I've been stopped for loud exhaust before, in my '96
Caprice, which is pretty quiet by my standards. My
Caprice has a 2.5" cat-back set up from Hooker, with Hooker Aero-Chamber mufflers. I will say that the car has a good tone to it, but is not loud by any means, unless you're at WOT.
It was about 2:30 am and I was taking some friends home from the bar. This is in a upscale suburb that I grew up in, and is well known for having a police force with nothing to do, other than harass the young people. I was a few blocks away from their place, and a cop passed me going the other way. This was a small neighborhood area, and I was probably going 15-20 mph cause I was approaching a curve, and just barely had my foot on the gas. The cop turns around, follows me for two blocks and pulls me over right before I pull into the block of townhomes where my friends lived.
Officer- "Do you know why I pulled you over?
Me- "No."
Officer- "Your car is too loud."
Me- "You're joking, right?"
Officer- "It is, state ordinance says that your exhaust can be no louder than the general ambient noise created by the vehicle."
Me- "That doesn't make any sense."
Officer- "It's true, and your vehicle is too loud."
Me- "Well, I have full exhaust on my car, and it is marketed as 50 state legal. Why would they say that if it's untrue?"
Officer- "To get you to buy it."
Me- "Well, that seems unlikely. You must stay pretty busy pulling over Harley Davidsons and 1/2 ton pickups than?"
Officer- "You have anything to drink tonite?"
Me- "Nope." -(I really hadn't)
Officer- "Have they?" Pointing to my friends.
Me- "Oh yeah."
I was pretty proud of myself for saying that remark about the HD's and pickups. In the 25 or so times I've been pulled over, I've always behaved myself, but this time I had done absolutely nothing wrong, and had nothing to hide(for once), so I just said it. I think he could tell I saw through his b.s.
He then checked everybody's I.D.s that was with me, gave them back, and went to his car to run my license and proof of insurance info, and comes back a few minutes later.
Officer- handing me a note "Here's the state statute number, you can google it when you get home. Drive safe."
And that was it. I googled the info when I got home, and sure as sh*t, that's what it said. Laws like this are a total joke, as they're left up to the judgement of the officer, there was no "offical equipment" to measure the noise output.
I will add that the police have always been fond of tailing me in the
Caprice, but rarely pull me over. They're more curious as to who that guy is rolling around in a car that looks almost identical to the MN state highway patrol cars. Take at a look of the pics of it on my CarDomain page, you'll see. That, and they also profile the sh*t out of those cars, hoping for some thug, which I definately am not.
Bottom line... He was looking for drunk drivers. And unfortunately for everybody, they can come up with bullshit excuses to pull you over whenever they want.
On the flip side of this, I've been pulled over in the 442 when it had 40 series Flowmasters on the 307, and 350, and the police never mentioned how loud the car was.
I have yet to be pulled over in the 442 with its latest setup (Knock on wood), and the exhaust consists of 3" pipes and Flowmaster 40's again. Now it's really loud... :lol:
