Freelander 1 2002 td4 - H4 bulbs change to yellow/amber legal? Where to get from?

Hello All,

Is it legal to change the headlamp bulbs to yellow/amber? Assume so as I saw a BMW recently which I found much less disturbing, but then is there any place where to get them? Went on Amazon but couldn't find it and ebay not either. Otherwise would have a film to put over, but am not sure if works as when traveling I use those adaptors from left to right hand driving.

Regards
Matthias

You have to ask yourself why you want yellow. For many year France would only allow yellow headlamps, until the people in charge saw sense.
H4 bulbs are bad enough as it is, without making them worse by using yellow bulbs.

I always wondered why the french went for the yellow bulbs. You still, very, very, very rarely see them.

They were supposed to give better vision in fog / smog and reduce oncoming glare, until it was proven that they didn't, the French quietly dropped the regulation....

The theory is sound that they could give less glare and better visibility under certain conditions, but you'll also get a reduction in output. I'd say for most people the trade off for normal UK road driving would not be sufficient.

I do think they looked quite cool, in a quirky french sort of way...

I didn’t know the French looked where they were going when driving…?

Nodge68 said:

You have to ask yourself why you want yellow. For many year France would only allow yellow headlamps, until the people in charge saw sense.
H4 bulbs are bad enough as it is, without making them worse by using yellow bulbs.

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Nowadays I would say I don't understand why French changed to standard from yellow, but my side, yes might be the anti-glare, but for me is more the blue light emission at night. I use usually an amber UVEX at night which for me makes a difference in not getting tired that quickly, but the blue light has also been shown to cause astigmatism the way it enters the eye. Especially I think the LED one. So I'd like to try and see for myself if it's soo much worse. I don't want to be dazzled all the time by it so wouldn't want to do to others either.

mbrokof said:

Nowadays I would say I don't understand why French changed to standard from yellow, but my side, yes might be the anti-glare, but for me is more the blue light emission at night. I use usually an amber UVEX at night which for me makes a difference in not getting tired that quickly, but the blue light has also been shown to cause astigmatism the way it enters the eye. Especially I think the LED one. So I'd like to try and see for myself if it's soo much worse. I don't want to be dazzled all the time by it so wouldn't want to do to others either.

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Standard halogen headlamps product very little blue light, it's all concentrated into the red, orange, yellow spectrum (about 3200°k), with only a few % of the light just entering the bottom edge of the blue spectrum above 4600°k. Halogen headlamps definitely won't cause a stigmatism to other road unsers.

By using yellow lights yourself, your eyes will be more sensitive to blue LED or HID lights of vehicles coming towards you, meaning the light from your own lights will literally disappear, making you effectively blind for a few seconds.

I've done extensive research into this subject, so have a good understanding of lighting colour temps, and the effect it has on eyesight at light.

Thank you @Nodge68 that's very interesting. Especially the part with vehicles coming towards me when having yellow bulbs. Did you test that for yourself or was it someone you came across, when doing your research on it? I am still considering testing it to see how my eyes react to it.
I am wondering if it's not getting more sensitive, eyes but if it's getting more normal eyes through detox and things that I am doing, but anyway. About the halogen, yes agreed they have a better spectrum than newer bulbs but I recognised still to kind of bluish is too bright for me which started not that long ago. No new bulbs probably in two or more years.