Improper Muffler?

[OldBlue82]

ok so my daily driver is a 1990 silverado running the stock 305 with 160,000 kms on it. i drove the truck to school every day and just recently decided to modify the exhaust. i installed a cat back exhaust with a flowmaster 40 series muffler, mandrel bent tail pipes and stainless tips. it has a nice tone to it now but i dont think its to loud cause i kept the stock cat. so this brings me to the subject. The other day i was minding my own business driving through town and i looked in my mirror and saw some flashing lights. i pulled over and and the cop gets out and asks me what kind of muffler i was running. then he tries to tell me that the 40 series is a improper muffler and i could get fined like $300. anyway he let me off with a warning. i have talked to different people and they all tell me it isnt illegal in anyway in ontario. i just wondered if anybody else has had this problem and if the flowmaster 40 series muffler is illegal?

 

[patmckinneyracing]

I had an issue with the cops up in Maine when I drove my 80 malibu through town. Its running dual flowmaster 40's and sounds almost like a bbc, but the cops just simply didn't like the fact I was driving a muscle car and cruising, period. Now that I'm back in Texas, I have no trouble with the cops. FYI I never took my 40's off while I was in Maine and the cops never messed with me. But the flowmaster 40's are not illegal in any way in the US or in Canada. And if that cop tries to take you to court, it would be soooo easy to get that ticket thrown out if he tried to nail you for it. If you get summit, jegs, or even a local exhaust shop to write a letter to the judge or testify with you in court, they can tell the judge as an exhaust mechanic that those mufflers are street legal.

 

[OldBlue82]

ya i figure he was just trying to be an ******* and only pulled me over cause im young. if it was illegal im thinking he wouldnt have let me off with a warning and issued me a ticket right then and there.

 

[patmckinneyracing]

Yeah basically. When I was in Maine, I had six squad cars pull me over at once. You wanna know what their cause was? They wanted to know what the number '59' meant on the top right of my antique plates. Then they had me get out of the car so they could search it because I had my fishing knife in the passenger seat. They freaked out cause it is an old AK-47 bayonet and they wanted to know where the rifle was. I was like " gimme a break". I told him to smell the blade cause it still smelled like squid. So I let them search the car then they searched me. I was 16 or 17 at the time. Basically they had no grounds to arrest or ticket me.

I found out that up north, the cops and other agencies don't like muscle cars at all. I was accused of polluting and killing the earth, provoking a street race when I reved my engine in a parking lot, and was threatened to be given a ticket because I cruised along Old orchard beach more than 2 passes within an hour. Don't have those problems down here in Texas.

 

[OldBlue82]

ya i live in a part of ontario where no e test is required. there are so many cars and trucks around here running straight pipes with no cats at all. it hard understand how they can still get away with that and then when i follow the laws i get pulled over for improper muffler and unnessesary noise.

 

[patmckinneyracing]

Is your 305 really making that much noise stock? I've never ran cats on my car but if you left the cats on your truck then it shouldn't be obnoxiously loud to the point where a cop is stepping in. I think that cop was just bored that day. Down here, its not against the law to run straight pipe. Antique cars are allowed to drive around here with just headers if we wanted to. But then you risk your valve train going to hell.

 

[dan2286]

ya i live in a part of ontario where no e test is required. there are so many cars and trucks around here running straight pipes with no cats at all. it hard understand how they can still get away with that and then when i follow the laws i get pulled over for improper muffler and unnessesary noise.

Its not that the muffler is illegal, the area you live in probably has some kind of noise ordinance. Most cops probably dont care how loud your car is, but there is always going to be one cop that cant stand the noise and will enforce the law.

I had one cop that was harassing me about loud exhaust. One time he gave me a ticket because he said I revved up the engine slowing down for a red light. I pull away after he gives me that ticket and he pulls me over again and gives me the same ticket.

 

[OldBlue82]

to me the truck doesnt seem to loud at all. i went with the flow master 40 cause i have always liked the sound flowmasters make. im planning to swap in a high flow cat in the future with should make it louder and that should be perfectly legal.

 

[supercrackerbox]

The problem with most noise restrictions, be it stereo or exhaust, is they are left entirely to the officer's discretion.

 

[Doober]

:lol: Wow, this is not the point I thought the thread would be.

The cop was being a jerk, no doubt in my mind... like some of the other guys said, some cops are just pricks. No way around it.

dan2286, I'd consider that harassment.