I need some help beating a ticket I got for loud exhaust…

[Smitty2A4]

In April I received a ticket for my “obnoxious exhaust” to quote the statey that pulled me over. My exhaust is simply Magnaflow 14851 Mufflers and that is it, everything else is stock. But anyway if you want more details please read this thread…

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=204650

Bottom line is I appealed it and my hearing is on the 26th of this mouth, I plan to show up very well prepared with pictures of where I got pulled over and plenty of points to state already written down. Now I wish I could just have some shady exhaust place write me up a receipt saying my mufflers were back to stock and be done with this, but I am not in with any shops that well, so I need to try other ways of beating this, my main tactic is to make the officer look like he does not know what he is talking about and is not qualified to make assessments on if cars are too loud or not.

What I would really like to do is have some real hard facts, I have an SPL meter and plan to measure the noise levels of my A4 at idle, revving outside the car, and cruising on the highway, ect. But what I need help with is finding the SPL noise figures for a bone stock 3.0 A4, actually a 1.8T would prob do fine too. Does anyone have an SPL meter to test their stock ride? Or better yet anyone have some old back issue of a car mag that reviewed the A4 and has these stats? I have tried searching online, but cannot find this info.

I really want to beat this thing, but it may be tough, because I guess MA has some lame law that states if you modify any part of your exhaust and it makes it louder than stock it is automatically illegal, but I hope to make some of these point to make the officer look like he has no right judging the loudness levels of exhaust systems and that this law needs to be rethought. Trying to get them down in my head before I show up…

- I bought the car with the system already installed, I did not have the mufflers installed myself, what about the many cars that come stock with louder mufflers than most cars on the road? Do you just ignore those, they are permitted to be loud since it came from the factory that way? Same with motorcycles, most are louder than any car I have ever heard.

- I just passed my current inspection, apparently the inspection garage did not think my car was too loud, it also passed emissions with ease, since the rest of the system (Cats, resonators, ect.) is still stock.

- A decibel limit that is something you can measure, similar to a light percent limit with tined windows, this you cannot and it leaves it totally up to the digression of the police officer at hand.

- Do you know how loud (in Decibels) an stock 2003 Audi A4 exhaust is at idle and under load?

- Do you know how loud (in Decibels) an Audi A4 with Magnaflow 14851 Mufflers is?

- Did my car sound obnoxiously loud when you were following my on the highway for a quarter mile before you pulled me over? You only heard it when I was in a low gear and the RPMs were high, which will make any car produce more noise than normal.

- The car was driven for two years with the exhaust system by the pervious owner (who happens to be my uncle) and he never had any issues with it, and it was driven for just about a year by me without issue.

- What makes you qualified to judge if an exhaust system is obnoxious or not?

- My car is my passion, I work very hard to afford an Audi at my age and I feel that I am being discriminated against simply because I enjoy modifying cars as a hobby.

[AudiA4Turbo22]

if u just have mags on a stock setup then they aren't loud at all! i have one resonator on my setup and they aren't that loud! tell them that u did some resaerch and the mufflers are street legal!

[Smitty2A4]

Here is part of a quote from the MA Laws site on 90-16, what I violated...

"No person shall operate a motor vehicle on any way which motor vehicle is equipped (1) with a muffler from which the baffle plates, screens or other original internal parts have been removed and not replaced; or (2) with an exhaust system which has been modified in a manner which will amplify or increase the noise emitted by the exhaust."

So it sounds like I am pretty fucked on that part, again there seems to be no decibel limit anymore and no matter what if the system is louder than stock it is illegal, I freaking hate this state for so many reasons and this is just one more! maybe I should try to contact Magnaflow and see if they have any data? Although I bet they will be no help and if I mention I got a ticket they would say their products are for "show or off-road use only"

It is sad though, my exhaust is so quiet, I didn't want it to be loud, that is why I went with the mags and left the stock resonators. The cop just happened to hear it when I was getting on the gas in second and hitting around 4k RPMs, where it is fairly loud, cruising it sounds stock, no drone at all. This law is BS though, I understand where it comes from, as many vehicle's are downright annoying, but it hurts people who have quiet after marketsystems and it is bullshit because it is up to the cop to decide. At least if you have a decibel limit that is something you can measure, this you cannot. And the cop who pulled me over checked everything, tint, front plates, headlights, taillights. He just saw a dark car with dark (but legal) tinted windows and black steelies roll by, heard the exhaust and figured that I must be some street racing punk, it just pisses me off so much!

Rant off

[ThatGuyAlex]

if u just have mags on a stock setup then they aren't loud at all! i have one resonator on my setup and they aren't that loud! tell them that u did some resaerch and the mufflers are street legal!

go to the police station have them DB read the set up and see what it reads. Each city or state has under a certain reading. If urs is under its good, if its not its to loud.

