Originally Posted by essayons

those are exactly what I'm talking about. Every time you step on the brake, the lights flash.

And it doesn't speak to the "politeness" of the traffic, just the irritation of the damn sequentials lighting up every time the idiot in front of me steps on the brake pedal. The last time I sat behind that I wanted to rear end him just to make it go away. I was in a company car at the time, though.

Originally Posted by Old Mustanger

Daytime visibility is the biggest issue. You have 3 problems with tinting tail lights:

1) In bright sun the lights are not bright enough to be seen quickly & easily, especially at the required 200' distance.

2) Any sun glare on the exterior surface of the lens/lens cover will make the lights too dim to see at 200'. Having a matte surface on the outside of the lens cover would help this.

3) The tail light surface is designed with reflex, it is a pyramid shaped surface on the inside surface of the outside lens. Basically, if another car is behind you and they have their lights on, it will make your tail light lens glow as if it were lighted. Adding any tint will reduce or eliminate the briteness of the reflex. The reflex is dimmed by twice the tinting rate.

I am a retired Engineer, I have more than a few years in automobile design & testing, I know what I am talking about, I am not voicing an "opinion", this is based on fact. Matter of fact, I designed a couple versions of the fox body tail & marker lights from the mid to late 80's.
I am pretty sure that most police departments will not ticket you for the tinted tail lights.

But having tinted tail lights and getting rear ended should get you the "at fault" ticket because you reduced the visibility of the OEM safety equipment (lights & reflex). You might get lucky and maybe the cop doesn't notice, but I would not count on it.

Originally Posted by White05GT

Gets your attention though, doesn't it? That's the purpose of brake lights.

Personally I hate getting behind anyone with tinted tails. It DOES reduce visibility and looks like crap on most cars.

Originally Posted by bakerjd

Here's the video I took today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2aZH...1&feature=plcp

And about the whole rear ending thing. If someone rear ends me there is NO way I find it acceptable to be blamed due to my tail-lights being tinted. That would be horse ****. If someone is driving a vehicle they should be paying attention to the road and should not be following closer than 2-3 car lengths giving ample time for them to stop if they were in fact paying attention. Brake lights AIDE the driver behind you, they don't dictate your actions.

Originally Posted by jdmcbride

I don't know bakerjd, your tail lights are barely visible in that video (unless the video makes it look dimmer than it actually is). Even if the officer didn't write up the tickets as your fault, the person in the car behind you would probably sue you for having a modification to your car that severely reduces the effectiveness of the tail lights. And you almost had it right, the brake lights indicate your actions, not dictate them.

In most states it is illegal to tint any of the lights on a vehicle. But I love the way the rear of your car looks with the tint.