Welcome to 4Sight Automotive

Should you have an inquiry regarding a bespoke automotive lighting upgrade  please contact me on :-

enquiries@bettercarlighting.co.uk

or call me on 0121 773 7000 - If you can't get me on the landline (sometimes I have complicated enquiries), please send  an email and I will get back to you.

Last year, I told you that I was working on some developments designed to make it easier for both private owners and professionals to completely upgrade all of the lighting on pre-war cars. I was referring to my compact all-in-one 4S2 control units, designed to avoid having to find room for lots of separate items and trying to avoid conflicts between them. With the help of enthusiastic private owners and several professional restoration specialists, these have been developed to a high degree and are now available in two versions, one with and one without in-built hazard warning lights. Both take care of the operation of front combined sidelight and orange flashing indicators and tail, brake and invisible orange rear indicators. The end result is a halving of installation time, an improvement in neatness and a huge increase in reliability, as most connections are made inside the unit. While this may not fit in with a little by little approach to upgrading, they will make it far easier and more effective for those who can plan a more holistic approach.

Misinformation

The spreading of totally wrong information from the public bar “experts” continues as fewer people check facts from reliable sources, but are happy to spread whatever they choose to believe instead. Sadly, a few of the contributors to our magazines have been infected by this disease, and add to the problem, when they should be a trusted source of checked facts. For example, I read in one normally reliable car magazine that the “expert” was telling readers that they could not upgrade the ignition warning light in their car to LED, when, in fact, I developed a “fix” for this potential to disable the battery charging system almost ten years ago. Another, is when owners of vintage and classic cars will be told that they cannot upgrade their headlights to brighter, safer and more efficient LED. The truth is, that with the help of my local MP and many others in various organisations, I managed to get the DfT to exempt cars registered in the UK before 1st April 1986 from changed advice to MOT test stations. Cars registered after that date are still subject to that advice, but it is advice. No new laws have been enacted and no existing laws have been revised. The autonomy of MOT test centres and their testers remains the deciding factor on this subject, and keeping your insurance company informed of any changes to your car will ensure that there is no compromise in that area either.

We have enough real problems to contend with without wasting time on imagined ones.

Returns

 I run Better Car Lighting entirely on my own. When you order from me, I try very hard to give you my full attention and as much advice as you need to establish what will do the job you have in mind best. I also go to some lengths to ensure that I do not hold you up, by making sure that, where possible, orders get sent out on the same day if received early enough. Your order will take priority over my admin tasks, housekeeping, stock ordering, tech support and all of the other things that I need to do to keep operating.  If you have to return items, I would ask you to consider that when they are sent out to you, I go to a lot of trouble to ensure that you receive them in perfect condition, that they will do the job as described, and are packed in a way that makes them presentable, and obviously prepared by someone who cares about the integrity of my brand. The process of creating the kits I produce, begins with a great deal of thinking, planning, prototyping, testing, changing, re-testing and trialling with willing guinea pig customers. Then the many different components that go into the kit have to be ordered in bulk from many different sources. When they arrive, they have to be checked and counted and put into stock in a way that enables them to be found and used when needed. Then the kits have to be built up in batches for the same reason that clothing produced in bulk costs a fraction of the price of individually tailored items. Then the kits have to have their own place in the storage system so they can be located amongst the hundred or so other kits I produce. They have to have packaging and fitting instructions created, proofed and re-written to ensure clarity. They and the rest have to be insured, kept warm and dry, and all of the costs of maintaining 2000 sq ft of premises paid for. 

If you return items that look like the collected sweepings from your workshop floor, they cannot simply be put back into stock and supplied to fulfill new orders. If I have taken a type of switch that I keep in stock "just in case" an application arises (hard to tell in advance), I may have to cut wiring, bare both ends, solder one end onto the switch, apply heat shrink, label the wires, print a packet with instructions, produce a wiring diagram to suit, just to send you something you will find easy to suit. If you then return this, it is of little use to me, as the need may not arise again, and I do not have a place in my stocking system for it. If you pick out your favourite bits from one of my kits and use those, you are using all of the time I spent creating that kit and returning to me components that are far less viable for use than the ones already on my shelf. You are not returning what you were sent, i.e. a kit that I could send out to the next customers who orders one without further work being needed. 

A couple of incidents during 2026 have forced me to re-think my previously easy-going attitude to these things. as it became clear that one or two people seem to believe that their time is valuable and mine is not. 

I disagree. 

I would like to thank all of you for your encouragement and support during this last year and I hope you will continue during this one.

Gil Keane

2026

New Product News from Better Car Lighting

Whenever I hear the phrase "One thing leads to another" I think how true that is about how designs for car lighting improvements evolve. In an ideal world, when you work for months on a new upgrade, once it is finished, tested and ready to go, the box is ticked and you leave it behind to concentrate on new developments, because the "to do" list is already long and growing. However, life is not like that. Most times, if a new idea or newly available component works well, it forces a re-visiting of previous designs that can be transformed knowing what we know now. 

