Quote:
Originally Posted by Vic55
Good info.... how will you/the officer determine if the cats are out? Is there a tool to pass the sniff test? I have cats on all my cars but all have some exhaust mod. And none are remotely as loud as those Harleys; well my R8 is quite a shrieker but when I was pulled over recently, the officer just assumed it was stock because the sound fits the car(s).
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I always do a visual inspection unless the car is so low to the ground you can not see. Inspection mirrors have been used in the past. Also when the cats are removed the smell of sulfur will be present. Being on a motorcycle and being behind a vehicle you get to smell everything the car is blowing out the tail pipes. Also training and experience comes into play. Almost all exhaust manufactures have their name on the exhaust tips. In this day and age with the use of smart phones one can get all the information they need to see the configuration of the exhaust. A quick search now showed me the entire under carriage of an M5 (F90) stock and modified exhaust system.
I take the spirit of the law approach over the letter of the law with most loud exhaust. When I had my F80 several years ago I received a traffic complaint of a loud M4 exhaust at 0530 hours as the vehicle was leaving for work. I sat down the street and as the vehicle exited its driveway and accelerated towards my location the M4 was setting off vehicle alarms. I stopped the vehicle and noticed the M4 had an IPE exhaust and the driver attempted to tell me it was stock and it came that way from the factory. I told him I owned a F80 (M3) and the exhaust was not stock. I even looked under the M4 and saw the cats and resonator had been removed. I advised the driver per CVC 27156(f) I could order the vehicle out of service and have him park the M4 back in his driveway for missing the required smog device. He also could have been cited for CVC 27156(b) for altered emission devices and that would have required a mandatory referee inspection. With this particular M4 owner no citation was issued and I was never called back to that area for a exhaust complaint after out initial contact.
Funny thing is when I went to a street racing school (for vehicle code violations) back in 2007 time frame and did a follow up training back in 2014, we discussed the JDM (Honda, Acura, and Nissan) segment which at the time frame was experiencing an excessive amount of street racing.
I am going to say almost all exhaust manufactures have a clause stating the exhaust they sell is intended for off road use or race track use only.