Is It Illegal To Have Two Different Colored Headlights On Your Car?

Americans will go to great lengths to personalize their vehicle. Doing so has been a staple of their society since Henry Ford's affordable Model T first rolled off the assembly line in 1908, which made owning a newfangled automobile a reality for the masses. More than 15 million Model Ts were eventually sold, launching the U.S. into an era of car ownership, customization, and personalization that, if anything, is stronger than ever.

After a sobering discovery that almost three times more people in the U.S. had died due to traffic accidents than in all previous wars, the National Highway Safety Bureau was created in 1966 to help reduce that number. The first set of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) was created in 1968 for all new cars. According to the NHTSA, between 1968 and 2019, these safety standards prevented over 860,000 deaths, 49 million nonfatal injuries, and damage to some 65 million vehicles. Section 571.108 (Standard No. 108) of the FMVSS outlines exacting regulations for all the lighting and reflective bits and baubles associated with a motor vehicle, including original and replacement headlamps.

It exhaustively outlines not only the colors allowed, but also precisely how they should be focused and aimed. Interestingly, car headlights existed long before light bulbs. Today, the only colors allowed for headlights are white and yellow, and they must be uniform in their appearance. Modifications of any kind must not interfere with the color, brightness, or functionality of these lights. So if you're trying to add some fire to your ride with colored LED headlights — don't.

Thanks to the Highway Safety Act of 1970, the National Highway Safety Bureau morphed into the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to further help reduce the number of deaths, injuries, and financial losses from all the crashes occurring on the country's highways. While the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards are mandated nationwide, you're going to find that state and local regulations have variations that change regionally. 

For instance, while every replacement headlight bulb must have a "DOT" or appropriate SAE stamp on it, California allows both white and yellow colored headlights, while Michigan, Oklahoma, and Texas only allow white. Both Florida and Ohio allow white or amber, which is different (but the same) as yellow in some cases. New York, meanwhile, prohibits any modification that changes the original headlight's design or performance.

Tinting headlights, which typically — and technically — changes the color of the headlight itself, is prohibited in virtually every state but Arizona. It still requires the front headlights to be white or yellow, but doesn't say anything about tinting in its vehicle code. Despite that, it stresses the need for headlights to remain clear and visible, and could be in violation of ARS § 28-922, which states the headlights need to reach a distance of at least 500 feet ahead. Bottom line: if you're going to do anything to your vehicle's headlights (colored or not), be sure you're not going to get yourself in trouble with the long arm of the law, and check your state and local requirements.