gafu mazda

ok guys,last night at about 11:30pm I got pulled over by a local cop who after asking for lic. Ins and reg tells me he pulled me over for blue headlights,tinted windows,and loud muffler.I quickly say "blue headlights?",because I don't have blue lights at all.He tells me to turn on my lights,walks to the front of the car,comes back and says"I meant your parking lights".Now I'm just a tad irritated because my 99 lights have WHITE led lights and regular signal lights,which I also told him.He carries on and says I also have tinted windows and I say yes sir I do,and asks me to pull them up so he can see,then tells me he will be back.Im figuring ok,tinted windows I'm guilty of but he never asked me about the exhaust.He comes back with 2 tickets,one for windows the other for loud muffler,and inside I flipped,then asked him if by ear he could tell that my exhaust was over 95db at 3000 rpm which when he saw me I was at a red light ready to make a turn and he stopped me 1/8 of a mile after turning.He didn't say anything,other than explaining tv court date and if I wanted to pay it in advance I could blah blah blah.

In NJ it's a 54 dollar each ticket for tint and exhaust,but I feel like fighting the exhaust ticket because I'm ALMOST sure Greddy evo2 is less than that.Some people might say I don't have a shot but I think I do since he was wrong about a few things to begin with,plus if I can prove the db level of the exhaust they have to throw it out.Does anyone know the spefs on such system?And if I'm right, what should I do?Thanks in advance!

1QWIK7

iTrader: (33)

Its approaching end of the month so cops everywhere will hand out tickets to meet their quota.

You COULD fight the exhaust ticket but for the low penalty price, they assume you're not gonna go through the hassle and actually pay for it.

I was being followed by a cop before and i have a PFS exhaust (which is louder than yours?) and i was approaching the highway, shifting at low rpms because i didnt want him to think i was gonna attempt to speed to merge and we went under an overpass.

You know how loud our cars are when we get under and overpass lol. Well i heard it, i know he heard the loudness (because i was accelerating slowly which makes the sound more noticeable) and he just switched lanes and passed me.

This is a STATE TROOPER so he has every right to pull people over on the highway. Moments later he pulled over to his "spot" to catch speeders.

Im thinking that that particular cop was probably bored and wanted to harass people.

What part of jersey this happened in btw?

twinturborx7pete

iTrader: (3)

Honestly a waste of time unless you really want to shoot for it.

Davin

iTrader: (14)

i would fight it because what is stopping another cop from giving you the same ticket a month later? every ticket i get, i fight tooth a nail to have it thrown out. so far, reluctantly, i have a flawless winning streak. if you want to give a cop a reason they can make easy money and waste your time again, than so be it.

Davin

iTrader: (14)

also, the evoII exhaust is proven to be legal in 50 states. that is all you need when you go to court and keep with you when you get pulled over.

teknics

iTrader: (4)

redacted.

kevin.

raffer

iTrader: (4)

Do your home work and be real spasific . get a specs sheet on your muffler and pic of the name on muffler and papers showing its 50 states legal !

cewrx7r1

iTrader: (2)

Find what the state exhaust level requirements are and then buy a Radio Shack DB meter (used to align surround sound systems). Then have someone who is an engineer measure your car under the conditions the cop heard you. If within the states specs, take him and you equipment and data to court with you.

It is all logical!

MOBEONER

iTrader: (18)

Yo gafu whats up its jason frankys son i will go down there in a few weeks hopefully i will see you around. As far as the ticket i would higher a traffic lawyer,it might cost you a couple of hundreds but its worth not having your insurance raised by 20%. I had 5 tickets and i was not guilty in all of them thanks to my traffic lawyer.money talks bull **** walks.

Sgtblue

iTrader: (16)

In this day and age with every other Office worker buying a Harley, playing dress-up and feeling like they have special dispensation to annoy and make babies cry...loud exhaust is reaching. So I'm thinking we didn't get the whole story.

IRPerformance

iTrader: (41)

What about the rest of the exhaust? Do you have a cat on there? No catback is going to be legal if you have a midpipe.

SWAT81

iTrader: (14)

ah~ the classic cop story, you got a few options for the exhaust but nothing for the tints since NJ completely prohibits tints on driver and passenger side windows up front. You can't even get inspection with tints on the windows up front.

For exhaust you got 2 options:

1st is, if you got a local shop you are close with ask him to make a bogus receipt that he fixed the exhaust back to the stock one. Showing this receipt may excuse your exhaust ticket.

