and also irrelevant to OP based on your location...

Lol yeah good point! I read the new posts section and the title didn't say anything about a specific location so I posted without thinking lol :bonk:

All vehicles sold in the US are supposed to have front amber and rear red side marker lamps. Many cars have separate rear side markers, but in the BRZ and FR-S they are built into the tail light assembly so that there's a red light on the side. That's the major difference between USDM and JDM versions of all the aftermarket lights: The USDM version has the side marker light, whereas the JDM version just has a reflector or nothing at all there.

Theoretically you could run JDM tails legally under FMVSS 108 if you also installed some rear side markers in the body of the vehicle.

Even if they give you a ticket, it's an equipment violation. Usually with those you can just fix the issue and get a police officer to inspect it and sign off that the problem has been corrected. Then you send the ticket to the court to have it dismissed. Depending on how likely they are to encounter the same cop again, some people fix their issue, get the ticket dismissed, then put the car back like it was until the next time. That's why I say to keep your old stuff around, just in case you need it in a hurry. You don't want to have to order new parts just to fix a fix-it ticket.

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Chances are you will never get a ticket for it.. but if you are in a suspicious neighborhood or driving drunk, it is a reason to pull you over.

Just to chime in here, I've been running JDM side markers with white led bulbs for the past 6 months and haven't received any extra attention from cops (Washington area). I often drive down backroads at night and appreciate the extra illumination off to the sides in tandem with the DD switchbacks I have. I do still have all the OE stuff just in case though.

You gotta risk it for the biscuit

That is not the purpose of the side marker lights. The purpose of side markers is to improve the visibility of your vehicle to other drivers to the side and rear without blinding their night vision. White and blue light diminishes night vision and adds to eye strain and driver fatigue, whereas red and amber lights do not. It's not just that it's illegal. It's just plain rude, and it says to everyone on the road that you don't give a shit how you affect them.

Maybe you didn't realize this, in which case you ought to rethink it and install amber bulbs. Amber LEDs are not expensive. If you did realize it and simply don't care how you affect other drivers, that doesn't reflect well on you as a human being.

Lol you swapping to white led side markers makes you a shitty rude human being? @extrashaky takes his amber bulbs serious son!

Lol @extrashaky tell us how you really feel?

Yea I agree, white bulbs are annoying but so are all the incorrectly pointed HID kits that a lot of people put on all sorts of cars. So ¯\_(ツ)_/¯



In any case, I think you'll be fine if you don't drive like a jackass but to be extra safe use Amber bulbs/usdm tom's instead of white/blue bulbs and non DOT approved tails

I guess I will work on being a better human being in the future.

I realize the lights are a little obnoxious, but there are a way worse things I could have done. Every time a jacked up pickup rides my ass with his HIDs in a factory halogen reflector housing, I feel all the more justified for having them since they are not nearly as bad as what many drivers have done to their cars.

Yes, if you do it knowingly.

People who install those horrible HID kits should be ticketed as well. It's possible to upgrade to HIDs without blinding oncoming traffic with the right equipment. Those idiotic HID "upgrades" in normal reflector housings deserve tickets. I make a point of hitting my bright lights when I encounter those, and everyone else should also to make sure they know they're being assholes.

So you're saying that it's okay for you to be a jerk because other people are jerks? That doesn't help the guy behind you who hasn't done anything at all to you to deserve your "obnoxious" lights. That's no excuse at all.

Has anyone gotten hassled by cops for aftermarket tail lights and/or side mar...
 

You seem really upset about what other people do with their cars. I suggest a couple deep breaths and taking a nice walk? I mean there's a lot of things to be upset about (drunk driving,street drifting,"hoonage") but white/clear turn signals are pretty low on my list.

Well shit, at least a good amount of people on this forum must be douchebags for having white sidemarkers. :lol:

For the record, I don't put white sidemarkers and I don't really care for them, but I didn't know that white sidemarkers made someone a shitty rude human being. :iono:

Not really upset. Just taking the opportunity to let people know they're being rude. Maybe they didn't know they were being rude. Now they know. If they keep being rude now that they know, they deserve much worse than a ticket.

And to be clear, I don't give a crap what else you might do to your car. Some of our laws are stupid. A set of USDM Tom's tails isn't any safer or more visible than a JDM set. I would have no problem at all running those on my own car, because the lack of built-in side marker is going to make absolutely no difference to other drivers.

This is part of what's wrong with this country. Everybody only thinks about himself and seems to revel in being a fucking tool. "I don't give a shit if I'm blinding other drivers. They can just get over it, cuz this is Amurka and I can do what I want."

This thread is not about drunk driving or street drifting. Are you sure you're in the right place?

I didn't put white on either. Why would I want to make my side markers stand out when they are almost invisible as they are?