Need some legal advice (exhaust)

[Rosco]

Okay last saturday night, I did a little partying. I made sure by the time I was ready to drive I'd be legal (.08 in NY is the limit). Anyway I figured it's about .02 for every beer you drink and for every one you have it takes about 3 hours for it to completely wear off. So with this in mind I gave myself plenty of time to be sober enough to drive. Well on the way home I decided to get some Wendy's. I start driving towards home making sure I wasn't speeding or driving "spirited" and I get pulled over. Of course I take a sobriety test and pass. He goes back to the car and I wait for approx. 5min. and he comes back with an INADAQUETE (sp?) EXHAUST ticket without a fix-it paper. I ask him what this means and he explained that I basically can get a ticket for anything on my vehicle that it is not stock. I told him that I bought the car with an aftermarket exhaust and continues and says that it doesn't matter. I go on to say that "this sucks" and he replies " I know".....(which at that point I'm wondering why he wrote me a ticket if he agreed with my line of thinking). I thank him for taking the time to explain to me what the ticket meant and drive home. So now I turn to you guys to help me out on how to fight this. I'm not removing the exhaust because I do not have the stock one and where I live during the winter salt gets everywhere and would eventually rust it out. This is not a loud exhaust ticket either. The exhaust is a cat-back SSAutochrome stainless steel (one of the reasons why I do not want it off due to rust issues). So I hope one of you guys out there can help me out. Car is a 90 fastback.

[gogg]

Not really sure how stuff works where you are but can't you just plead not guilty, and if the cop doesnt show up and testify against you then you don't get the ticket... dunno, I think I heard that before though.

[elgarvo616]

Talk to SS AutoChrome. See if they can send you a letter stating that the exhaust is 50 state legal. Plead not gulity too. if the cop is a nice guy, hell probobly let you plea bargin.

[black s13]

virginia is like that, anything non-oem is illegal, no questions. technically if they want to ticket you for a meineki muffler job they can. its a crappy law, but thats how it reads.

[Rosco]

Yeah, I think I'm gonna plead not guilty and see what the DA will do about it. Usually they will work with you. I've been trying to find the actual law that states this and I'm having no luck. It's as almost if they don't want you to know this law until you've already spent your money on the exhaust. Then they can make money off you by giving you a ticket. I just think it's stupid that we pay taxes to drive on the roads and they tell us what we can install on our cars and we pay taxes on that too!!! I plan on moving to NC pretty soon, so hopefully that place will be somewhat better on this issue. I'm pretty sure that if I had a Mustang with a loud exhaust I'd be left alone....that is just the way it seem up here.....basically all cops seem to have an Anti-Import attitude...

[89 240 SOHC]

The law is really against us....in Ontario you can get a "HotRod" emissions test which means your vehicle has an engine swap and you get a better chance of passing....then on the other hand a law says "Any vehicle must be powered by the Factory Engine or an Exact replacement of the same specifications" and you can't get a safety for a "HotRod" vehicle so I had to slip the guy doing my saftey an extra $50 so he wouldn't open my hood. I'm having alotta trouble getting my car back from the impound yard because of my engine swap. Ministry of Transportation says you can't have an engine sway and the Ministy of Enviroment says sure go ahead we'll even make sure it passes an e-test cause the limits will be so high....Goverments suck but I don't vote so I shouldn't complain

[mrflip69]

Whatever, you guys get Skylines for cheap LEGALLY, so no pity from me!

The ticket is pure BS. Tell them you had the OEM system but it rotted out, and you had it replaced with this one. What do they expect you to do? Pay some absurd over-inflated price at the dealer for another stock system? They must have some sort of decibel exemption that you can easily meet. Don't get bullied around by the man!

[Rosco]

I'm going to also contact a SEMA rep. about this issue as well. Mr. Flip 69: That is one of my lines of thinking. Also I found this while researching:

http://public.findlaw.com/traf....html

Pretty interesting especially since I never knew about this.

[xero1]

this is why i live in gerogia, no emission test in walton county, i drove my car with just a down pipe for 3 week and never got pull over, and cop was next to me a the stop lights. right now i have a greddy down pipe wth a straight pipe, no muffler and never got a ticket since i did my sr20det swap.

[Ni2s4s0aSnX]

I didn't think so. I've never gotten pulled over for it. And what part of VA are you from. P'ville right here.

[Rosco]

Just a quick update: I called the DA and they asked if the exhaust was fixed. I told them that there never was a problem with it and that it is an aftermarket exhaust. The DA said they would only charge me the court surcharge ($65.00) and I could keep the exhaust on. I still have yet to mail the ticket in so right now this is all heresay. I also reccomend that everyone here go to the SEMA website and at least register to become a member of the SAN (Sema Action Network). This will help us to become more aware of the laws and Bills getting passed. It's also free too, so no worries.

[Reinner]

Wow! Virginia 240 drivers!

I'm glad I'm not the only one in VA that drives one.

In VA, the law is really anal about OEM parts. If it ain't OEM, you will probably get pulled.

However, if they persist, I think you could file for harassment...?

[574-240sx]

fight the ticket, you will probably waste a day in court and get off with community service. If you have a day to waste and the time to do community service go for it.