Does this make the headlight not effective?

So,

My housings are gross and I don’t feel like doing a grand to a grand and a half Morimoto or alphrex upgrade right now.

That being said, I found halogen reflectors on eBay that just offers a chrome delete look to it. However, even the turn signal housing is blacked out. Doesn’t it have to be silver reflective for it to work?

 

Yes, blacking out the headlight housing, especially the reflective surfaces, will negatively impact lighting performance. Tinting or painting the housing black reduces the amount of light that is reflected and emitted, leading to decreased visibility, especially at night. Black surfaces absorb more light than reflective surfaces like chrome. This means less light will be reflected and directed onto the road, making it harder to see and be seen.

 

Exactly what I thought. The housing isn’t blacked out itself, it’s just had the internal components blacked out. So the external aspect is still clear. However, the reflective silver is now black.

I just wanted to confirm that they do in fact need to be reflective.

 

They don't have to be. Blacking out the housing makes it less brighter than a chrome housing. I'm sure it's a D.O.T. approved and legal.

 

Fair point, it’s lasted as being dot approved and legal.

I just don’t want it to drastically cut my visibility on the road. Here’s a more zoomed in one of the blinker housing.

 

If you don’t want the turn signals to be dim and less noticeable to other drivers, can’t you get a normal oem style aftermarket light? I’d be worried turn signals would be a lot less noticeable to others if they dont have a reflector. Keep in mind, it’s not just reflecting the light, it focuses it so that it’s visible much further from head on.

Also, I’m kind of doubting those actually meet DOT. Lots of aftermarket lights don’t, even if they claim it.

 

A lot of the cheaper aftermarket housing don’t project light as well as the originals. Learned this lesson trying to find replacements for our Tacoma.

 

This will drastically reduce blinker brightness if you use the stock filament bulbs, as they rely on the chrome reflector to project light. (This is speaking from experience. In my past Tacoma, I've had reverse lights where the reflector was blacked out.)

You can find an LED "bulb" with many outward-firing LEDs to make up for this. However, you'll need to either upgrade your flasher module or add load resistors to avoid hyper flashing.

Another possibility is to add amber LED strips or fang lights to augment the now-dimmer filament-bulb blinkers.