Tint on C7.5 / 2016 taillights

[hubris]

The 2016 MY cars, at least the A6 and S6, have very noticeably darker tinted tail lights than the pre-facelift cars. I love the look and am considering doing a vinyl tint to my 2014, but I am worried about it being too dark for safety and aesthetic reasons, or not having the same look/effect as the 2016s. I am also curious if the LEDs in the 2016s have been brightened so the tint does not affect them. Any information on this, or anyone who has done tinting successfully, would be appreciated.

[JoeGie]

if you go to someone who installs them they can show you different shades of the tint, maybe even throw on a sample to see if its too dark or light.

[repnaudi]

The leds so bright you shouldn't have a problem with tint

[Bpaman]

I just put the laminx on mine. I went with the one they call "tint" I did not want to go with anything darker, pretty much matched OEM

[Nully]

You won't have brightness issues but it won't look the same either. Way back I did some light research on this. Tinting while darkens the red, also makes it look "washed out" compared to the original C7.5 tail light color; basically as dark but not as clear. It will come down to whether that's acceptable to you or not.

[hubris]

I just put the laminx on mine. I went with the one they call "tint" I did not want to go with anything darker, pretty much matched OEM

Looks good, exactly like the facelift models from the photo. How's the LED visibility? Have you had anyone else comment that they seem darker or hard to see?

You won't have brightness issues but it won't look the same either. Way back I did some light research on this. Tinting while darkens the red, also makes it look "washed out" compared to the original C7.5 tail light color; basically as dark but not as clear. It will come down to whether that's acceptable to you or not.

Ah that makes perfect sense. I wonder if the Lamin-X product mentioned above doesn't wash it out as much, as it still appears very clear in their example photos and the photo posted above.

[Bpaman]

Here's another shot. If applied slowly and patiently it comes out pretty good. I did the same on my A5, these were a little trickier.

[PKmode]

You can tint them with vinyl as mentioned above. Any place will have a book showing the various levels of % ratings. That looks pretty light above so I'm guessing something like a 50-70%. Again for refernce, with tinting, the percentage relates to the amount light light let through. So 95% is like the factory window coatings and 5% is "limo" tint.

Of course the other option is take have them painted with a tinted clear. This is what I was going to do. It will permanent but should be more translucent for light to travel through (crisp light) and you could mask areas, or make a "transition" for darker to lighter over certain areas. Might be nice to have the clear remain totally clear for example. One final advantage is when cleared, you'll be able to wetsand and polish them to even a higher gloss than OEM coating if you want.

3rd option is to use a cheaper product meant for exactly this like VHT Nightshade or Plasti Dip's light tint product, I think it's called Smoke. Either of these will require a wetsand and clear coat as well if you want it to look nice and last. I personally won't use that low of quality product on a nice car like a newer Audi. To each their own though.

Point is, there is always more than one way to skin a cat. Look at your options and what you want and go from there.