Almost every driving light defect notice issued in NSW comes down to wiring rather than the lamps themselves. A perfectly legal light bar becomes illegal the moment it is wired to a switch that works independently of high beam, and that is exactly how most of them are fitted.
This guide covers the rules as Transport for NSW sets them out in Vehicle Standards Information 64, plus what those rules mean in practice when a set of lamps is actually being installed.
How many driving lights can you have?
A maximum of four driving lamps may be fitted to a vehicle in NSW. A light bar counts toward that total. Two spotlights plus a light bar is three, which is fine; four spotlights plus a bar is five, which is not.
Lamps must be fitted in symmetrical pairs, or as a single lamp or bar mounted on the vehicle centreline. Two lamps of different sizes on either side of the bull bar do not meet the symmetry requirement.
Where can they be mounted?
Driving lamps must be fitted at the front of the vehicle at or above headlamp level. Below headlamp height is not permitted for a driving lamp, which is a common mistake on lamps mounted in the lower bar cutouts.
Roof and roll bar mounting is legal but comes with a practical problem: light reflecting off the bonnet reduces contrast and makes the lamps less useful than a bull bar mount at the same wattage. Transport for NSW notes this in VSI-64 and does not recommend it.
The wiring rule that catches everyone
Driving lamps may only operate in conjunction with high beam. In practical terms that means two things: they must switch off automatically when high beam is switched off, and the in-cabin switch must only be able to turn them off, never on independently.
A two-position switch wired to a permanent live does not comply, even if you only ever use it with high beam on. The circuit itself has to enforce the rule.
The correct method is a relay with its trigger taken from the high beam circuit and an in-cabin switch in series with that trigger. Power comes from the battery through its own fuse, not from the headlight circuit, which also protects the factory wiring from a load it was never sized for.
Colour and use
Forward-facing driving lamps must emit white light. Amber, blue and other colours are not permitted for driving lamps on a road-registered vehicle in NSW.
Use restrictions apply regardless of how the lamps are fitted. They must not be used where the road is lit by street lighting, within 200 metres behind another vehicle travelling in the same direction, within 200 metres of an oncoming vehicle, or anywhere they would dazzle another road user.
What about LED globe upgrades in factory headlights?
This is a separate question from driving lamps and the answer is more nuanced. A headlight reflector or projector is designed around the geometry of a specific light source. Dropping an LED emitter into a housing designed for a halogen filament changes where the light goes, and usually produces more glare and less usable distance.
The honest test is the beam pattern on a wall and the cut-off line. If the cut-off becomes fuzzy or the hotspot scatters upward, the upgrade has made the vehicle worse for you and for oncoming traffic, whatever the box claimed.