Did someone call my name? LOL.. I'm kinda pooped at the moment but the first chance I get I'll get you the low down on MD law.

 

My bro got two repair order tickets for his exhaust and two tickets for his front license plate. I understand why he got his repair order cuz he has 3 inch piping straight pipes no cats and i think its a 5 inch outlet but i didnt think he shouldve gotten the front license plate tickets cuz he has no mounting things for his license plate

 

Ok.. sorry Josh, but this statement is just lame, no offense. You know I like ya... but... Just because he has no mounting brackets to put on his license plate doesn't mean he has the right to drive around with no front tag and not get a ticket. That's like saying your exhaust piping is all rusted out from the header back, and you run no piping at all and it should be ok to drive and get no tickets. If you don't have brackets, make some. Buy some. Put them on. If not, then enjoy your $50 ticket.

 

[QUOTE=CrazyCracker82,May 23 2005, 02:25 PM] the first was the civic...cop gave me an inspection ticket....took it to meineke across from the state police barracks in westminster, they told me there that as long as there is a cat i can modify the exhaust all i want from the cat back. he signed off on the ticket, i sent it in, life was good.

second was the teg. i got an actual ticket, saying it was illegal. i went to court with on the basis of what the guy told me when i got my ticket in the civic. i plead not guilty and told the judge my argument from the civic. he read to me straight out of the law book and it said that as far as noise if the noise is louder than a stock exhaust it is considered illegal.

the gist....you can modify an exhaust all you want but the noise cannot be louder than the factory exhaust (not sure of decibel levels)

cops have really been cracking down on this shit here in carroll county. they are also using it as an excuse to search young kids cars for drugs and stuff. complete

 

i was like 19 at the time. they wrote the ticket off and i was free and clear. that was an inspection ticket too. not an actual citation you should know that. when i got the actual ticket was when i found out the real law. i should have said before that i plead not guilty, when i knew i was handed my ass by the law book i almost said but didn't asked "well can i plead not guilty?"

and dude with the searching issue. i was with my brother in his car a couple months ago we were going up to PA to go eat. passed a manchester cop in town he pulled by brother over about 2 miles outside of town. it was b/c of his front plate. he took my id as well. he got my brother out of the car and asked if he could search it b/c he ran my id and (had a run in with the law 5 yrs ago) said i had been in the run in with a local police dept before. thats all he said. he didn't even find anything in the search the dumbass. i just can't believe i was the passenger and he had the grounds to ask by brother the driver and owner of the car to search the car b/c of the passengers past. answer me that if you will. i wouldn't mind knowing some either law breaking or enforcing stuff.

 

I knew you were a felon!

 

The only way the officer in that instance could have searched the vehicle you were in was if the driver or owner gave them consent to search the vehicle. If you didn't want them to search the vehicle then just say no. It's that simple. People think think that just because an officer asks to search your vehicle you have to say yes. If he has no probably cause to search your vehicle then he has no reason being in there unless you give consent. Let's put it this way. If he has probable cause to search your vehicle, he wouldn't have to ask for your permission. He would have just gone ahead and done it. So keep that in mind if you will. If an officer asks for your permission to search your vehicle, he probably doesn't have probable cause to do it, therefore you can say no.

 

And remember that if they tow your car, they have the right to inventory your car.

 

That would be correct. And whatever they find inside is admissable in court.

 

Hey 4theheckof_it,

If you could get us the low down on what MD law is on exhausts I know we'd all be very grateful!

I think sometimes both parties are mis-informed about the law in some of these areas (both the officers and the potential offenders).

Something just doesn't make sense. The law is very specific about so many things. If there is an ordinance that reads that an "exhaust cannot be modified to be louder than stock" or something along those lines then wouldn't you be able to fight the ticket if the officer did not use some kind of decibel meter (with calibration paperwork like a radar gun needs to hold up in court) with the same reading done on a factory car of your make/model/year?

It would be most helpful to be able to be knowledgeble in talking with the officer / preparing a defense should any of us get stopped for this kinda thing.

Thanks in advance if you can help us out!

PS> Im just editorializing here, but if there is such a law it is BS (though thats not the cops' faults, they're just doing their job). I mean after all the "loud pipes save lives" crap lets the harley/cruiser guys get away with ridiculously loud exhausts and yet we can't have something thats not nearly as loud.