So go to a police station and ask

[AudiA4Turbo22]

^^thanx didn't know that! i would but my luck they'd be to loud and they'd make me take it off!

[OneBadAudi]

just make sure if u go to the police station u dont have tint or anything like that, cuz if ur goin for an exhaust, they may think theres more done in which case may lead to more tickets....good luck

[J-jizzle]

- I bought the car with the system already installed, I did not have the mufflers installed myself, what about the many cars that come stock with louder mufflers than most cars on the road? Do you just ignore those, they are permitted to be loud since it came from the factory that way? Same with motorcycles, most are louder than any car I have ever heard.

.

This is so true. My 1.8 has mags with no resonator and I think my mom's stock 03 G35 is louder.

[Jimbobdaga]

Smitty do cops in Mass give you a hard time alot? I'm looking to do 35% tint and exhaust at some point but I live near Fitchburg and I go days without seeing cops most the time.

Good luck with the ticket, let us all know how it goes.

[Smitty2A4]

Smitty do cops in Mass give you a hard time alot? I'm looking to do 35% tint and exhaust at some point but I live near Fitchburg and I go days without seeing cops most the time.

Good luck with the ticket, let us all know how it goes.

Most of the time no, not at all, I have owned my Audi for a year this week, and this was my first ticket I have ever gotten. In my old modded Jeep, which had dark ass 20% tints all around and a loud ass exhaust I got pulled over about 5 times, always for other things, but I only received one ticket, which is still the only one on my record *knock on wood*.

As for 35% tint in MA, you should be fine, this cop put a meter to my windows too, both front and back and they came up as 34% which is fine since the meter can vary +/- 2%, so I got lucky there. I got my windows done at Tint King, they did a great job for $250 and they even said if I fail inspection because of the tint they will help me pass it, cool guys.

Off topic but I used to go to Fitchburg State College, so I know the area, way to many ricers out there, they prob keep the cops busy and keep the heat away from the classy Audis!

[Jimbobdaga]

lol no kidding we have ricers. I'm actually going to Fitchburg State right now, There is a few Vdubs and one Audi on campus but other than that it's all rice. What year did you graduate?

[dirtybrd]

I would just argue the Harley exh. comparison.

[pondside36]

Seriously... that is crap... motorcycle exhausts and ricer exhausts are much louder... did you get a lawyer? If you really want to beat it I would, I'm sure he'll be able to make the camparisions very clear, the Mags are no where near as loud as many stock sport cars as well. I've never had any problems with mine (AWE) in Mass... the tint thing is all about going to a reputable shop that will back there product. Get the limit with reciept and ask if they will back their product in the event you get a cop having a bad day..

[knightstick]

i'd argue that this exhaust gives you better mpg and with gas prices the way they are, you gotta do everything you can.

[GO-GOTEKNO]

The MPGs Would be a good thing to bring up..Stating that the car passed state mandated inspection with ease would be another..

[tuner culture]

Tell the judge you driving next to a Honda (fart can), and that it was him and not an Audi making that noise- ticket should get cleared.

[Smitty2A4]

Tell the judge you driving next to a Honda (fart can), and that it was him and not an Audi making that noise- ticket should get cleared.

What makes me mad too is that right as he was pulling me over I heard a honda with a Whooooom can drive past us!

[InTTruder]

The law cares not for what stock SPL is. They only care if you violate limits established in the Commonwealth's code. If there are no limits then the law is unenforceable.

[GO-GOTEKNO]

Tell the judge you driving next to a Honda (fart can), and that it was him and not an Audi making that noise- ticket should get cleared.

im going to use that one day

[Smitty2A4]

lol no kidding we have ricers. I'm actually going to Fitchburg State right now, There is a few Vdubs and one Audi on campus but other than that it's all rice. What year did you graduate?

I never graduated, was only there for two years, up until 2005, then I dropped out after softmore year, I did well and got good grades but I was like what the hell am I do here wasting my money taking classes that have nothing to do with what I want to do with my life and I hated the campus/area. I dropped out when I was 20, I am now 23 and on my third IT job working as a system admin/desktop support guy and a lot of my friends who did graduate from college and have a degree (one even from tufts!) either have no job and need to go to grad school for another four years to get anything decent, or they are doing some crap paying job that has nothing to do with their major. I am not saying that a degree does not help but in my case I am glad that I dropped out because now I am ahead and have already been in my field for three years. Anyway this is way off topic haha.