2nd is, you can go to court and challenge that cop in front of the judge. When you are given permission to speak you ask the cop if he knows the proper sound decibels (dB) for the stock RX7, he will obviously say no. Then you ask him if he had a sound decibels (dB) meter to measure the sound level of your car at the exact moment he pulled you over. Obviously no again, case will be closed b/c he has no proof. This worked for me a while back so I'm not sure if this trick works as of today but if you want to make that cop look like an idiot its worth a shot even if you have to pay the ticket.

1QWIK7

iTrader: (33)

I dont know what the eye rolling was about but thats how it is around here.

End of month = cops nitpick little things to hand out the ticket.

As far as exhaust, i have heard of kids with STOCK srt4's being pulled over for thieir exhaust. Yeah their stock exhaust.

Modified exhausts are nothing new. If a cop pulls you over for that, then he has nothing better to do.

gafu mazda

Here's the whole story SgtBlue...
A cop is parked 100 feet from a traffic light at a nearb pizza shop when he SEES me coming up to a red light doing about 20-25mph on neutral going on the left turn lane.He now gets OUT of the parking lot and goes to the STRAIGHT lane,until I make my left,which he switches over and quickly turns on his lights,from within ONE second,I signal right,park,turn car off,dome lights on and hands on 10 and 2 until he's at my window.be asks me for credentials which I have on my wallet on passenger seat and he sees my PBA cards which I didn't mention in previous post because to me it didn't matter.I proved him wrong on the blue headlights,so he aims for the parking lights,and gets proven wrong again,which he goes on to the tints.I told him he was absolutely right about the tinted windows and asked me if I ever gotten a ticket from that before,in which I said no.He asked me about my PBA plus a personal detective card I had in my wallet and I told him I knew the local detectives from supplying them with regular vehicles so they could go undercover to do stings/busts.He comes back with the tickets and explained the court and fins procedures and asks menif I had any questions,in which I said no and told him to have a good night.


It's not about the money,it's about the abuse some cops have against people out here.My father did 30,yes THIRTY years in law enforcement(DEA) and I know how to treat an officer.That gentleman was a d!ck and had nothing else to do.As far as the unmarked regular cars I supply for the narcotics detectives,it's part of my profession.

There's the whole story sir,***** in your court

Ihor,I have a cat on the car,the exhaust system was done right,for those legal reasons.

Jason,tell your dad to go look for me so we can meet or have him call Edgar so we can get together.

otaku85

it is almost the end of the month. the loud exhaust is bs though greddy is known for being pretty quiet. but cops give you ******* reasons to give you a ticket at the end of the month. i work at a industrial park in redmond and every that road becomes a gauntlet of cops at each and every drive way at the end of the month. that crap is unforgivable i just want to go home and not be stuck behind a 5.0 using my companies' parking lot for save his job.

Snowblind113

you must have been driving near the beach lol

oo7arkman

iTrader: (2)

Court costs are going to be about the same as just paying the ticket. Other things you may need to purchase would send it even higher than the ticket. Would such tickets even be reflected on auto insurance policies? If not, then just pay it (although I DO agree with fighting it just based on principle). If it DOES get reported on your insurance than I would fight it no matter its cost. I do not believe such violations add points onto your license and thus are not reported to insurance. (even under 10mph speeding tickets are not reported)

Police around where I live can be the same way, it gets VERY bad towards the end of the year. Most officer's are pretty cool and I am ALWAYS curteous when I speak to one although it never fails that every-once-in-a-while you run into that guy/girl just having a bad day and he gets you for something rediculous and is a total *** the whole time.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do and let us know how it turns out. Now I am curious....

RLaoFD

iTrader: (6)

Some research group, (i don't know how credible) rated NJ as the most unfair traffic law enforcement in the country. Found the story on Digg.

otaku85

i heard ricky chu from superstreet tried to fight this don't know the result that's why most stat laws just say its based on the officers judgment. that's why dudes with stock exhaust can still get busted. and someone said srt-4's getting pulled over, i'm not surprised because you got a stock turbo doesn't mean you can be a douche. but having a shiny can is an easier way to get their attention cause in Washington if it ain't stock you're getting a ticket. the states gotta recover that $6 billion debt somehow. so they'll enforce any bs law to cover their asses

Montego

iTrader: (1)

almost full proof don't get an engineer though. The state does not see us as anything special.


To the thread starter,

Go to a state referee and get the DB test performed please make sure you have proof that it passed, add that to the spec sheet of the exhaust and bring this to court.

After you win turn around and make formal written complaint on the cop, cite harrasment, irresponsability, how he cost you money due to his actions, and cite how wrong he was in his accusations (but make sure these are things that are true or that you believe to be). It won't get him fired nor suspended (it's a commulative effect) but as he goes up for promotion, pay raise whatever, your complaint will be right there. I'm not saying that your complaint will cause him a pay raise but what I am saying is that it will be there as an annoyance. Like I said it's a commulative effect so if there is enough complaints it will have an impact on him..

