It’s a DOT requirement to have front (and rear) lit side markers in this country.
As stated by Wikipedia:
“In North America, amber front and red rear side marker lamps and rear reflectors are required. The law initially required lights or rear reflectors on vehicles made after 1 January 1968. This was amended to require lights and rear reflectors on vehicles made after 1 January 1970. These side-facing devices make the vehicle’s presence, position and direction of travel clearly visible from oblique angles. The lights are wired so as to illuminate whenever the vehicles’ parking and tail lamps are on, including when the headlamps are being used. Front amber side markers in North America may or may not be wired so as to flash with the turn signals. Side markers are permitted outside North America, but not required. If installed, they are required to be brighter and visible through a larger horizontal angle than US sidemarkers, they may not flash, and they must be amber at the front and rear unless the rear sidemarker is incorporated into the main rear lamp cluster, in which case it may be red or amber. Some Japanese, European, British and US-brand vehicles have side markers in Europe and other countries where they are not required.”
Installation of the LED tail lights does away with the rear reflectors and markers, and today, I did away with the front ones as well when I swapped them out for color-matched counterparts. Compromising safety in the name of better looks is nothing new in the VW world. However, it all has to come down to common sense. How much safety are we sacrificing really in terms of removing the side markers? That’s debatable. To many, myself included, the improved look of the car is a price worth paying. Besides, in terms of law enforcement, no one but an ultra-anal retentive police officer with deep knowledge of automotive lighting requirements and a hard-on for Volkswagens would enforce this law- or one can only hope. In any case, I kept the stock amber markers just in case. These color-matched ones are so thickly painted that they don’t allow any light to pass through them and I did not disable or disconnect the bulbs at all, so they are still working behind them. I still have the option of smoking the stock ones to let light pass through them and be more compliant but in reality it’s not a huge concern at this point. They do clean up the front end a lot. It looks less “busy”. If I had my option I would have molded them into the bumper but that’s a lot of body shop work involved and this works well for now.
Published under: Exterior, Lighting
