Hey Guys,

I got pulled over for speeding the other day here in the city of Orange in So Cal, and I got written up for my Nismo Exhaust. I told the officer it's sold by Nissan but he said it was too loud so I'd have to prove it's under some decibel level or some crap. I bought my Z used and it already had it installed, and I saw the same exhaust for sale at the Nissan dealership.

Can I get something from my Nissan Dealership and bring it to court or something? I don't have the money to get a factory exhaust installed and I can't afford the fine either.

I also got written up for having blacked out tail lights. Again they were blacked out when I bought the Z used a few years ago, so I'm curious as to what my options are regarding this.


Thanks for the advice and suggestions and sorry for the long read.

 

Sorry to hear that man.

You probably got one of the Cops on a bad donut cycle days.

Give Nissan a call. I'm sure they'll provide you with an adequate answer to your worries.
If its sold at a dealership, than its street legal hands down.

Kenny

 

I dont know about California, but cops try to hassle me about my tails in NJ for being tinted. BUT, its legal for them to be tinted, so long as a certain amount of light shines through. The exhaust is legal if it is nismo and ask the dealer on what to do.

As per my recommendation, switch your plate over to a friends Z in the same color without the tinted tail lights and take a picture and bring it to court. Tell them you had it taken off.

 

Scan the ticket and post it here because in OC, they have to measure the decibels to make sure that it is in compliance with law before issuing the ticket. That or they would send you to a referee station. Fishy.

 

You can only get a ticket sign off if the cop inspects the car... I suggest that you don't swap cars. Cops always check the VIN's when they're inspecting the car for a sign off. Better be safe than sorry.

You should go to Nissan and get the info about the Exhaust and bring it to court if you wish.

 

He most certainly didn't measure anything. Just marked me for having after market exhaust, not for the sound specifically. As for scanning the ticket I don't have access to a scanner atm.

 

I stand some what corrected......since you were speeding, your exhaust would have been wailing away which gave the cop an amend to cite you for it without having to measure. Take traffic school if you can't fight the ticket, but the exhaust I believe is a sign off. Just get the info from the dealership and mail a copy with your correction.

Fight The Power!

 

I find it ****ing retarded how you can get a ticket for your exhaust being loud when it's a factory exhaust and the fact that exhaust on harleys and **** are 10 times louder than your exhaust its just jelous cops man I got pulled over the other day for having my music too loud and the cop quizzed me and wasted about 10 minutes of my time. jealous cops who got beat up in highschool, theres no way that will go through in court, I know here where I live if the cop thinks theres an illegal mod on your car he has to have the ministry of transportation come out and inspect the vehicle then and there.

 

Do you have money in an envelope marked

Money for being stupid?

This is the time to use it.

 

What happened to having a radar and some intuition regarding cops' hiding spots man? Otherwise sucks that you got pulled.

 

Tinted tails are illegal no matter what here, in fact any modification done unless installed by (or bought from) a dealership is considered an illegal modification, but most of the cops are not that dickish about it, so I would assume in Cali (considering how strict they are with everything else) pretty much the same goes.

I'm pretty sure as far as the tinted tails go you cant get out of it unless you maybe swap tails with someone elses Z for a few days and take pictures/ get it inspected then swap back.

Exhaust should be easy to prove, like everyone said go to a dealer and ask them for some type of proof, perhaps ask them to give you a printout of it as if you were interested in buying one, or just go to Nissan's website and print up their accessory catalog with the exhaust in it.

 

Since you got pulled over for speeding, that's your fault. I don't sympathize with you for that.

However, in regards to the exhaust thing, I always loved how a police officer by his naked ear could determine your exhaust is "too loud". Granted, someone can pick out an exhaust that's stock and one that's maybe modded, but if their dB level is 95, how does he know yours exceeded that?

