What do the AS1 letters and the arrow mean?
They come from ANSI/SAE Z26.1, the safety glazing standard behind both US and Canadian rules. The US rule, FMVSS 205, requires glazing to conform to Z26.1-1996 (S5.1), and Canada’s standard adopts the same document, which BC applies to factory tint through MVAR s. 7.05(9).
Each pane carries an “AS” item number for its glazing type. On a windshield, the arrow matters as much as the number: FMVSS 205, S5.1.3, says “the arrow indicating the portion of the material that complies with Test 2 is placed with its base adjacent to a horizontal line.” In the standard, Test 2 is the light-transmittance test. A 1995 NHTSA notice in the Federal Register describes the US rule of the day as requiring passenger car windows to pass at least 70% of light under that test; in Canada that figure is commonly cited as 70% but sits in the paywalled standard.
BC’s 2025 Vehicle Inspection Manual reads the same marks. Item 12f fails a windshield not marked AS-1, AS-10, AS-11C or AS-14, and item 13c lets an AS-3 pane pass only when it sits rearward of the driver.
Where is the AS-1 line on a windshield?
Near the top edge, where the glass that passes the light test begins; on a windshield with a tinted shade band, that’s the band’s lower boundary. FMVSS 205 (S5.3) sets where a shade band may end in one of two ways: by SAE Recommended Practice J100, or by a plane rising 7 degrees from the vehicle’s lengthwise axis through a reference point, V1, taken from UN ECE Regulation 43, with a 3-degree plane across the middle 300 mm of the glass.
How does the AS-1 line affect a tint strip in BC?
BC’s rule ignores it and measures from the top instead: under s. 7.05(8), film may extend at most 75 mm downward, counted from the windshield’s top. Inspection item 12e, though, also rejects windshield tint that Z26.1 doesn’t allow, and Z26.1 is the standard that defines the mark. A strip that stops above both the 75 mm limit and the AS-1 line leaves nothing to argue about. Washington takes the other approach: RCW 46.37.430 allows film in the top six inches as long as it doesn’t extend into the AS-1 portion.
Film over the whole windshield fails item 12e whatever its shade, and the shop says so before fitting one on request: a car wearing it isn’t road-legal in BC, Mission RCMP counts $109 as the typical tint fine, and police may add a Notice & Order. The legal strip itself is defined under windshield sun strip, and the wider rule in is windshield tint legal in BC.
Booking a strip that respects the line
Tell the shop your year, make and model and whether there’s a camera at the top of the glass; strips are quoted per vehicle. The windshield service, fitted from the inside, is described on windshield tint, and the cross-border comparison on BC vs Washington tint laws.