Ticket for exhaust

[MIenKEi446]

So I was driving last night to a friends house and a cop followed me for a mile or so and pulls me over for "Defective Exhaust". He asks if i know that my exhaust isnt factory and it has been modified and I say yes, obviously (full 3'' thermal exhaust). He comes back with a ticket for $160, is it just me or does that seem rediculous, now my question is what options do I have as far as avoiding payment if the ticket? Im gonna appear on my court date, but is there anything else that can be done? Thanks!

 

[4g63Powered]

Research local/state ordnances.

 

[DSM_PWR]

Have you done any research on your local Automobile laws? or emissions? If there is no law that violates your exhaust then that's your case, I've heard similar cases where an officer writes a ticket for an automobile being "too loud", well if you think about it, what's stopping them from giving most motorcycles citations or V8's??

I say do some research and fight it

 

[boostngsx]

There is no way a cop will actually show in court for something stupid like that. At least in my experiences.

 

[MIenKEi446]

going off of the V8 and motorcycle post while i was pulled over talking to him a mustang GT and 2 motorcycles went by, both of which are louder. The only thing he said against the exhaust was that it wasnt factory, I guess my main arguement would be that how does a label reflect the volume, for example factory V8's are louder but since its factory its 'ok'?

 

[talonalex92]

Do you have a cat? (meow)

 

[Boost92awd]

Cops have a ticket quota to make every month in alot of places.

That is actually a myth.


As for the ticket OP, If you still have your stock cat back laying around I would slap that on and go to the cop shop and show them that you fixed your exhaust.

 

[MIenKEi446]

I dont have the cat around, im assuming he pulled me over because he thinks its just a ricey muffler, rather than a full exhaust which i tried to explain but didnt seem like he cared.

 

[Boost92awd]

Either your going to have to put a stock looking muffler on it or pay the ticket from what I'v found. I'v had a few of my friends get pulled over here in Wisconsin and that was there options.

 

[Project2G]

Your lucky.. Here in CA they can pop your hood and hand you a nice reff ticket =) Then you take your car to the state reff and they smog it and do a visual inspection. Visual meaning everything modified must have a carb legal decal with EO#. Pay the $160 and move on. Tickets will come, it's part of the hobby we have. If you like then go with an exhaust that has more of a stock appearance. Here we have modified emission laws.

 

[daren_p]

Research your local law, cops try to pull that BS in my area all they time. I have been pulled over about 7 times for the old Apexi N1 system I had & they usually try & tell me its illegal because its not factory. Now our HTA (highway traffic act) states nothing about the muffler having to be stock, it just has to be there, its not been gutted out & prevent "excessive" noise (now they don't actually state away here what is considered "excessive" but thats a whole other story). I always politely reply, there nothing illegal about having an aftermaket muffler, I do have a copy of the HTA with me if you'd like to go over it & show me where my issue is? Then they usually change their story to it won't pass emissions, to which I reply, thats strange because the muffler has absolutly nothing to do with emissions output, but I do have a copy of my most recent test if you'd like to see? Then they finally change their story to, well then its too loud. To which I reply well I have a dB test if you would like to go over it with me.... We have the test equipment at my work to do this, so its not a big deal but most of the times the cops just let me go, as their not use to people that actually know the law. After the first time I was pulled over for this, I kept a dB test, emissions test & a copy of the section in the HTA that covers mufflers.

So check the laws in your area. Before I knew better I had been given the ticket & then had a couple real pric cops give me it as well. I didn't pay any of them, went to court & they were all thrown out before going to trial (have a first meeting with the crown/prosecutor). The dB test really helped with this. In my area its not really to do with the noise as I have friends with very loud V8's & old muscle cars, that never get bothered. Hell, I drive my old mans 67 Camaro with 500hp & 3" SS exhaust with 40 series flowmaster mufflers (about their loudest "street" muffler), that you can hear several blocks away & have never once been hassled. To compare my Eclipse isn't louder then most family sedans as the N1 system with a CAT was very quiet. I have since switched to a new custom system that looks just like stock externally but is still 3" all the way back, its actually abit louder then my N1 & it has 2 resonators installed plus a much larger mufler & so far haven't been hassled, but time will tell.

 

[MIenKEi446]

I plan on doing the decibel test, and basically everything i can to not pay the ticket considering i have nothing to lose while trying and $160 that i work to keep, not blow away ### 1 cop doesnt like my exhaust. Also I plan on picking up a silencer sometime soon

 

[fwdmaster]

I'll bet he pulls over every Harley with drag pipes that he encounters.....yeah, right.

I smell bacon.

yeah those harleys are loud as hell

 

[JusMX141]

yeah those harleys are loud as hell

Loud, and they always sound terrible because they're horribly untuned. Most Harley owners just throw drag pipes on a stock bike and call it a day, forgetting that there is a great degree of tuning necessary for the mod they just installed.

It's the same as putting a 3" exhaust on a non-turbo car, or putting the loudest BOV possible on a DSM without recirculating it.

