Virginia Auxiliary Lights: A Closed List, and Underglow Stays Unlit

The permitted extras in Va. Code 46.2-1020 are specific and finite: fog lights, of which no more than two may be illuminated at any time; one or two auxiliary driving lights, but only if the manufacturer so equipped the vehicle; two daytime running lights; two side lights of not more than six candlepower or 75.42 lumens; interior lights of not more than 15 candlepower or 188.55 lumens each; and signal lights. Notice the qualifier on driving lights. Virginia permits them where they came from the factory, which is why the State Police inspection regulation at 19VAC30-70-160 E 10 a tells inspectors to reject driving lamps installed on a vehicle already equipped with a four-headlamp system, except an F type headlamp system.

The closing paragraph of Va. Code 46.2-1020 is the provision that decides most aftermarket questions. No vehicle carrying any lighting device other than those required or permitted in Article 3, required or approved by the Superintendent, or required by the federal Department of Transportation may be operated on a Virginia highway, unless the device is both covered and unlit, or has a clear lens with clear reflectors and is unlit. Underglow kits, wheel-well LEDs, colored grille strips, roof-mounted light bars and rock lights all land in that sentence. They may stay bolted to the car, and the car may be driven, provided the device is dark and either covered or clear-lensed. Energising it on a highway is the violation. The same sentence ends by making clear that nothing in the section lets an unauthorized vehicle carry colored emergency lights, blinking or steady-burning. Blue, blue and red, blue and white, and red, white and blue combinations are reserved by Va. Code 46.2-1022 to law-enforcement vehicles and certain Department of Military Affairs, Virginia National Guard and Department of Corrections vehicles.

Va. Code 46.2-1030 B caps the count rather than the type: not more than four lights used to provide general illumination ahead of the vehicle, including at least two headlights and any other combination of fog lights or other auxiliary lights approved by the Superintendent, may be lighted at any one time. Motorcycles get five. So a car with two headlights may run two fog lamps or two driving lamps, not both pairs at once. The inspection regulation repeats the rule at 19VAC30-70-160 C and adds that a headlamp assembly containing both high and low beam bulbs in one housing counts as a single headlamp. You may install more than two fog or auxiliary lamps, but only two may burn.

Wiring and aiming are inspected, not merely the lamp itself. Under 19VAC30-70-160, driving lamps must be wired so they burn only when the high beams are on, must not be mounted above the level of the regular headlamps, and must be aimed so the center of the hot spot drops three inches in 25 feet directly ahead of the lamp. Fog lamps must burn through the tail light circuit even when on a separate switch, must be wired into the low beam circuit on a four-headlamp car or one with driving lamps, must have a clear or amber lens, and must be aimed with the top edge of the high intensity zone at the horizontal centerline. Both are aimed with an optical headlight aimer at a tolerance of four inches in 25 feet. The regulation also tells inspectors to reject any vehicle with wire, unapproved lenses or plastic covers, non-original materials or colored material placed on or in front of an auxiliary lamp, so smoked headlight covers and tinted taillight film fail a Virginia inspection.

Two narrow permissions are worth knowing. Va. Code 46.2-1019 lets any motor vehicle or motorcycle carry one or two spotlights of a type approved by the Superintendent, aimed and used so that no part of the beam goes to the left of the center of the highway or more than 100 feet ahead of the vehicle, and never as a substitute for headlights except in an emergency. Va. Code 46.2-1021.1 lets a privately owned passenger car used for home delivery of commercially prepared food carry one steady-burning white light to illuminate a business sign at night, provided the sign does not use primarily green, red or blue, stands no more than 18 inches high, has no more than four sides with no side larger than 15 by 24 inches, throws diffused rather than glaring light, and is lit only during delivery. Motorcyclists have a route to approval for lamps the Society of Automotive Engineers has not certified: Va. Code 46.2-1005.1 required the Superintendent of State Police to publish a submission and approval procedure for motorcycle auxiliary lights on the Department of State Police website by January 1, 2017, with approved equipment posted there and inspection stations notified.

A lighting violation under Article 3 of Chapter 10 is a traffic infraction under Va. 2-113, punishable by a fine no larger than the Class 4 misdemeanor maximum of $250 set by Va. 2-11. Unlike the tint rule at Va. 2-1052, Va. 2-1020 contains no provision barring an officer from stopping you for it, so lit underglow or an illuminated light bar is a lawful reason for a Virginia traffic stop by itself. Displaying colored emergency lights without authority is the serious end of this topic and is charged under the warning light sections rather than as a simple equipment infraction.

There is a second exposure on the supply side: Va. 2-1002 makes it unlawful to possess with intent to sell, to offer for sale, or to have as equipment on a vehicle operated on a highway any lighting device requiring approval unless it is of a type submitted to and approved by the Superintendent or one that meets or exceeds Society of Automotive Engineers, American National Standards Institute or federal Department of Transportation standards. Separately, Va. 2-1003 makes it unlawful to run such equipment in a defective and unsafe condition, though that section does carry a no-stop clause and lets the court dismiss the summons on proof of compliance.

The everyday consequence is the annual inspection: a non-conforming lamp gets the vehicle a rejection sticker, valid 15 calendar days under Va. 2-1158, during which the operator cannot be charged with the equipment violation while the fault is fixed.