I bought a used vehicle a few years ago from a dealer. It's had its annual inspections, but failed today. The guy said The tint was at 18% and I had to pay $7 for the failed inspection.

This is a fire engine red crew cab truck so it not like I'm trying to sneak by someone.

Police are at risk to get shot when they pull people over with blacked out windows and cant see inside.

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The science behind window tint lies in the tint film material that is used for the purpose. The tint film helps reduce heat and light from passing through the glass. As a matter of fact, the ultra violet light is filtered out by 99% and is reduced up to 380 nm. The measure of the visible light passing through a particular piece of glass is known as VLT or Visible Light Transmission. Authorities measure this parameter to check automotive glass tinting as per the set traffic regulations.

The tint film is a transparent layer made out of polyester and different other materials. It is immensely thin yet comprises of no less than 270 layers, making it keep out up to 80% of heat from an adjoining environment. These properties of the film allow it to filter in visible light and a portion of heat while keeping out ultra violet light and most of heat. Tint film can either be reflective or non-reflective, which is also the secret behind the one-way windows and chromatic windows.

All these properties make window film a commercially viable and useful product and an ingenuous and simple solution to the problem of heat and light regulation. People frequently use them for heat and light regulation in residential and commercial buildings, as well as for car glass tinting. There are different varieties of tint film, such as Switchable film that can be turned from opaque into transparent and modern window film with ceramic layers, which is more efficient than the traditional one. Purpose-based films such as graphic design, security and privacy films are also widely applied to glass during industrial manufacturing.

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Basically, heat breaks down into 3 components:
3% comes from UV Radiation (100nm 380nm)
44% comes from Visible Light (400nm 780nm)
53% comes from (IR) Infra-Red (780nm 2500nm)

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Most tints eliminate up to 99% of UV radiation, but that's not the source of most heat so you want to focus on the other components.

silverado_lover said:

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What are you trying to understand?

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How have I passed for the last few years and fail now and nothing has changed

Fishin Texas Aggie 05 said:

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silverado_lover said:

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What are you trying to understand?

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How have I passed for the last few years and fail now and nothing has changed

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Some will pass anything... I took mine to a place that wouldn't pass it with a slight crack in a back brake light and the parking brake wouldn't stop it in neutral... both issues in prior years but dude who passed me was fired because he got caught letting these go. Took it down the street and it passed.

So am I flagged in the system that I have a failed tint? Or can I just go to shops and pay my $7 until somebody passes me?

Fishin Texas Aggie 05 said:

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silverado_lover said:

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What are you trying to understand?

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How have I passed for the last few years and fail now and nothing has changed

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Was told as tint ages is can get darker.

I had this happen to me as well. I have no idea if what I was told has any truth to it. I got stuck having to get the Jeep re-tinted.

Guitarsoup said:

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p_bubel said:

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Fishin Texas Aggie 05 said:

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silverado_lover said:

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What are you trying to understand?

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How have I passed for the last few years and fail now and nothing has changed

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Was told as tint ages is can get darker.

I had this happen to me as well. I have no idea if what I was told has any truth to it. I got stuck having to get the Jeep re-tinted.

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You should have just taken the doors off. I don't care if it is a Cherokee. It's a Jeep

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A ***** to get on and off, but I have been tempted. People do on the ZJ and WJ but I have yet to see a WK do it.

So can I try a different inspection place or am I in some system that shows I failed inspection?

My brother in law agrees with this statement

I would agree the enforcement of the law is primarily revenue driven, but the initial intentions of most policy makers was to protect officers in response to deaths on traffic stops.

I bought a Peterbilt truck a few years back that is a borderline show truck. The previous owner ran a dedicated haul weekly from Jackson, MS to somewhere in AZ. The truck has a very, very light (but yes, it's there) window tint. Now the truck just sits in a barn and makes occasional hauls around the farm; fertilizer, water, grain harvest... - a while back the weight man gave me a warning for tint and told me to take it off.

Without looking the regs up, I'm sure he's right and it's illegal - I'm not arguing that. I just kind of chuckle that the truck ran 700,000 miles across 5-6 states (including Texas), been through countless weigh stations and inspections and nary a word was said to the PO.

Getting by doesn't make it legal, it's just cool when you can.

Had OP's problem when they changed the tint law a few years ago and my legal tint suddenly became illegal. I put the windows down, pulled the fuses and went back. Told them it didn't have windows anymore, is no longer in violation, and they refused to pass me. I went to the eye doctor and told him a sob story about how bright sun without my sunglasses gives me headaches. He signed by medical exemption form:

https://www.dps.texas.gov/rsd/vi/consumerinfo/windowTint.htm

Went to a different place to get it inspected just to see what happened. Again rolled the windows down and pulled the fuses. Told them I removed the windows and they passed me. Been pulling fuses for a number of years now and it always passes. I have the bogus medical exemption in my glove compartment but have never had to actually use it.

That's awesome

pulling the fuses actually works?

Have 20% front tint on a 10 year old, 220K mile truck - and I can't always get it to pass the first time. Gimme a freaking break.