Sammons

Had the pleasure of driving my Z06 from Houston to visit San Antonio this past weekend and had a great time. The Z drawing onlookers throughout the trip, with one unfortunate circumstance... one of San Antonio's finest decided to inform me that the rear side markers on my car are required by law to be red. This in turn led him to feel obligated to write me $167.10 ticket for my obvious infraction.

I'll take care of the ticket but following the incident I started looking and I've seen both red and yellow rear marker lights.

Anyone have any insight as to the difference in the color of these lights... red vs yellow?

ncvette_1FUNRIDE

Just out of curiosity are your clear or blacked out? If they are clear, do they have red lights in them?

The reason I am asking is we had a discussion about this very topic in another thread not long ago.

OH yes, I haven't seen yellow or orange on the back corners. Amber lights are usually on the front corners. Some run clear front corners with amber bulbs.

Sammons

The car hasn't been modified so the amber or yellow rear lights came that way from the factory. I'll take the care back to the dealer for thier response and change out of the lights if neccessary.

I've recently seen a few yellow lights on the rear of a few vettes in different magazines but I honestly never thought much of it until now...

Wezel

It's wonderful that the LEO has eliminated a serious threat to public safety.

You must have done something else to get his attention; ...Maybe?

glenB

Try this, then check your state requirements

0018] The Department of Transportation (DOT), in its Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, 49 C.F.R. .sctn.571.108 (2000), or "FMVSS 108," regulates all lamps, reflective devices, and associated equipment. FMVSS 108 can be found at www.nhtsa.dot.gov and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. DOT Standard 1383 (part of FMVSS108) adopts the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Standard J592 (July 1972 and August 2000), J2042 (September 1996, March 2000, and March 2003, and J578 (February 1977) for motor vehicle clearance, side marker, and identification lamps.

[0019] SAE Standard J592, paragraph 3.1 defines a "clearance lamp" as a lamp "mounted on the permanent structure of the vehicle as near as practicable to the upper left and right extreme edges that provide light to the front or rear to indicate the overall width and height of the vehicle." SAE Standard J592, paragraph 3.2 further defines a "side marker lamp" as a lamp that is "mounted on the permanent structure of the vehicle as near as practicable to the front and rear edges, that provide light to the side to indicate the overall length of the vehicle." SAE Standard J592, paragraph 3.3 defines "combination clearance and side marker lamps" as "single lamps which simultaneously fulfill performance requirements of clearance and side marker lamps." SAE Standard J592, paragraph 3.4 defines an "identification lamp" as "lamps used in groups of three, in a horizontal row, that provide light to the front or rear or both, having lamp centers that are spaced not less than 150 mm nor more than 310 mm apart, mounted on the permanent structure as near as practicable to the vertical centerline and the top of the vehicle to identify vehicles 2032 mm or more in overall width." Unless otherwise noted, the SAE definitions of these terms are adopted and used herein. The lamp of the instant application is intended to be used in any or all of these applications. The various embodiments discussed infra will satisfy all SAE standards for photometric requirements as well as chromaticity.

[0020] SAE Standard J592 also specifies certain minimum and/or maximum luminous intensity requirements for vehicular lamps functioning as clearance, side marker, and identification lamps. According to the aforementioned standards, a minimum luminous intensity must exist at various points in the illumination zone to be in compliance. These specific photometric requirements for clearance, side marker, and identification lamps, as set forth in SAE Standard J592, are included herein below.

mpuzach

My understanding is that front side markers are required to be amber, rears red. It's been that way since 1968.

ncvette_1FUNRIDE

So you have a 2008 Z06 that you bought new (and hasn't been modified by a previous owner) that has amber lights on the back rear corners?

That seems unusual to say the least. All Corvettes that I have seen have amber fronts and red rear side markers.

Knob Jockey

Is this a 'Foreign Market' variation?

Metal Skull

a pic would be great.

cclive

I've looked at pictures of european C6s and every one has red rear side markers...even the new ZR1. If GM made the car with the wrong color, then they should be responsible for it...the car is supposed to meet all vehicle code standards in the 50 states. If they will admit the mistake, then you can take that admission to the judge and get the ticket dismissed.

CandyRed77

European Vettes have all amber side indicators, front and rear.
If you bought the car new and are sure nobody changed them, maybe it was an oh-oh in the factory, they build them mixed (US and Euro versions), so maybe somebody messed it up...

Sonny

Sammons

Thanks for all the responses... I have not modified the rear markers they are yellow or amber. When the patrol car showed up behind me I ran through everything I had done to warrant being pulled over and I honestly didn't do anything that would have prompted the attention I got. I don't want to bash the officer maybe an uneventful night or a bad day who knows. In any event I will take the car back to the dealership and ask them to change the markers out and show them the ticket I recieved.

PolishDude

wow that leo was just being a d*ck if he pulled you over simply for that

Sammons

During the stop I handed him my concealed handgun license with my driver's license he actual threw it back at me and said I didn't ask for that. Then proceeded to question me on whether or not I had my weapon on me... When he was done printing out my ticket he dropped it in the front seat and walked off... I sat there wondering if there was more to follow... fortunately there was not. For what it's worth I will file a complaint with the San Antonio police department I don't feel his antics were warranted. You know you try to keep respect but sometimes people’s actions make it difficult....

Tally Ho

I would get a statement from the dealer that this was a factory flaw and take the citation to court. I'm sure any judge worth his weight would throw this out. It sounds like you caught an LEO having a really bad day. That's no excuse for the rudeness, though.

JerryC5

On my plant tour, a export vette was pointed out to me, with the comment " the export models have amber side markers"

cclive

Funny, I went and looked at some european pics and the rear side marker looked red...even a european ZR1 video...must be the video just looks that way...I've confirmed that you are right...they must have just installed the wrong side marker lamps in his car...like the recent mistake in seat color on that GS...

Sammons

I'm pretty much convinced they must have installed the wrong rear marker light as the rest of the European modifications you mentioned are not present on my car.

The dealer advised that I should call the parts department with my VIN and they will look up the issue with the marker lights.

PJRed2008

Its a violation of state law. Its his job to enforce state law. Doh.

Bucknut2006

If it was a 2010 I would just think blame it on a government conspiracy to increase revenue.

Sounds like you should be able to fight this in court, but the time and effort will probably equal the cost of the ticket in the long run. Three or fours hours out of your day, sitting in court might equal $160. Maybe GM could reimburse you for the ticket.