....yet do these fools get pulled over for their untuned audio molestation? Never....because Harley's are an "American tradition."

 

[1990gsx1781]

There is no way a cop will actually show in court for something stupid like that. At least in my experiences.

i dont know about your cops but my courts have people who defend the cops its not the cop who pulled you over. and a ticket for a ex. is 35 bux here i have had 5 tickets from it i beat 3 because i proved that it wasnt loud. but i lost the other two because anything in MASS that isnt Factory is ILLEGAL =( D UUU MMM BBBB

 

[TSiAWD666]

Like everyone says you need to research your local laws. You may in fact have a law stating you can't have a non-OEM exhaust on the vehicle. My area has such a law and the cops love to pull you over for it. Hell this one moron of a cop pulled me over in my Evo because of how my exhaust matched his idea of an illegal exhaust and I spent five minutes arguing with the a$$hole that it was stock (he refused to look underneath at the Mitsu stamping on the muffler itself, though probably for his safety heh).

I avoid problems now by having a 3" exhaust that exits to two very stock looking 2.5" dual-tips rather than the coffee can they love to look for. I have been pulled over multiple times with this exhaust since for various reasons (none for the exhaust) and not once has the cop mentioned it. Prior I was given tickets every time I was pulled over for the exhaust no matter what the original reason for the stop was, and often I was pulled over for the exhaust alone.

Lose the coffee can and it'll help you avoid the cops greatly. Minimizing the sound output will help too, like adding resonators or mufflers in-line.

 

[the_mork]

If you go to court you can always claim that you have an 11 year old car and it wasn't feasible to replace the rotting off exhaust with holes in it with new oem stuff (get prices for oem stuff so they know how much it costs). I'm surprised that this sort of thing happened in Wisconsin, hell my jeep's exhaust manifold was broken off at the collector I wasn't hassled in Texas or Wisconsin, you could hear me coming from 2 blocks away and more if I downshifted. Decibel tests will be good too. I don't believe it is illegal in Wisconsin to have aftermarket exhaust only to replace a working exhaust. Oh, and put a cat on it before you go.

 

[MaxGdsm]

I have been pulled over by a stater in Wa and here they can pull you over without having any decibal reading taken. I am not sure what it is like in your state. Honestly it sucks, i try to avoid getting on it around cops or being in an rpm range that is loud. It really comes down to how big a duche the cop is.

 

[tkelly27]

You really need to look into the laws. In Oregon there is a DB level you can't go over, and emissions you must meet. Other than that, it really doesn't matter. They check your noise level and emissions when you get stickers and if a cop thinks you're not passing them, they can ticket you. A recheck is free at any time weather you need it or not. I can't imagine a ticket would stick with a piece of paper saying "this exhaust passes".

I keep the rev's low when the law is around. (True story) after the muffler fell off in the plaid pantry parking lot, all I've got is about 6" after the cat : (

 

[crimsondragon]

Thankfully I never been pulled over for exhaust. I've been pulled over for no front license plate instead. I can't wait to put my O2 dump on and see if it'll attract any attention.

 

[PRJTstealth]

yeah i have a dump on my car and a full 3" exhaust with no cat or res just muffler. a thermal r&d and to top it off i have the tial bov and thats an atmospheric dump. yeah my car is loud. ive gtten like 6 or 7 noise polution tickets and 3 "illegal equipment tickets". hahaha. im only 20 and i have gotten a total of 39 tickets . just pay it and go or else they will get you for something else. thats my motto

 

[kris_stewart10]

well i live in mississippi and i HARDLY ever get pulled over (knock on wood) for anything stupid i mean this one time i got pulled over because i touched the white line too much and once he pulled me over he gave me a ticket for not having insurance (which i did but it was expired)

and then once again i got that ticket fixed

but i have been pulled over in my nissan hardbody for getting to the speed limit too fast

 

[1g dsm d22]

i got that same shit too, got a ticket for "inproper muffler". the thing is that when i went to court the DA droped the charges ### it wasnt a real reason to be ticketed. i dono i guess got lucky but from what i know theres no such thing as deffective or inproper muffler. cops are just trying to be assholes like always. and i also have the 3" exhaust with the aero muffler on there with the magnaflow cat, loud but not eought for catch the atention of a cop. theyre just full of it.

 

[PIMking]

Meh, Never had a problem. I was pulled over for speeding and he asked if that was stock exhaust. I asked kindly Does it look like its stock? he was pretty cool about it and said it wasnt too loud and sounded pretty cool. and asked me to rev it up a bit.

 

[lazer1985]

ive gotten a few loud exhaust tickets here in illinois, 3 to be exact. Everytime i go they ask if i have gotten the problem fixed and i tell them i put a silencer on it or that i ordered a silencer off of ebay and it should be in any day now. i would just say you put it on tho cause if your court day is like a month after you got the ticket they might ask why it took you so long to fix it. ive never had to pay for any of those tickets with that excuse........