can anyone tell me the tint laws in PA?
this will get everyone in an argument all the time. basically its up to the police officer. but technically if its a car… no tint.
the cops are ususally cool enough to let it go by if you have it on the rear and rear sides. but if its on the fronts they are gonna bust you left and right.
they even busted sammy (streetnstrip) for his sides/backsides. and said that the rear window being tinted was ok.
other places will say peel it all off and you are ok. it just depends on the police dept. and the cop that sees ya.
§ 4524. Windshield obstructions and wipers.
(a) Obstruction on front windshield.–No person shall drive any motor vehicle with any sign, poster or other nontransparent material upon the front windshield which materially obstructs, obscures or impairs the driver’s clear view of the highway or any intersecting highway except an inspection certificate, sticker identification sign on a mass transit vehicle or other officially required sticker and no person shall drive any motor vehicle with any ice or snow on the front windshield which materially obstructs, obscures or impairs the driver’s clear view of the highway or any intersecting highway.
(b) Obstruction on side and rear windows.–No person shall drive a motor vehicle with any sign, poster or other nontransparent material, including ice or snow, upon the side wings or side or rear windows of the vehicle which materially obstructs, obscures or impairs the driver’s clear view of the highway or any intersecting highway. The placement of a registration permit upon the side or rear window of a vehicle shall not be considered a material obstruction.
© Other obstruction.–No person shall drive any motor vehicle with any object or material hung from the inside rearview mirror or otherwise hung, placed or attached in such a position as to materially obstruct, obscure or impair the driver’s vision through the front windshield or any manner as to constitute a safety hazard.
(d) Windshield wiper systems.–The windshield on every motor vehicle other than a motorcycle or special mobile equipment shall be equipped with a wiper system capable of cleaning rain, snow or other moisture from the windshield, and so constructed as to be controlled or operated by the driver of the vehicle.
(e) Sun screening and other materials prohibited.–
No person shall drive any motor vehicle with any sun screening device or other material which does not permit a person to see or view the inside of the vehicle through the windshield, side wing or side window of the vehicle.
This subsection does not apply to:
A vehicle which is equipped with tinted windows of the type and specification that were installed by the manufacturer of the vehicle or to any hearse, ambulance, government vehicle or any other vehicle for which a currently valid certificate of exemption has been issued in accordance with regulations adopted by the department.
A vehicle which is equipped with tinted windows, sun screening devices or other materials which comply with all applicable Federal regulations and for which a currently valid certificate of exemption for medical reasons has been issued in accordance with regulations adopted by the department.
A certificate of exemption shall be issued by the department for a vehicle which is:
Registered in this Commonwealth on the effective date of this subsection and is equipped with a sun screening device or other material prohibited under paragraph (1) on the effective date.
Equipped with tinted windows, sun screening devices or other materials for a physical condition that makes it necessary to equip the motor vehicle with sun screening material which would be of a light transmittance or luminous reflectance in violation of this section.
(A) A certificate of exemption for medical reasons shall be issued only if the owner or registrant of the vehicle, or a person residing in the household of the owner or registrant who regularly drives or is driven in the vehicle, suffers from a physical condition determined by the department, in consultation with the Medical Advisory Board, to justify the exemption.
(B) Any person requesting an exemption for medical reasons shall have his physical condition certified to the department by a licensed physician or optometrist.
A certificate of exemption issued under this subsection shall be carried in the vehicle and displayed on request of a police officer.
Upon the sale or transfer of the vehicle to any person who does not qualify under paragraph (2)(ii), the exemption shall be null and void. Prior to the sale or transfer of an exempt vehicle, it shall be the sole responsibility of the owner or seller of a formerly exempt vehicle to remove all sun screening or other materials from the vehicle. At the time of the sale or transfer of a formerly exempt vehicle, the owner shall remove and destroy the certificate of exemption for physical reasons and provide the purchaser with a notarized statement setting forth the name and address of the owner or seller, the vehicle identification number, year and model, and the business entity and process used to remove the sun screening or other material.
