All our products have a 12-month warranty from date of purchase

 All items we list on eBay clearly show a compatibility list in the item description page. Please read this carefully before placing your order, as we can’t accept responsibility for errors of this nature.  If you are in any doubt, please contact us for advice before buying an item.

 We do not have retail premises, but you are welcome to visit our warehouse to look at any item you may be interested in.  Please call before travelling to ensure we have stock available.  Our opening hours are Monday to Friday 9 am to 4 pm.  We are not open on weekends.

 We are a UK based company and all items are shipped from our warehouse in the West Midlands.

 We accept payment via PayPal, bank transfer, cash on collection and most credit cards.

All items are shipped from our UK warehouse by Royal Mail first class or Courier within two working days of our receiving payment. 

Most postal items sent to UK Mainland destinations arrive within one to three days, but Royal Mail guidelines state we should allow 15 working days from the date of dispatch before an item sent to a UK address is considered lost.  For international items, they stipulate 25 working days. 

Orders dispatched by courier are sent on a next working day service. Please note that items going to addresses in Northern Ireland, Highlands & Scottish Isles are sent on a two- to three-day service. 

International Courier shipments are normally delivered within seven working days. 

International deliveries (by post or courier) can be delayed if the item is held for inspection by customs on entry to the destination country, and this is obviously outside our control.  Please note that any customs duties, VAT or other charges payable when an item is sent to an international destination are the buyer’s responsibility. 

 Please download the appropriate fitting/troubleshooting guide accessible from the link below: 

http://autoartltd.co.uk/technical-tips.php 

We regret that we are unable to offer a fitting service. 

-  Why do my new angel eye headlights have a sticker on them which says "NO HID" or “HID bulb not allowed”? 

Fitting an aftermarket HID kit (sometimes also referred to as a Xenon bulb kit) to any of our headlights will invalidate the manufacturer’s warranty, as it is possible for the headlights to be damaged as a result. 

 Please also note that aftermarket HID kits are not legal for road use in the UK and most other European countries – see the following link for further information: 

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety/drs/hidheadlamps

When you're comparing prices for accessory lighting, make sure you're comparing apples with apples. For instance, two side repeaters that might seem to be exactly the same can actually be very different when you examine them closely.

There are many ways in which manufacturers & distributors can cut costs when it comes to side repeaters, or any other lights for that matter. Some of them are:

• Using a lower grade of plastic. Non-automotive grades of plastic are lighter, less resistant to heat and ultraviolet rays (amongst other things) and will not be as durable.
• Making the lenses and/or housings thinner than the original item, or reducing the strengthening webs on mounting clips. It might not seem like a lot on just one item, but when you're manufacturing thousands, the savings in material can be substantial. Unfortunately the end product ends up being weaker, more susceptible to breakage and less durable. - saves material, but weakens the structure.
• Using cheaper grades of steel when making the tooling - the large metal moulds that are used to manufacture the lamps. The finished product will then often have surface imperfections because the tooling wears out quicker.
• Not trimming excess plastic off after the item is moulded. Looks ugly, and can also sometimes make fitting the lamps difficult, resulting in broken clips, etc.
• Bonding the lens & housing together with glue or silicone rather than a more effective, longer-lasting (and more expensive) process like ultrasonic welding or hot-melt fixing. Again, can result in water leaks or lenses coming adrift.
• Bonding the lenses together by hand rather than mechanically in a purpose-made jig - again, saves money but can result in variable quality.
• Using lower grade rubber material for sealing rings and gaskets.
• Not having the lenses certified to European e-approval standard. Saves money but may have MOT- or even legal implications for the end user and the supplying dealer.
• Supplying the lamps loose rather than in proper retail packaging.
• Supplying the lamps without bulbs or bulbholders.

E-mark approval on a lamp basically means that it has been tested by an approved photometric laboratory and has achieved the standards laid down by the EC for fitment to a vehicle within the European Union.

There are other regulations which apply in the UK, such as those for Construction and Use, but broadly speaking, vehicles registered from 1986 onwards are required to have e-marked lights if they are used on a public road.

Given the fact that there could be insurance- or even legal implications if a vehicle without e-marked lights is involved in an accident, always follow the manufacturer or distributors guidelines when fitting & using styling lighting. Some lights, for instance, are not legal for road use, and if you do fit them to your car you assume all responsibility for any consequences thereof. 

Clear or coloured taillights don't have any red reflective surfaces as required by law. In order to stay within the law, two red reflectors must be fitted to the rear of the car on which the lights are installed. Yes, it may not look nice, but it could save you a heap of cash if you're involved in an accident.

