Dude you should have started out your post with that, so people didn't give you that hard of time

General summary...if you have any muscle or 'murrican car; do whatever you want, no one will bother you. Modify any type of import; you will be profiled and harrassed for anything and everything with the smallest excuse.

My neightbor has a Cadilac CTS-V Coupe with HRE wheels and aftermarket exhaust that wakes up the dead...no issues from HOA or Walnut Creek cops. I have an Outback wagon with an exhaust 1/10th as obnoxious and that seems to be an issue.

 

If you're going to do ANYTHING to your car in nazifornia you better read up on it. Just google it and do some reading.


Essentially you get pulled over. The officer sees something he doesn't like... I'm sure there's a code for it somewhere in the bible they have now. He gives it to you. You have a certain amount of time to fix it, get it signed off by another officer and pay the fine. I honestly don't know what it's up to these days. It used to be $10 a ticket... so you could clear a full ticket for $10. Last time I got one it was $25 per citation. I got 2... so $50.

It's a cash register for the state.

 

Just remember: "Loud pipes save lives"

 

delete

 

I ran a straight pipe axleback on my old bugeye WRX from '03 to '05, driving mostly in San Francisco and the Upper Peninsula. About as loud as an HKS Hi-Power but with a lot more popping and a kind of "farty"-sounding warm idle. Totally illegal but never got any grief for it because it didn't LOOK "illegal" (single 3 inch chromed tip; looked even weenier than the stock exhaust haha). It was fun while it lasted and I don't regret running it at all.

 

I run a 3" straight TBE sometimes.
Used to have the N1 racing too.
Straight pipe is obnoxious, but i love it
Never had an issue with the law.

 

hmmm it may not help my case to be asian too huh?

so how do Harley's get away with pipes louder than an EDM concert? my neighbor down the road has a sportster that he thinks is the hottest thing on earth and trolls the neighborhood blasting upa and down the road...
that's really what got me curious about loud exhaust laws in CA.

nice, I will look into it. Thanks for the bit of info though!

 

I've had tons of loud *** exhausts and never had a problem in 3 years.

 

If you still have your Iowa plates, KEEP THEM as long as possible.

There is no logical reason IMHO Unfortunately, that's just the politics of the state. The vehicle code book is pretty strict and often contradicts itself, but it is up to the officer's discretion to inforce any of it.

Besides a fix it ticket, another worry can be Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR)...essentially, the officer can tell your car isn't road legal and you have to disprove it is by going to a state inspector (ex. your exhaust does not exceed 93dB). At that point, better start putting back all your stock parts including that new car smell Also, any swapped car has to received their stamp of approval...that's a whole different can to worms. However, I haven't had to deal with them in a long while, so I don't know how things are now...

 

Straight pipe catback on my wrx with stock dp for like 4 years with no issues (tip is twin outlet about size of borla hush painted black)

I even ran open mid pipe for a while with some looks but no being pulled over

I've got blast pipes on my legacy and no problems for about a year

 

Stock Neon SRT-4 has no muffler from factory! If you don't consider the turbo and resonator as a muffler.

 

Never ran straight pipes, but i did switch to catless open downpipe from time to time.

 

Honestly, as long as you don't drive like a d-bag, you shouldn't get any trouble.

I've talked to a few cops and the consensus is as long as you're just minding your own business, they don't really care. If you're being a jackass, they'll light you up and slap you with something.

 

Run an open dump down pipe but leave the stock muffler on the exhaust hanger. If you're ever hassled just say some thieves cut out the cat while you were parked at Bart.

 

That's wishfull thinking. I've been pulled over twice for no reason other than for what my car looks like. Cops profile.