : (WTF)...
macam mana? i saman rm200 ok?
me : (damn wasting my time he just want money) oklah tolong sikit la
macam mana tolong? kena berani lah....
me : saya belanja minum ke?
berapa?
me : 30 lah
aduiiiiiiii jauhnya, saman rm200 tau, rm50 lah
me : (arghhhh damn wasting my time) ok lah (give it to him)
then he pat me, eh u pergi minta tandatangan lah
me : siapa?
tan kong choi
me : macam mana? kat mana?
ermmmm... tak ape lah, you pergi tanya kedai acc yg you pasang itu, tanya ini lampu kuasa berapa, contohnya, kuasa 4 tak boleh lah, kuasa 2 boleh lepas (WHAT THE F*** HE MEANT?) Laughing
me : okla boss u tengok, beam saya ni tak kacau mata orang (in front of my car was a police car, i purposely stop there to show my beam is not glaring)
then he look at the police car in a blur face, ohhh tak lah lampu putih mmg salah
me : bukan, you tengok saya punya lampu tak tinggi, tak kacau mata org

see again with blur face and i feel he wanna leave asap coz got the money already he seems dont understand what i`m talking about. Then i give my final try with layman explanation, he seems dont understand. I doubt he knows why people is complaning bout HID. "



And lastly, a short & funny story from Titan Rev:

Hope you guys don't flame me doing this....I have been using HID on my Frontier...then after this ban thing came I switch back to Halos to avoid any problems but i adjust the halos to higher..well...basically means blinding...I do this as to show those JPJ guys that not just HID glare..even Halos...after driving 1 month like this and keep getting flashes from opposite cars...I felt quite sorry for them as I wasn't targeting them...so sorry to all road users...

Then on the faithful night of 7 July 10:35pm on my way back . I saw a JPJ patrol car in front...so what did I do ? ...I charge up to it cause they where not driving fast. Wala...my headlight blind them from behind and I just keep following them until we reach Jalan Templer. The JPJ patrol on his strobe and I was pull a side...here's how the conver goes.

JPJ: Encik, you punya lampu besar guna HID kah ?
Me: Eh..mana ada..encik you pi tengok betul betul...
I shut off my engine (pop my hood) with my glove on took out the bulb and showed him in the face...Nah tengok ni...original punya bulb mana ada HID.
JPJ: Tapi you punya lampu sanget \"gering\"..
Me: Apa ?? gering ?? maksud encik glaring kan ?
JPJ: Ah..gering kah...glaring kah sama jugak...
Me: So macam man...saya takda guna HID..you mau saman kah ?
JPJ: takda saman..you balik rumah kasih adjust sikit....sangat glaring tau..
Me: Ye keh....Saya ingat JPJ cakap HID glaring saja..lampu kuning takda glaring punya....
JPJ: mana saya tau....
Me: Encik, you tau tak lampu kuning takda adjust baik baik pun boleh glaring tau bukan HID saja...
JPJ: ....pause for a second....
Me: So lampu kuning glaring takda saman lah..HID glaring ada lah...
JPJ: HID JPJ kacau lah...lampu kuning mau kacau apa...orignal punya...
JPJ: You ingat, balik pi adjust lampu tu tau ?
Me: OK OK...
then off i go...so from the conversationwith them it seems like they dont give a shit about glaring halos why ? they can't saman them...just tell them to adjust...no samans mean no income for them loh....Nvm after things gone down already..back to my HIDs..Hehehehe



My conclusion is:

- Don't install HID if scared kena summon

- If install, try to get below 4300K to be safe

- You can also go for white halogens, but I heard somebody got summoned for that too. *sigh*

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