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  1. #1
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    Cited for Exhaust in So-Cal

    I was stopped in my driveway by a cop in Long Beach, CA yesterday. He gave me three citations including one for exhaust and one for tint and one for proof of insurance. I havn't modified my car in 6.5 years and this is the first time a cop has cited me for these violations. The cops were very rude and treated me like a criminal for some reason and they kept telling me to show my hands... (this is after showing registration and license). I am not sure what is going on in my area, but the cops have been in full force writing citations recently.

    A few things are wrong with this picture... First, they stopped me at my apartment as I pulled into the driveway. The cops had pulled someone else over and were blocking the driveway as I tried to enter. I suppose they decided to make another convenient sale by citing me.

    Second, I have not changed my car in 6+ years. My exhaust is legal, my tint is legal, and I showed my insurance but he wasn't satisfied since it wasn't the actual insurance card (e-policy).

    After some research, I have found the procedure for the exhaust citation is to make an appointment with a referee center and have a Compliance Test done to make sure my exhaust is under 95 db's. Then you have to take the paperwork to the court and pay the court fees and hopefully have the citation dismissed. I have the borla exhaust on my car, but it isn't much louder than the original. For god's sake, I have a 2000 Camaro SS -- its going to make noise!!

    Has this happened to anyone else? There is nothing wrong with my exhaust and the cop said that the ticket was for having a modified exhaust. But having a modified exhaust is not illegal unless it fails to meet the smog/noise standards. You can't get the noise test done, UNTIL you get a citation! This entire process seems seriously flawed! The police are not required to meet any standards for the citation -- it is completely at their discretion, making the taxpaying citizens completely vunerable to being cited for essentially nothing.

    Does anyone have any information that might be helpful to me? Any ideas on how to proceed with the tint problem?

    Thanks,

  2. #2
    Junior Member crawlingt's Avatar
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    i think anything besides stock is illegal but i live in chicago it could be different.

  3. #3
    Junior Member swimster144's Avatar
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    Umm, I don't think that anything other than stock is illegal, at least where I live.

    #1 - That just doesn't make sense.
    #2 - The car has been in its current state (with exhaust) for 6+ years.
    #3 - My dad has a C6 with Bullets which is about the loudest exhaust I have heard short of COMPLETELY removing all mufflers and resonators etc, and it is legal.

    I don't know man, maybe the cops were having a bad day or where just in a bad mood. I've never heard of anything like that happening to anyone I know.

  4. #4
    SUPREME member-oderator oneBADDz's Avatar
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    It isn't all illegal, but you can't do anything that moves the cats from the stock location, nor can you be any louder than your local noise laws allow, generally 95db

  5. #5
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    So Cal maybe different but in NY they usually drop an exhaust ticket really quick. Cops don't carry decible meters with them so there really is no proof of the dbls being over 95. The tint ticket is just a stupid ticket, they write those for me when there is nothing else to get me on. I've been in arguments before over it and the pathetic part is my stock windows test in at around 72% which is barly legal so as soon as the tint is installed they are way over legal limits.

    I've found any cop can be an asshole especially when i drive something that draws attention.
    Last edited by Bandit02; 03-06-2006 at 05:27 AM.

  6. #6
    Junior Member gmpower's Avatar
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    your borla exhaust should be legal here in cali. state law says you cant modify anything before yours cats. so if you have a cat-back you should be fine. whats going to happenn is your going to have go in to a court house and a sheriff or ref. should come go out to your cat and you and tell you to start the car and give it a couple of revs, and they will judge if its loud or not (so dont rev to hard, just baby the pedal, and if they tell you to give more just keep toying with the pedal.) it also depends on that persons attitude sometimes they'll act like d!cks, so try to be cool with them. a buddy just got a ticket for the same thing, except he had a full exhaust with long tubes, x pipe. but lucky for him it was a girl that inspected the exhaust and he just gave it some pu55y revs, and she signed him off.

    now for the tint in cali it is illegal to have front door tinted windows, well actually you can have a 70%, but i doubt you had that because its not noticble. i have ALL of my windows tinted including the entire front windsheild, and luckly i havent got a ticket. do you know what percantage % tint you have???? if you take a picture i can verify for you??

    if its less than a 70% than your going to have to pay the ticket unless you take of the tint and have it inspected by the sheriff (same routine as the exhaust).

    hope this helps

  7. #7
    Senior Member SeVeReDiStOrTiOn's Avatar
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    05 Wrangler
    00 Z28 sold :-(

    Quote Originally Posted by gmpower
    your borla exhaust should be legal here in cali. state law says you cant modify anything before yours cats. so if you have a cat-back you should be fine.
    hope this helps
    They make 50 state legal shortie headers...so you can modify before the cats, you just can't move the cats locations....which long/mid tubes do. The shorties also have to have emissions fittings.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by SeVeReDiStOrTiOn
    They make 50 state legal shortie headers...so you can modify before the cats, you just can't move the cats locations....which long/mid tubes do. The shorties also have to have emissions fittings.
    I definitely just have a borla cat-back. I havn't modified the car in any way that would be illegal and I have passed the smog test without any issues. I think the cop was just reaching for things to write me for, even though I can't figure out why he targeted me in particular. Maybe a slow day. I have read in numerous california policy websites that you can have it modified, just not to violate 95 db's or fail the smog check.

