E Marks

We are seeing an increasing amount of lamp imports coming in from the far east and other countries.

While most of these are fine and carry the correct certification many do not.

Not to bore you too much below is a brief explanation of E marks. But basically if you fit a lamp without an E mark, then that lamp legally should not be used in the EU. If picked up it will fail an MOT and be illegal if the police pick it up.

Also if a fire or accident occurs then using these lights could invalidate you insurance.

So check your emarks when buying your lamps. Dun-Bri does not supply anything un E marked.

If you are told that the country has a reciprocal agreement allowing their lamps to be used in the UK then this is false, the 1989 No. 1796 Road Traffic The road Vehicle Lighting Regulations 1989 ststes that all lamps must have an E mark on it.

Type Approval - E Marks

What is type approval?

• Type approval is the process which ensures that vehicles, their systems and components, meet the appropriate environmental and safety standards. Currently the scheme covers new road vehicles, agricultural tractors, motorcycles and off road vehicles.

1989 No. 1796 ROAD TRAFFIC The Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989

·         This regulations states that if lamps are fitted without E marks where it is required then the lamp is deemed unacceptable for use within the European Union.

·         There are no reciprocal agreements with any country allowing there lamps to used within the EU.

·         All Lamps must display a European E mark

 

1958 Agreement

The core of the Forum's work is based around the 1958 Agreement, formally titled "Agreement concerning the adoption of uniform technical prescriptions for wheeled vehicles, equipment and parts which can be fitted and/or be used on wheeled vehicles and the conditions for reciprocal recognition of approvals granted on the basis of these prescriptions". This forms a legal framework whereby participating countries agree a common set of ECE Regulations for type approval of vehicles and components. When an item is type approved for a regulation by one participating country, then the approval is accepted by all other participating countries.

Originally, the 1958 Agreement allowed participation of ECE member countries only, but in 1995 the agreement was revised to allow non-ECE members to participate.

List of participating countries

As of 2006^[update], the participants to the 1958 Agreement, with their ECE country code, are:

Code Country 1 Germany 2 France 3 Italy 4 Netherlands 5 Sweden 6 Belgium 7 Hungary 8 Czech Republic 9 Spain 10 Serbia 11 United Kingdom 12 Austria 13 Luxembourg 14 Switzerland 16 Norway

Code Country 17 Finland 18 Denmark 19 Romania 20 Poland 21 Portugal 22 Russian Federation 23 Greece 24 Ireland 25 Croatia 26 Slovenia 27 Slovakia 28 Belarus 29 Estonia 31 Bosnia and Herzegovina 32 Latvia

Code Country 34 Bulgaria 36 Lithuania 37 Turkey 39 Azerbaijan 40 Republic of Macedonia 42 European Community 43 Japan 45 Australia 46 Ukraine 47 South Africa 48 New Zealand 49 Cyprus 50 Malta 51 Republic of Korea 52 Malaysia

Most countries, even if not formally participating in the 1958 agreement, recognise the ECE Regulations and either mirror the ECE Regulations' content in their own national requirements, or permit the use and importation of ECE-approved vehicles, or both. The USA and Canada are the two significant exceptions; there ECE regulations are generally not recognised and ECE-compliant vehicles and equipment are not authorised for import, sale, or use in the USA.

Type approval

The 1958 Agreement operates on the principles of type approval and reciprocal recognition. Any country that accedes to the 1958 Agreement has authority to test and approve any manufacturer's design of a regulated product, regardless of the country in which that component was produced. Each individual design from each individual manufacturer is counted as one individual type. Once any acceding country grants a type approval, every other acceding country is obliged to honor that type approval and regard that vehicle or item of motor vehicle equipment as legal for import, sale and use. Items approved as meeting an ECE Regulation are marked with an E and a number, within in a circle. The number indicates which country approved the item, and other surrounding letters and digits indicate the precise version of the regulation met and the type approval number, respectively.

Although all countries' type approvals are legally equivalent, there are real and perceived differences in the rigour with which the regulations and protocols are applied by different national type approval authorities. Some countries have their own national standards for granting type approvals, which may be more stringent than called for by the ECE regulations themselves. Within the auto parts industry, a German (E1) type approval, for example, is regarded as a measure of insurance against suspicion of poor quality or an undeserved type approval.

List of ECE Regulations

As of 2007^[update], there are 123 ECE Regulations. Most regulations cover a single vehicle component or technology. A partial list of current regulations applying to passenger cars follows (different regulations may apply to heavy vehicles, motorcycles etc).

General lighting

• R3 — Retroreflecting devices
• R4 — Illumination of rear registration plates
• R6 — Direction indicators
• R7 — Front and rear position lamps, stop lamps and end-outline marker lamps
• R19 — Front fog lamps
• R23 — Reversing lights
• R37 — Filament lamps (bulbs) (
• R38 — Rear fog lamps
• R48 — Installation of lighting and light-signalling devices
• R77 — Parking lamps
• R87 — Daytime running lamps
• R91 — Sidemarker lamps
• R119 — Cornering lamps
• R123 — AFS lamps

Headlamps

• R1 - Headlamps emitting an asymmetrical passing beam and/or a driving beam, equipped with R2 or HS1 bulbs (superseded by R112, but still valid for existing approvals)
• R5 - Sealed Beam headlamps emitting an asymmetrical passing beam and/or a driving beam
• R8 - Headlamps equipped with replaceable single-filament tungsten-halogen bulbs (superseded by R112, but still valid for existing approvals)
• R20 - Headlamps emitting an asymmetrical passing beam and/or a driving beam and equipped with halogen double-filament H4 bulbs (superseded by R112, but still valid for existing approvals)
• R31 — Halogen sealed beam headlamps emitting an asymmetrical passing beam and/or a driving beam
• R45 — Headlamp cleaners
• R98 — Headlamps equipped with gas-discharge light sources
• R99 — Gas-discharge light sources for use in approved gas-discharge lamp units of power-driven vehicles
• R112 — Headlamps emitting an asymmetrical passing beam and/or a driving beam and equipped with filament bulbs
• R113 — Headlamps emitting a symmetrical passing beam and/or a driving beam and equipped with North America

The most notable non-signatory to the 1958 Agreement is the United States, which has its own Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and does not recognise ECE approvals. ECE vehicles and components therefore cannot be imported or exported between the U.S. and most of the rest of the world without appropriate modifications (federalization). Canada has its own Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, broadly similar to the FMVSS, but Canada does also accept ECE-compliant headlamps and bumpers.