We know of somebody who ignored these instructions and didn't fit the reflectors. Another driver rode into the back of his car while it was parked in a dark lane, and because there were no reflectors his insurance company refused to pay out, arguing that the car wasn't road legal. He ended up paying for the damage to his own car as well as to that of the other driver. So if you choose not to fit the reflectors, please be aware of the consequences.

On some cars, particularly older ones, the aperture in the light where the foglight bulb fits is quite small. When you change the colour of the lens, you need to introduce a red plastic filter inside the aperture to make sure the foglight shines the correct colour when it's switched on. Because a 21 Watt foglight bulb can generate an awful lot of heat, the filter will actually melt if there isn't enough room inside the light aperture for ventilation. On some lamps, like those for the Nova and the Fiesta Mk 3 for example, the aperture is too small for the heat to be dissipated, and that's why it's not possible to incorporate a foglight into them. 

Only one coloured bulb is legal for use in Europe. This is the amber indicator bulb with offset pins, so designed so that it can't be fitted to a normal 180 degree pin bulb socket by mistake. This bulb is designed for use in front and rear indicators where the outer lens is clear rather than amber in colour.

Red bulbs for use as tail-, brake- or foglights are NOT legal for road use anywhere in Europe. There are companies claiming otherwise, but they are incorrect.

There are several problems associated with red bulbs: In order to get the correct colour red light output, the coating on the bulb has to be very dark (if it isn't, you get a pink, "washed-out" effect). This has two consequences - it reduces the light output, making the bulb appear dimmer (to the point where it may be illegally dim), and it also increases heat build-up inside the bulb itself, with the result that the bulbs don't last as long as standard ones, or the red coating starts to flake off, and the red effect is lost - again making them very obviously illegal. The best advice we can give you is always to check that the styling lights you buy have e-approval - they will then have the correct colour filters incorporated inside them, and although you may have to fit additional reflectors and/or a foglight, at least you will have covered yourself from a legal point of view. 

Because of the way taillights are manufactured, it just isn't possible. Firstly, a taillight is actually quite a complex item, made up of a number of different lenses, housings and other components that all have to be made separately and then assembled.

All of these components are made in an injection moulding plant, and each one requires its own special mould, or tool. The tool is made of high-grade tool steel, computer-designed and manufactured at considerable cost. Each tool has to be fitted to the injection moulding machine and set up, the correct colour plastic base material loaded into the machine, and the machine run to produce the lenses and components, which are then assembled to form a complete lamp. Fitting and removing the tools, and setting them up and aligning them, requires a skilled technician called a tool setter, and also takes some time. It's therefore not possible to make one or two pieces of an item and then change the tool, as it would simply not be economically viable for the factory to do so. One also has to consider that every time a different colour plastic material is required, the entire system has to be flushed and cleaned of the material previously used, and this also absorbs time and cost. As a result, it is usually not financially feasible to manufacture anything less than 300 sets of a particular taillight as an absolute minimum.

The tooling itself - depending on the complexity of the lamp concerned, and how much CAD work has to be done on the design - can cost anywhere from £40 000 to £100 000, and to this must be added the cost of obtaining e-approval from a photometric laboratory, which will also run to several thousand Pounds.

As much as we would like to help, this is why it is simply impossible to professionally manufacture one-off sets of lights. If there is enough demand for a particular type of light, however, we will investigate the possibility of having it made. So e-mail us your ideas, and if there's enough interest, you never know!

CCM stands for "Check Control Module". It is an electronic self-diagnostic system fitted to E36 models that have an onboard computer. Amongst other things, it will tell you if any of the car's bulbs are blown. As a result, the taillight wiring layout differs bewteen cars with- and without CCM. Cars fitted with CCM have an LCD display in the centre console that displays a message "Check Control OK" every time the ignition is turned on. If you wish to fit different taillights to your car, it is important to specify whether the car has CCM or not, as the light units are not interchangeable. If the wrong lights are fitted you will find certain functions (i.e. brakelight) will not work correctly. Some light units may require a small wiring modification to allow them to work properly depending on what car they are fitted to - see links below for further information. 

Instructions for converting lamps if your car is a 2-door with check control and the lamps are wired for models without check control

Instructions for converting lamps if the car is a 2-door without check control and the lamps are wired for check control.

Some suppliers include a Conversion Kit .

The internationally accepted standard for lights and any other handed vehicle components is to refer to them from the point of view of a person sitting normally (i.e. facing forward) in the car. Some people in the UK still use the quaint, old-fashioned terms "nearside" (left) and "offside" (right), which are not self-explanatory, and would certainly be confusing to someone from a left-hand drive country!

For identification purposes, many light units already have an "L" or an "R" on the outer lens or the back of the housing. For light units made in Italy, an "S" or "SX" denotes left, a "D" or "DX" denotes right.