(f) Exception.–This section does not apply to mobile recording equipment installed in a vehicle exclusively used for official police purposes.
been in this debate a thousand times, but the too previous posts are absolutly CORRECT! 1st and foremost, it is up to the officer, Each interprits the law in differant ways, some feel “Threatened” by the windows as he/she approaches the vehicle, thier safty is of the utmost importance, sooo if he/she feels he cannot approach the vehicle without avoiding harm, then he’'l say its illeagal. But the law that was posted stands to be true the Federal motor vehicle codes are what truely inforce the tint law, and if fought but use of that law you will loose, because each officer reads the law differantly. My advise is if you are wearing tint, dont drive like an ass, it is concidered to be a secondary offense meaning you cannot be stopped simply for your tint, BUT a simple “Your tail light was flickering” could do the trick. if you know what i mean. good luck :bigok:
really? secondary offense huh?
anyways I always heard 70% pass through, which basicly makes all tint illegal
Honestly i wouldnt bs, i heard this from a few officers that ive had the plesure of working with, they have all expressed thier concerns differantly, they also say that the 70% is actully a “Rule of thumb” and that they could not provide any documentation of that as being the “LAW” so if contested in court they would have to use “Officers Safty” as a defense. no lie at least thats what those guys said around my area, and tint was why i met them. :naughty:
The problem is Cops don’t know there ass form a hole in the head when it comes down to it. Its not up to interpritation, this is just one example…
Short answer,
Like Mac said, if its a car, No. If its a truck, SUV, or van as long as it has two outside mirrors with 19.5 square inches of reflective surface, everything behind the driver compartment can be blacked out if you like.
Long Answer,
You are correct, the green “tint” or soft glow that comes standard on vehicles now already is at the 73% light admitance level. So if you can find a tint that is 97% more power to you…
Also the “Officer Saftey” thing is again a rumor due to cops not knowing the laws. Explain Trucks, SUV’s, and Vans that can be legally blacked out in back and hold a hell of a lot more “unsafe things” compared to a pasenger car…
i Agree with you 100% on this, its true and a fact that i arguee from time to time, that a suv blacked out could have more danger in it, but since they are equipt from the Man. or oem its “allowed”
they dont “Allow” cars cause they are not oem equipt, it is all rumurs and speculation, but still the FMV code states, you must be able to view the passengers compartment thru at leat one window, that window could be the windshield, thier is NO clear cut % that is stated in writing in the FMV saying 70%
yes there is in the PA which governs that. Its Table X. It says clear cut that its 70% in PA
The federal standards are the basics, but stuff like tint are regulated by stated to to environmental conditions. Example Florida.
:bowdown: not trying todiscredit you in anyway, but could you tell me how to find table X cause i have a print out of the FMV codes that are already ion this post, and if x in fact has additional info on that id like to print it out as well, for other peopls sake, thanks
I;m not doing this again. Seriously go and vist the link I posted up above it walks a cop thorugh it that was arguing with me…
EDIT I ment visit the link up abover for the long answer… It has a phot caption and everything just read.
lol theres alot to read in thier, what provision, You know im not screwin with you right? I just need to facts here for “other” people, i could honestly care less myself, i wear tint and am not to worried about it, it usually leads to a fix ticket or warning but just for the sake of answers to questions, that i usually answer with, “Illeagal”
if you don’t read you won’t understand. Not reading for your self is what causes the problems. Then people just want to argue.
No offense, I’m not explaining it again.
the link you gave me leads me to a giant list of . well anything, what im looking for is that specific one, i could care less about agriculter and all that other stuff,
Did you click that link yourself? is it the right link? :dunno:
See in my first couple posts that says short answer and long answer.
This was posted under long answer…
my fault i missed that part, i can see youve obiously gotten into this many times before, so rather than begin an additional pissing match over this tint crap, im walking away from it,
i guess i can say upon my departure is… :hs:
“tint it at your own risk”
ty for the link though. 
how illegal is any % windshield tint? is it more illegal than say, 5% all around?
i think they see windshield tint as “Bad” mmm kay? but i also see abot 1 of every 15 cars getting it applied, usually ya throw 50% or 70% on it coupled with the sides and back around the 20-35% marks, Makes seeing in very difficult, but seeing out aint so bad, havin that thrown on my Nissan saturday, i didnt want the miss matched look of tint on the sides and nothing on the front, went with 70% looks alright