[Maverick]

i think you will be able to get it off fine. That cop probably had a bad day.
which court house are you going?
I went to one and I got my speeding ticket off which i didnt expect.
you know, just dress up very professionally. good luck

[Jimbobdaga]

I never graduated, was only there for two years, up until 2005, then I dropped out after softmore year, I did well and got good grades but I was like what the hell am I do here wasting my money taking classes that have nothing to do with what I want to do with my life and I hated the campus/area. I dropped out when I was 20, I am now 23 and on my third IT job working as a system admin/desktop support guy and a lot of my friends who did graduate from college and have a degree (one even from tufts!) either have no job and need to go to grad school for another four years to get anything decent, or they are doing some crap paying job that has nothing to do with their major. I am not saying that a degree does not help but in my case I am glad that I dropped out because now I am ahead and have already been in my field for three years. Anyway this is way off topic haha.

So you must know Fritz then lol, I have about a year left untill I get my CIS degree I'll have to see how it goes. But yeah we're off topic but at least it's your thread you started.

[DELUX]

Are you young? Sounds like you're getting profiled. It's happened to me before. I got pulled over by a statie once and he asked me questions about this and that and I was like, "Look officer. Don't profile me because I'm young. My father is a lawyer and I know my rights and what the laws are." I was like 19 at the time and this was after he searched my car twice. Once I asked him to stop profiling me, he left me alone and let me go.

Profiling is huge for cops and it's a big tactic for them. Sometimes it affects younger people negatively but you just need to speak up sometimes. There's nothing wrong with voicing a complaint to an officer. As a tax payer, they work for you, not against you, and you need to make it clear sometimes that you're not a kid.

[evil_O]

Are you young? Sounds like you're getting profiled. It's happened to me before. I got pulled over by a statie once and he asked me questions about this and that and I was like, "Look officer. Don't profile me because I'm young. My father is a lawyer and I know my rights and what the laws are." I was like 19 at the time and this was after he searched my car twice. Once I asked him to stop profiling me, he left me alone and let me go.

Profiling is huge for cops and it's a big tactic for them. Sometimes it affects younger people negatively but you just need to speak up sometimes. There's nothing wrong with voicing a complaint to an officer. As a tax payer, they work for you, not against you, and you need to make it clear sometimes that you're not a kid.

Yea. Do that. Tell a cop to stop profiling. That will work wonders for ya. Just speak up and do your tax payer duty and tell the cops what their job is... make it very clear they work for you. Guaranteed not to get a ticket then...

[Smitty2A4]

Are you young? Sounds like you're getting profiled. It's happened to me before. I got pulled over by a statie once and he asked me questions about this and that and I was like, "Look officer. Don't profile me because I'm young. My father is a lawyer and I know my rights and what the laws are." I was like 19 at the time and this was after he searched my car twice. Once I asked him to stop profiling me, he left me alone and let me go.

Profiling is huge for cops and it's a big tactic for them. Sometimes it affects younger people negatively but you just need to speak up sometimes. There's nothing wrong with voicing a complaint to an officer. As a tax payer, they work for you, not against you, and you need to make it clear sometimes that you're not a kid.

Yes I am young, I am 23 but look younger, some people think I pass for around 20. I do feel like I was profiled, if I was 40 I have no doubt I would have drove away without a ticket. I was super polite to the officer the whole time, kept my hands on the wheel, told him before I went for the glove box, ect. Is it ok during my hearing to play the profiling card? Will that help or hurt me? I do not want to be insulting towards the officer and make myself look like a punk, but I really want to just get the point across that cars are a hobby for me and I am not some boy racer punk who drivers 80 MPH everywhere he goes and races everything he sees like the cop thinks.

[Smitty2A4]

So I went to traffic court on Thursday last week, I prepared very well by printing out plenty of pictures of the area were I got nabbed, thanks to Google maps, and drawing a nice Visio diagram to explain what happened in better detail. But I didn't even have to use any of this stuff and I am happy to report that I got the ticket completely dropped, both the “speeding” and “obnoxious exhaust”. I think this was due to some luck, since the Magistrate was cool and fair plus the trooper that actually pulled me over was not there, instead another trooper was present. I was also dressed nicer than everyone else there and I feel that I made some strong points.

Here is the short story of how it went, I got in there and the trooper read the report about what I did, the magistrate then told me to talk about the exhaust. I started by saying how my Uncle installed it because the car got rear ended and the aftermarket mufflers were much cheaper than the OEM replacement parts, I said that I don’t think he was trying to make the car sound like a hot rod since he is 53, and that he drove the car for a few years without hassle. But I then told him I also understood the law and how if you touch the exhaust system and it ends up being louder than stock then it is illegal. I told him that my issue with this is that it leaves it up to the decision of one officer to determine if an exhaust system is too loud, there is no measurement being performed, and what is loud to one person may not be to another, and there is too much room for judgment. I also asked if trooper underwent training to estimate SPL levels with just their ears, kinda like how they can estimate speed, he kind laughed but he agreed with my points and told me to pull my Audi up front and himself and the trooper would take a listen and if they didn’t think it was “obnoxiously” loud then they would drop the whole ticket. I was surprised by this and thought it was a very fair way to handle it, that is all I wanted, to have others listen to the car and form their option, if three people agree that it is too loud then it mostly likely is too loud, but just having one person make that decision is straight BS.

