Hi, I am a little concern about my car being a "little" bit too loud.
I am running a 3" from turbo all the way to the muffler exit (with 3" cat that's probably melted). I am just wandering if there is a place where you can get ur car tested for loudness.

 

I'm sure a decent car audio shop can use their sound level reading dealy to get you an accurate decibel reading.

 

Or pick up a dB meter at Radio Shack (The Source), use it to test, record your findings at various RPM levels, then return it. Wait did I say that?

 

there's no law against exhaust system volume in ontario

 

But they can give you a ticket if they think your making unnecessary noise with a "Hollywood style" muffler.

thewird

 

Not sure what this looks like.. but i will try to check it out tommorrow at the source. Do i test this from inside the vehicle or outside??



That was almost my next question... "what's the legal db limit in ontario"??

 

Will it tone down the loudness if I put in another 3" in/outlet muffler??

 

You test from outside the car, holding the dB meter at a 45* downward angle towards the exhaust. General rule of thumb, if your under 95db at idle, your ok

 

Not only that but if you hope to go to the track, you'll have to watch the noise. Some tracks are still ok but most of them are in danger of being shut down and have limits. Dunnville doesn't officially have a limit but they'll ask you to short shift or leave if it's obscene (like mine was). Tremblant and Calabogie are explicit - 92db at 50 feet on Fast A.

I'm going to get mine sound checked soon, got a 2nd muffler installed. I've got a 3.2 with no cat and dual 2.25" piping, so it makes a freaking racket. I first had the Corsa reflective sound cancelling mufflers only - they cancel jack and s*** and jack left town. Added a magnaflow - still loud now but it's a nicer sound, with the edge gone. Think it'll be good. I'll either borrow a friend's DB meter if he can find one or I like the "borrowing" idea from Radioshack, if they have one.

As for the street, I think there's a fixed limit but as thewird said, they can give you a noise ticket or worse, which are subjective. You'd think a simple sound check reading or other technical evidence would get you off but that's not even the case. In Peel they are absolutely hateful towards modified cars. My friend, who knows this very well, got pulled over in his car, which had a loud exhaust but he made sure to drive past the police at idle - still pulled over. He sat there with the engine off forever, the guy comes gives him a ticket for an illegal muffler - said I dare you to fight it.

So he did... the thing is that his muffler was stock. He had no cats and the muffler was gutted, but that's not what he was fined for. He took pictures of the muffler and the part number, and got documentation that it's the OEM part. His case came up, he figured it was just a formality. He presented his case. Then the cop came, said that his car was so loud that even while they sat on the side of the road, he couldn't hear the dispatch radio over the sound of his car at idle (which was turned off as you may recall). The judge said, when me and my wife are sleeping, you kids ride around in your souped up cars at night, making the picture frames on my walls shake. He found him guilty. The cop later caught up to him outside and said if I ever see you and your piece of **** on my streets again I will throw the book at you.

Moral of the story: you're right to worry.

 

Damnit! I'm moving to Brampton soon too! George, your car IS really loud man.

 

I can always just put a quieter muffler on it for you George. Not a big deal, and yes, your car is loud. LOL.

Brent

 

It really seems like Ontario is the happy homeland for subjective laws and slimy cops. Funny how those two seem to go hand-in-hand...

Even if there's no formal dB level set in motor vehicle legislation, many municipalities have noise bylaws, which typically set daytime and night time dB limits, particularly for residential areas. Eg.: http://content.calgary.ca/CCA/City+B...rest/Noise.htm - a summary page, with links to the 33 page Calgary residential noise bylaw document, and 106 page (!!!) bylaws relating to local vehicle laws. Calgary effectively has a max daytime limit of 90dBA (it has to exceed the actual limit of 85dB by five to be chargeable) for non-continuous sounds in non-residential areas - it's considerably lower at night and in residential areas.

ASN Canada FIA sets a 96dBA limit in Solosport regs except specific venues allowing 103dBA, and some venues are limited to 90, measured from the rear at a point where cars should be WOT, at a distance of 15m.

Even 95 dBA measured under those circumstances is freaking loud - 95 dB will have most people covering their ears as the car passes, even amongst car enthusiasts, who presumably are a more appreciative crowd. We had bridgeport RX-7 come out to a Calgary Sports Car Club autoslalom event a few years back that was hitting 105 - which was hurting course workers ears at over 30m, and led to a noise complaint that in turn led to loss of the venue. It takes a seriously loud car to be in the 90+ dB range, although RX-7s (along with modded diesel pick-ups which huge pipes) are amongst the few street cars that can do it.

I don't have much sympathy for drivers of street-driven cars that are generating that kind of noise even at WOT, even though I'm generally inclined to think noise tickets and bylaws are more used as harassment than anything else (the noise complaint I referred to earlier was from residential hundreds of meters away across a busy freeway - so while it was really loud on-site, it was more of a merely unpleasant sound where the complainant actually was - and the complainant was an ex-RCMP, and lodged his complaint mainly to express his dislike of racers, even in a controlled setting). That level of noise really does wake people up and rattle the pictures on the walls. Which is fine at the track, but really is pretty obnoxious on the streets.

 

I'm siding with the judge. It's not like it makes your car faster, it just brings attention to yourself. Maybe the wrong attention sometimes, but you're asking for it.

 

Don't get me wrong guys, I also hate loud cars and bikes rumbling past my windows when I'm resting - that's why my loud car is track-only. What I do have a problem with though is an authority figure with clear rules to enforce, throwing them out of the window and dishing out a personal revenge verdict, and even admitting as much. I know it's just the traffic act and not the criminal code but if you put in rules which say what's legal and what isn't, you can't just make stuff up on the spot because your window frames shake on the walls... that's not justice, it's revenge.

 

True enough that - and why not file an appeal in that case, based on the judge's comments (to say nothing of the cop's dishonesty.

Back to the OP's question - he could try approaching an ISN/FIA sanctioned racing/car club in his area and see if they have a meter and would test his car - as a past event organizer here, I doubt I'd have turned down such a request, if the requester was willing to come to me or one of our events to make use of our meter.

 

That is not correct.

I have first hand knowledge of this.

It is called NOISE POLLUTION.

You can recieve a ticket, if I remember correctly, its nearly 125$ CAD.

Then when you get pulled over for that, they will hit you with illegal drop, and if you are stupid enough to pop the hood, any other modifications they can try and throw on top.

I used to get Noise pollution tickets, and fight them, and still lose.

I never understood why people think a loud car that can be heard by anyone from 10 blocks away was cool. Don't forget the pigs can hear you too.

real1st

 

I like the neighbourhood where I live, that's why I am a little concerned about my 7 being a little loud.
I also obviously don't wanna attract the attention of cops and mto too much.

Sizzlenut, you are right about a car being loud not necessary a fast car. But in my case, my car louder than before (3-4yrs ago) because of the engine make over to produce more power than stock.
I THINK my 86 GXL is faster than a stock T2.

 

Okay, Brent let's do that... I am not sure when I can come up to Berrie, but I wanna do that.

I dan't think loud cars are cool at all.

 

Haha, no problem George. Just the usual, give me a bit of notice and I'll get the muffler in and book a time for you.

 

George, lets trade cars for a day! I'll bring it up to Brent. I'm pretty due for a visit anyways.