This is such a case. Anyone who has spent hours waiting for help to arrive, and has seen their hazard lights go dim and then stop as the battery runs down, will recognise that there was a need for something to be done. It took a while, but the new relay was developed last year and passed the testing with flying colours. It was then time to see what else could be improved at the same time and the attached is the result. 

See Hazard Warning Lights new product - PDF here

Good news

During 2025, we have sadly lost several of the established and valued restoration specialists as either age and infirmity took hold, or the difficult and worsening financial situation made if impossible for them to continue. At the same time, many of the smaller manufacturers around the world that specialists like me depend on to take on the making of small volumes of products for tiny market areas have succumbed to the same fatal problems. However, there are signs that the vintage and classic car markets have levelled out and that we can see what has been happening as a normal part of the ups and downs of this area of business. New manufacturers are looking for our orders and some of the other ones are helping to fill the gaps and also listening to your demands that they improve the quality of their offerings. New technologies, like 3D printing are just getting into their stride and will make it possible to replace worn parts which have been out of regular production for decades. AI will also play an increasingly important part, with help and guidance to share hard to find knowledge with those trying to solve problems, especially complex ones. We have a lot to look forward to.

Ongoing

The controversy about upgrading the headlights on older cars to more efficient and safer LED lighting continues. There seems to be a wilful ignorance in high places about the basic science and physics involved, and that, like most newish developments, there will be good and bad equipment on offer. I am personally astonished at the ignorance on display, and saddened to hear how many people with a platform are willing to spout nonsense if they think it will increase their audience. At some point, we have to hope that common sense will prevail and that evidence based decisions will be made, instead of crowd pleasing. 

On Monday 15th March 2021, I received a letter from Baroness Vere, forwarded to me by my hard-working local MP, Nadhim Zahawi, thanking the many of us who raised the subject of the illogical and potentially unsafe changes to the MOT regulations with regard to brighter LED headlights and other lights on classic and vintage cars. She has confirmed that she is instructing all UK MOT test centres to note that any car refistered on or before 1st April 1986 is exempt from these changes and should be issued with a "Pass" if their headlights conform to the beamsetter check. There is no explanation of why cars are assumed to have changed so much on that day that cars made a week or a decade later should not be submitted to the same logic, but at least we have a partial concession to common sense. I, and others will continue the fight to allow owners of later cars to enjoy safe lighting as well. I would like to thank both Nadhim Zahawi and also Nigel Griffith of the White Knight blog and website for their help and advice, as this progress would not have been made without them.

We really should not let this rest. It is too important. It is both unfair and unsafe, and financially punishes those who can least afford it - those who cannot afford a new car. I ask every one of you to write to your MP and to ask for this to be changed back to how it was before the recent changes. I will happily email you a suggested letter laying out the arguments if you contact me. Just insert your name and address and send it off. If enough of us do this, it will make a difference.

Since the changes were made in the advice to test stations, it appears that a certain amount of dust has settled on the subject. The testers and stations have a certain amount of autonomy and usually exercise a degree of pragmatism, common sense and sound engineering knowledge. This combination has seen the illogical advice from the DfT largely ignored as road safety and other practical considerations have taken priority. However, there are still actions that anyone considering upgrading the headlights on a car registered after April 1986 should take. First note that no new laws have been enacted. No existing laws have been changed. What has happened is that the DfT has written to all test stations asking them to look differently at headlights on post 1986 cars. Second, you should write to your insurance company, choosing your words carefully. Tell them that your are considering upgrading the lighting on your car to brighter, safer and more reliable LED. Do they have a view on this? Will it result in a discount on the premium? These words will ensure it ends up on the right desk. Then, you should get the reply that you want. Save it, just in case, and you will not then need to worry about the slight risk of invalidating your insurance. Finally, sound out your local test station to guage their views on this subject. Then you can decide whether to proceed or not.

The same advice applies to the October 2026 launch of the latest DoT scheme to empower the large and wealthy car lighting companies to keep the market for headlight upgrades on post April 1986 cars to themselves. They will be able to issue stickers, after paying large sums of money, to enable them to claim their LED bulbs are the only ones that will be safe and acceptable for customers to use on their cars in order to drive safely in the dark. I can't help but wonder at the scientific evidence that will show that these stickers will so change the performance of LED bulbs that they will make the car safer to use than other well designed, carefully produced and tried and tested ones that do not have access to those stickers. Perhaps I should supply stickers that state that if they are fitted correctly, they will improve night vision for the driver? These also would fall into the category of the Emperors clothes, which I believe were non-iron and washing machine-proof for the same reason. 

Gil Keane.

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