Interpretation ID: 20862.ztv

Herr P. Binder
Valeo
Stuttgarter Strasse 119
74321 Bietigheim-Bissingen
Germany

Dear Herr Binder:

This is in reply to your fax of October 29, 1999, to Taylor Vinson of this Office. You have asked whether certain rear lighting configurations comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108. The vehicle in question is equipped with a spoiler. You tell us that "if the rear foglamp/and or the Backup lamp will be switched on and the spoiler is in rest position (e.g. low speed or stationary vehicle) the spoiler will be extend[ed] first of all." The time to extend/restore the spoiler is about 4 seconds.

In the first configuration, your "Variant A," the rear fog lamp and/or backup lamp will be covered by the spoiler when it is not extended. The fog lamp is not an item of lighting equipment required by Standard No. 108 and it is immaterial to compliance with the standard if the spoiler covers it. The backup lamp, however, is an item of required equipment. Paragraph S5.1.3 prohibits motor vehicle equipment that impairs the effectiveness of lighting equipment required by Standard No. 108. In order not to impair the effectiveness of the backup lamp, the spoiler must be deployed at the time the backup lamp is activated (i.e. when the transmission is placed in reverse gear), at least to a position that allows the entire backup lamp to be instantly visible. We read your description as indicating that the spoiler is deployed during a 4-second period after the backup lamp is switched on; this is not acceptable. Nor would a configuration be acceptable in which activation of the backup lamps is delayed for 4 seconds when the transmission is placed in reverse gear, to allow deployment of the spoiler.

In "Variant B," the rear fog lamp and/or backup lamp are located in the spoiler "and therefore movable." However, "if the spoiler is in rest position the lamps are covered, if the spoiler is extended the lamps are visible." We don't quite understand how a backup lamp integrated into the rear spoiler is covered when the spoiler is at rest, but, as we advised in the previous paragraph, the backup lamp must not be obscured by the spoiler at any time when the lamp has been activated, and the lamp is activated when the transmission is placed in reverse gear. Furthermore, the backup lamp as installed in the spoiler, must comply with all photometric and visibility requirements that apply to backup lamps when it is activated.

Sincerely,
Frank Seales, Jr.
Chief Counsel
ref.108
d.11/24/99