reflectors!? What do u have...

[Okibi]

I have Jap/US red ones that have been "shaved" front and back.

[Jeo]

clear ones still reflect...

Fairly confident clear ones are still illegal. Something to do with things on the side of vehicles needing to be orange, rear being red and front being white.

Indicators can look clear so long as they still flash orange; which is how I justified mine when I got pulled over for a random RTA inspection about a year ago. The guy questioned why my reflectors were clear, I explained that they weren't reflectors but rather indicators and he was happy.

[GS]

Sanding the letters off and giving them a good polish looks great. But painting them!? is that even legal?...

The way i see it the side reflectors on Mx5's are probably not required for legal purposes in Australia. Australian regulations require a red reflector at the back of the car, but i havent heard of requirements for side reflectors. What other Australian market car has reflectors at the side of the bumper??

To cut costs, i assume Mazda just wanted to fit one bumper around the world so they inserted side reflectors on Australian market cars to fill the spot used by running lights/indicators in other markets.

[Jeo]

a whole bunch of cars from the same era in Australia had side reflectors

[GS]

a whole bunch of cars from the same era in Australia had side reflectors

Mmmm, interesting Jeo. Im starting to rack my brain now...

Aus spec Volvo S40's have orange running lights in that place. What else...???

[madboy]

Sanding the letters off and giving them a good polish looks great. But painting them!? is that even legal?...

The way i see it the side reflectors on Mx5's are probably not required for legal purposes in Australia. Australian regulations require a red reflector at the back of the car, but i havent heard of requirements for side reflectors. What other Australian market car has reflectors at the side of the bumper??

To cut costs, i assume Mazda just wanted to fit one bumper around the world so they inserted side reflectors on Australian market cars to fill the spot used by running lights/indicators in other markets.

and the Japanese market too? because my roadster has orange reflectors at the front and red ones at the back....seems a bit odd that they cut costs on their own market.

[Jeo]

Japanese and American ones had orange at the front and red at the back, Australia had orange all round so I can't imagine they would have made them different for us just for the sake of it.

I'm almost certain there has to be more cars that had side reflectors in Australia around the early 90's, but these two were the first to spring to mind...

Ford Festiva


Honda Prelude

[Garry]

The Prelude ones are the US daytime running lights minus the globes on the AUS models. But yeah, I dont think there is a legal requirement to have a side reflector on Australian cars but if they are fitted they should be orange. The clear "reflectors" on the sides of my car dont actually reflect, unlike some others I've seen. If they are fitted with orange globes that come on with your indicators or parking lights then they are no longer reflectors but indicators/sidelights which are legal.

[PUR157]

To be honest I didn't even consider the legalities when I did the job... (but I kept the originals anyway just in case any problems ever came up)
My train of thought was that since they're used as indicators in other countries, they weren't vital in Oz
(please correct me if I'm wrong though!)

And since everyone was banging on about the clear ones I just thought they were purely cosmetic...

PS the Festiva reflectors are supposedly a direct fit on the MX5... ask 1red5 how I know...

PPS credit to be given where credit is due, I got the idea of the lettering shave from this forum (can't remember who so I apologise to that person in advance ) but they did a very detailed write up on shaving off the letters while polishing it to leave the whole unit as reflective as it was originally. So thanks forgotten tech writeup person!

[madboy]

PPS credit to be given where credit is due, I got the idea of the lettering shave from this forum (can't remember who so I apologise to that person in advance ) but they did a very detailed write up on shaving off the letters while polishing it to leave the whole unit as reflective as it was originally. So thanks forgotten tech writeup person!

Me too, i also followed Hakuna's write up, I was surprised at the massive difference, maybe it was simply the final polish, but once i was done, i gave up the idea of buying clear lenses

[Mr Morlock]

lighting rules in Au are consistent and many other countries have the same basic rules. If the car is fitted with side reflectors and many are not then the reflector must be amber- clear is not legal. I would guess that removing the standard reflectors might not be legal either but only an expert might notice and most cars do not use them anyway though trucks do. I cannot imagine why would remove the lettering on the reflectors as the aesthetic effect would be lost on 99.99%. Removing the marking has absolutely no benefit in function at all. The reflective function is achieved with the moulded optics. A reflector returns light without the need for its own light source - ie no need for a bulb. The marking often identifies that the reflector is made to a certain standard and may have an E marking on it. Most tail lights and headlamps also carry certification markings. Reflectors can be turned into side turn sigs with aftermarket products and clear lense and amber bulb is then possible- but it is overkill as there is already a repeater on the mudguard which is on most cars today. If you turned them into t/sigs then the car would have 3 on each side.

[madboy]

I think one of the main reasons for removing the lettering is to remove a place for polish and other cr*p to collect and make said lettering stand out in Bold, in the end its mainly asthetic, but each to their own I guess.

I removed the lettering on mine and polished the lenses because the surfaces were quite bad and the lettering was very prominant

[hks_kansei]

I'm considering the painting of my side reflectors, as I cant see how it will cause any problems as my Mondeo has no side reflectors and is fine.

however I'm currently downloading the relevant legislation (for Victoria) and shall check the legality.

[hks_kansei]

Vicroads
VSI 10
Section 7.10
Page 27

http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/NR/rdonl ... /VSI10.pdf

Mandatory
On all motor vehicles the length of which exceeds 6m except passenger cars (MA), forward-control passenger vehicles (MB) and off-road passenger vehicles (MC)

on all trailers.

Optional
On passenger cars (MA), forward-control passenger vehicles (MB) and off-road passenger vehicles (MC)

On all motor vehicles other than those in category (MA), (MB) and (MC) the length of which does not excees 6m

from my reading, in Victoria it appears that side reflectors are not mandatory on the MX5 (being under 6m in length and of an MA class vehicle) and that the side reflectors are only optional.

so yeah, basically, I can paint my reflectors legally.
if you have reflectors, they must meet the appropriate regulations (which are listed in the above legislation as well), but you dont need to have reflectors anyway.

[Mr Morlock]

It cannot be denied however that the reflector is a functional product and the small dimension of the car certainly makes it difficult to see so it just might save getting crunched. Reading of the reg's also probably identifies that the side reflector where fitted must be amber.