It sounds like your going to have to pay to get out of this one way or another, so time to man up. The speeding ticket you will have to take care of on your own. Either plead guilty and pay it or not-guilty and try and get it lowered, maybe higher a lawyer. In regards to the exhaust ticket, I'm sure the wonderful state of California has somewhere you can take to get your exhaust volume measured and get a printout to take with you to court to prove its not too loud. You don't have high-flow-cats or test-pipes do you? They do a lot to make an exhaust sound louder. I know, I have a Nismo with HFC's and its a lot louder than just a Nismo...

 

def. talk to nissan about the exhaust, i dont think any nismo will fail the decibel test its not that loud to begin with, as for the tinted tail lights as long as their not completely black you should be alright with that to, suprised they gave you a ticket for both those things.

my suggestion is ask nissan about your exhaust, ask another cop about your tailight if you can(dont say you got a ticket just say your curious and see what he or she says) and as for the speeding ticket good luck with that, go to traffic school if you can but i highly doubt your getting out of that one...sorry

 

Have you checked your exhaust to see if the resonator was cut out or are you running test pipes?

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm not trying to get out of the speeding ticket, I know that was my bad. I just did a little 0-60 run after taking a left down an empty side street. Maybe I can talk to a judge and get it lowered since it was so empty. But yeah, I was just curious about the fix its.

 

No, I highly doubt there are test pipes. It's nowhere near as loud as my friend's G35 with test pipes, but I could take a look. As for the resonator I'm not sure either. I think what I'll do is just prove that Nismo exhausts are legal.

 

LOL at Lee's response given his current profession.

 

In that case:

VC 27150.7 Certified Exhaust System; Court Dismissal


27150.7. A court may dismiss any action in which a person is prosecuted for operating a vehicle in violation of Section 27150 or 27151 if a certificate of compliance has been issued by a station pursuant to Section 27150.2, or if the defendant had reasonable grounds to believe that the exhaust system was in good working order and had reasonable grounds to believe that the vehicle was not operated in violation of Section 27150 or 27151.

(Added by Stats. 1971, Ch. 1769; amended by Stats. 2001, Ch. 92, Sec. 8; amended by Stats. 2002, Ch. 569, Sec. 4.)

VC 27150.2 Testing of Exhaust Systems


27150.2. (a) Stations providing referee functions pursuant to Section 44036 of the Health and Safety Code shall provide for the testing of vehicular exhaust systems and the issuance of certificates of compliance only for those vehicles that have received a citation for a violation of Section 27150 or 27151.

(b) A certificate of compliance for a vehicular exhaust system shall be issued pursuant to subdivision (a) if the vehicle complies with Sections 27150 and 27151. Exhaust systems installed on motor vehicles, other than motorcycles, with a manufacturer's gross vehicle weight rating of less than 6,000 pounds comply with Sections 27150 and 27151 if they emit no more than 95 dbA when tested in accordance with Society of Automotive Engineers Standard J1169 May 1998.

(c) An exhaust system certificate of compliance issued pursuant to subdivision (a) shall identify, to the extent possible, the make, model, year, license number, and vehicle identification number of the vehicle tested, and the make and model of the exhaust system installed on the vehicle.

(d) The station shall charge a fee for the exhaust system certificate of compliance issued pursuant to subdivision (a). The fee charged shall be calculated to recover the costs incurred by the Department of Consumer Affairs to implement this section. The fees charged by the station shall be deposited in the Vehicle Inspection and Repair Fund established by Section 44062 of the Health and Safety Code.

(e) Vehicular exhaust systems are exempt from the requirements of Sections 27150 and 27151 if compliance with those sections, or the regulations adopted pursuant thereto, would cause an unreasonable hardship without resulting in a sufficient corresponding benefit with respect to noise level control.

(Added by Stats. 1971, Ch. 1769; amended by Stats. 2001, Ch. 92, Sec. 4; amended by Stats. 2002, Ch. 569, Sec. 3.)

 

I just work behind the scenes Sir....not in the front.

 

simple, move out of that communist state