Illegal Exhaust ticket

[JMU2011]

My jurisdiction is: Virginia

I'll try to describe the scenario. I was driving on a major interstate in Virginia and passed by an unmarked cop. I was not speeding or doing anything illegal, but I was still pulled over.

The cop approached my car with a "tint gauge" to measure my tint, which was legal. After he realized this, he THEN asks how long I've had my exhaust on and whether I've had any problems, to which I answered: 2 or so years and NO.

He writes me a ticket for an illegal exhaust (the exhaust is an aftermarket replacement made by Pacesetter), stating that it was too loud. However, I will be the first to admit if this exhaust was loud, but the exhaust is NOT loud at all. There are unmodified cars that are louder. I believe he was going off of the look of the exhaust, which inherently has a bigger tip (tailpipe) than a stock exhaust.

Question is, what do you think will happen in court?

 

[cprasenjit26]

You better consult a good lawyer.

 

[scottfree]

To be honest, I hate loud custom exhausts. But I dislike over-reaching by cops/abuses of authority even more. I don't know what the pertinent laws are, but if the ticket said it was "loud" then I would imagine there is a requirement that he heard it. If the first thing he did was check your tint, it seems that he was just trying to find an excuse to give you a ticket. I would post on some enthusiast forums for your car/area (I'm assuming you have some type of customized car) and see what they say. I would think that for it to qualify as "loud" it would have to meet some dB (decibel) requirement. If so, you could just take a sound pressure meter (from Radio Shack or contact a stereo store or something) and measure the exhaust noise. If it's below the level, just contest the ticket in court using the SPL meter data as evidence--if it gets that far, it would be better to have a professional do it and have the results/their statement notarized.

Keep in mind that the dB level is proportional to the distance at which you measure it. So I'd measure it from whatever distance he was at when he supposedly heard it, in addition to close by. Whatever law there is may even indicate a distance.

 

[hiwastar]

I do a lot of vehicle modifying. I can tell you right now on the list of exhausts that are loudest Pacesetter exhausts rank at the very bottom. They don't make much more noise over an OEM exhaust, especially at cruising speeds.

To my knowledge there are two types of laws, one that specify the person must do a test of the exhaust tone at 50% throttle from a distance of X feet away measured from the tip of the exhaust to the measuring device. The other law is that ANY exhaust that modifies the exhaust tone making it louder is specifically prohibited.

The kicker is, everyone hates an import vehicle with a modified exhaust but thinks a Harley with modded exhaust is "Awesome!", even when the import exhausts are generally much quieter than the Harley. I have even had a cop pull me over for loud exhaust and a pack of Harleys went by and told him if he hurried he could write every one of them a ticket. His answer was "No, thats the way bikes are supposed to sound". Could have fooled me.