So I fired the Audi up, the engine was cold so on startup and idle it was nearly silent, and luckily I had a third by-stander around to give his option as well. The magistrate then told me to “spark it up” haha, so I gave it a few rev’s to 4k, and then got out and told him that a stock A4 sounds a pretty sporty too and is not silent, to which he said “common this is no Infiniti”, I then asked him what model he had and he said G35, at this point I knew the ticket was going to be thrown out, I told him that the G35 is louder stock than my car and he just laughed and agreed. The trooper did not find the exhaust to be too loud and said that it will not be waking the neighbors up, but he did still warn me that it is an excuse to get pulled over because of how big the tips are, which is a dead giveaway that it is not stock.

But bottom line is that they threw the ticket out, I thanked them, shock both of their hands and left, I don’t have to pay a thing nor will my insurance go up, thank you! Honestly I was not very optimistic going into this, but now I think I will fight any ticket I get, it is well worth it, at least you get a fair chance and speaking you side of the story and unless you were doing something really stupid (Ie 100 in a 30 zone) then you really have nothing to loose except a day off from work, and that is a plus in my book haha.

[aaaudiprotein]

Good news!!!

[BOPOH]

Congrats!!! hope my courtday will go as smooth as yours. What are you gonna do about tips, are you change it or leave it like it is?

[Smitty2A4]

Congrats!!! hope my courtday will go as smooth as yours. What are you gonna do about tips, are you change it or leave it like it is?

I am going to leave them for now. I honestly love the sound and look of the Mufflers too much to change them. If I start to get hassled for them a lot then I may consider going with smaller tips, but I don't think that will be necessary. I am trying to be more aware now, and whenever I see a police car around I always shift it to neutral when I roll by or just keep it in the RPM range where the exhaust is silent.

If I get pulled over for it again and the cop looks up my history he will see that I was ticketed for it before and it was dropped, so he may think twice about bothering to ticket me again for it when he knows I will just appeal it again, or it may go the other way and he may be an ass about it and make it a mission to make sure I don't get away with it again. But again for right now I am not too worried, the exhaust is really quiet and as long as I am not at the top of a gear it will not attract attention as for the tips, I will just keep them looking dirty and un-polished, then they will blend right in!

[doublezero30]

congrats smitty! its kind of rediculous you got pulled over for those anyway. i mean, look at frank and scottrs4's cars haha.

[AudiOso]

That's a royal pain bud. Glad you beat the rap. I wonder how it is in MA for guys running aftermarket exhaust systems? Can you imagine spending $3300 + on a Milltek system for a S4 and then getting a fix-it-ticket? What a load of crap!

[pondside36]

Glad it worked out... it all seemed very biased... that's pretty funny how they actually went outside to hear your car.. lol

[Lynch47]

Nice Job -

Ticket - “obnoxious exhaust”, Ok so Mass Troopers should sit in and around the Harley dealers and events and write tickets all day long. Surely Harley's are Exempt from this law - what a joke.

[FourRings80]

Good to hear Smitty! Not sure how It works in Boston Ma, but up here in Montreal Police officers must give 2 tickets per day. (one of my good friend just joined to force) So getting pulled over for a BS reason happens a lot.

[AudiA4Turbo22]

nice man congrats! glad u met some nice troopers!

[J-jizzle]

he said “common this is no Infiniti”, I then asked him what model he had and he said G35, at this point I knew the ticket was going to be thrown out, I told him that the G35 is louder stock than my car and he just laughed and agreed. .

Damn straight to my point

[[IX]]

Move to Florida!!!!

I have No Cat No resonator and custom 2 1/2" w/ Theram R&D Mufflers and a Local Cop told me my car sounded good. Gve me a at the light

[04QuattroTurbo]

Good job, too bad came to this late, I have a SPL meter and a 1.8L with the stock exhaust...

[T0M3K]

Nice job, I wonder if with this ruling any future ticket for "loud" exhaust will be thrown out.

[Jimbobdaga]

Move to Florida!!!!

I have No Cat No resonator and custom 2 1/2" w/ Theram R&D Mufflers and a Local Cop told me my car sounded good. Gve me a at the light

Lol that's awesome, I have one more year in school left and I'll be moving down there. I can't wait to be able to do shit to my car and not have to worry about cops.