That's your way of getting back at him.

1QWIK7

iTrader: (33)

Just wanted to bump this because im from jersey like the OP and i got pulled over like an hour ago for "loud muffer" lol.

But thankfully, NO TICKET!!!

I was just cruising on the highway and you know how other cars are when they see a cop already pulled over with another car with the lights on, they slow down anyway, i guess to make sure they arent the next one to get pulled over or because they just wanna stop and stare like nosey people.

Anyway i was on the far right lane and i can see the cop about 200 feet ahead of me so of course i slow down to about 45mph. To my surprise, he just HAD FINISHED with the other car he pulled over and he pulled out RIGHT behind me when i passed him.

Mind you, im at 45mph, in 5th gear, its time to accelerate now because cars have done being nosey, now its time to get back up to pace.

I didnt want to downshift because he would hear the revs, (cop is RIGHT ON MY ***).

I didnt want to continue at 45mph to quiet the car or throw it in neutral cause we're on the highway, i had to accelerate to get back into the pace of the traffic.

So i just had to step on it, in 5th, from 45mph.

I thought i was safe because he switched to the middle lane, but then he cruised about a car length behind me, then swithced right back behind me about 5 seconds later.

10 seconds after that, i see the lights. Im like i KNEW IT!

I pulled over 200 feet ahead into the entrance of a ford dealer overstock lot.

I shut the car off right away, hoping he had forgotten how loud my car is lol

The usual, license, reg and ins card. I had it all out right away.

Here is how it went:

Cop: Why do you have a loud muffler??

Me: O its a rotary engine, they are really loud like that.

Cop: huh?

Me: Rotary engine, really loud. lol (im not laughing but ill let you know why i was lol inside my head later on)

Cop: It was the muffler sir.

Me: Im sorry, i only take out my car once a week, it was nice today.

Cop: When are you gonna change it?

Me: Well i had a worse exhaust before, the muffler was big and i didnt want the attention.

Cop: Yeah, cause this is really a nice car (he was smiling) and you know people complain about loud mufflers.

Me: Yeah i know, i wanna change it but i hardly drive the car. I even limit my drive because i dont wanna upset my neighborhood.

Cop: Ok, (hands back my info). Lets get you outta here now, be careful when you pull out, ill guide you.

Me: Ok thanks.


Im thinking to myself, thank god no ticket. I know the worst i could have gotten was an exhaust ticket which is like what 100 bucks?? But the fact that he was hispanic, with semi strong accent, made me to believe he likes rx7s lol Maybe he was puerto rican?? lol So thats why i was glad i got pulled over by him.

So when i left, he switched lanes to the left (it had now became a 2 lane road) and i sorta winded out the gears, shifting at like 4k rpm. We approached an tight underpass and i decelerated under the bridge while the cop was behind me, on the next lane lol.

After that, he accelerated out of there, and i exited it, made a u-turn and went home lol.

All in all. This is the second time i got pulled over, first time was 5 years ago. Usually when i see cops, i throw it in neutral and coast pass them. But this time i couldnt cause i was on the highway and it was time to accelerate.

mrb63083

iTrader: (4)

I got pulled over for this same reason one time. Honestly, I think the officer did it to look at the car. I didn't really mind. I got out of the car and showed him the engine and everything; pretty stand up guy.

1QWIK7

iTrader: (33)

Yeah it sucks but im grateful i didnt get a ticket, i dont think i even got a warning. I think the officer "suggested" i change it. He didnt say change it or next time i see you im giving you a ticket lol.

Either way im not changing it. I do agree sometimes its loud, and it drones on the highway, which is why he pulled me over in the first place, the droning IMO, but i hardly drive the car and sometimes your toy has to have some noise in order for it to be interesting and fun.

For those wondering, i only have a PFS catback, stock cat and HKS DP.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MwXbBvs9h4

gafu mazda

My court date got postponed due to the cop being on vacation.I have read tons of stuff regarding nj exhaust law and although there was a bill or whatever you want to call it to revise(2002),it never went through.The only thing I have as a weapon is challenging the officer on his Acoustics level,which I'm 100% sure he's not an acoustics major.Ive also learned that there is a different method or law regarding DEcelerating and getting pulled over for that.Currently where I live,the city has a loud noise ordinance where if they can hear noise 25 feet from it's origin,it's a ticket,but police are only using it for loud music,ignoring everything else....like a car's horn,or a person screaming/talking loud,so that loophole has kicked them in the ***.As soon as I go to court I'll post an update.

WaachBack

iTrader: (21)

Haha, that sucks. On my island, most cops could give 2 ***** about modded cars.