    I guess I will need to check on the tint because it is the 'lexus tint', I think. But I did get this done 6.5 years ago so I can't remember the Percentages..

    I am kind of screwed on this situation since I live right next to a police station and they apparently don't care whether I am in my own driveway or on the street. I will post a follow-up once I figure out what I will do.

  9. #9
    1 of 396 T/A Conv 2001 Wayah-bird's Avatar
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    I'd love to hear the flip side of this soap opera.

  10. #10
    Story of My Life!! BIG D's SS's Avatar
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    Man that sucks. ALways trying to harass someone. Hope I don't get pulled over with my LoudMouth.
    3 inch Chambered Catback.

  11. #11
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    Well, I just got back from the referee testing center. I failed the test miserably. The driver's side was 104 decibels and the passenger side was a steady 112 decibels. As forementioned, the limit is 95. They took it to 3900 RPM for the testing which is higher than I take it ever unless I'm getting on the highway... but the point, I failed and now I need to figure out what to do.

  12. #12
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    I would remove the passenger side exhaust pipe and then bolt up the full block-off plate and then have it retested. They should only test the left side since that would be the only pipe visible.

    Other then that, I'm glad I don't live in that communist state.

  13. #13
    Junior Member gmpower's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rampage76
    Well, I just got back from the referee testing center. I failed the test miserably. The driver's side was 104 decibels and the passenger side was a steady 112 decibels. As forementioned, the limit is 95. They took it to 3900 RPM for the testing which is higher than I take it ever unless I'm getting on the highway... but the point, I failed and now I need to figure out what to do.

    if thats the case than your options would be to pay the ticket or take off the exhaust sytem so that you can have it checked and then put your borla back on (when my buddy got cited he said he'd would rather pay the ticket than to take of his exhaust, i dont know how much the ticket would have been, b/c he got it cleared and he had kooks long tube headers, bassani x pipe, and bassani muffler (04 lightning truck). its loud and illegal and just got cleared about a month ago.

    do you have the borla adjustable cat-back where the right pipe doesnt enter the muffler????
    you might try calling the manufacuter and expalin whats going on some people have said that sometimes they will help out with such a case???

    best of luck

  14. #14
    Junior Member gmpower's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Warbird
    I would remove the passenger side exhaust pipe and then bolt up the full block-off plate and then have it retested. They should only test the left side since that would be the only pipe visible.

    Other then that, I'm glad I don't live in that communist state.
    you can give this a try, but if your left pipe was at 104 db. will giving more pressure to one pipe give it less soun db's. this way you dont have the 112db count. and maybe at 104 db they'll give you a break.

  15. #15
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    Wow they reved that thing high, i never go above 2500 when they listen to mine. Then when they tell me to go higher i usually give them the same RPM. They usually can't tell, but from what i read they did the testing and you weren't in control that sucks, that would probably piss me off having a stranger rev my car.

  16. #16
    Junior Member gmpower's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bandit02
    Wow they reved that thing high, i never go above 2500 when they listen to mine. Then when they tell me to go higher i usually give them the same RPM. They usually can't tell, but from what i read they did the testing and you weren't in control that sucks, that would probably piss me off having a stranger rev my car.
    i agree with them being in control, you should have been able to do the reving????

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by gmpower
    i agree with them being in control, you should have been able to do the reving????

    I was very uncomfortable with them reving my car, especially since the person who was inside the car was a very strange white-trash type manly looking girl. Another customer actually called her a gentleman and you could see her being pissed.

    As far as a borderline break... they are allowed to give 1.5 db leniency... so 96.5 I can slide, but I am way over that still. I will contact borla and hope they have a silencer or something.

    Another important thing to note... the referee center told me that this is a non-correctible violation now (recently changed law) and that even if I do pass the test, I still have to pay the fine. The certificate cannot stop you from getting tickets later on either.. it is at the pigs discretion... (crappy cop, that is).. Another person just got shot in Long Beach, and the cop was busy writing tickets for modified exhausts on an LS1 sports car... WTF

    Correctible violations, on the other hand, you can have fixed and then pay a 10 dollar fine along with the court fees... the exhaust noise one does not fall under that category. One good thing is that testing was free and sort of easy to schedule. I can go and retest once I figure out how to quiet the damn thing.

    Does anyone know if they have a silencer for borlas?

  18. #18
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    I just talked to borla and they offered to send venturies if I can provide proof of purchase... I might have it somewhere at my parent's house in Texas... I did install this over 6 years ago though. They said that they can't guarentee that it will become within the legal limit even at that point. They also said that they have never heard of anyone in california have a citation for this part with a camaro. Great, I am really happy to hear that I am leading the way here.

  19. #19
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    I am beginning to feel that getting the test done was a mistake now... I can't go and argue in court that they have no proof and if they are going to fax this to state, it means that they have evidence now. I assumed that my exhaust would pass since I bought the borla catback and I do not have any other mods done to my exhaust system. I am not a freaking RICER!!!!! This law was for RICERS not american muscle cars!

  20. #20
    Senior Member Zboner's Avatar
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    that is some bullshit man, hell in kentucky they could give a shit less, i run a cutout 100% of the time and i have never been pulled over for it

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