Noise levels
 

I noticed in the Sun this morning (only buy it for the sport!) as well as getting an instant fine for not getting your car tax in time they are looking at noise levels too . How will this affect all you guys with HKS / Amuse exhausts etc? Does anyone know what the allowed decibal amount is?

cheers

Ohhh.....PRM purchase now on hold :(

I wouldnt think that a PRM on its own would be a prob, but combine one with an HKS and you may have probs !!!! :confused:

Don't panic guys. I have an Apexi Hayabusa waiting at Glosgow Airport (Finally) and it's VERY loud. Being a little concerned about this myself, I've done some checking with some pretty clued up traffic cops and the amount of feed-back has been very little! As far as I can ascertain, there is no set decibel level at all. At trackdays you may encounter decibel readers, but it's more to do with politics and not upsetting the residents. Any aggravation from noise is likely to an environmental health thing I reckon, and thiose guys might well measure the noise from your system should your neighbours get up a partition of complaint! :D

As far as traffic law is concerned Regulation 54 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986
provides for the fitting and use of an exhaust system , including a silencer , to all vehicles propelled by an internal combustion engine.

Every exhaust system and silencer shall be maintained in good and efficient working order and shall not after the date of manufacture be altered so as to increase the noise made by the escape of exhaust gases.

In other words you can't go knocking holes in your exhaust to make more noise as I read that.

But from the MOT:

reason for rejection.
"b. a silencer in such a condition, or of such a type, that the noise
emitted from the vehicle is clearly unreasonably above the level expected from a similar vehicle with a silencer in average condition

So it's little ambiguous. Seriously.. if a cop stopped me for a noisy exhaust, I'd very politely ask him how he was ascertaining that it was noisy and his authority in law for asking me to alter it.

Hope that helps. I wouldn't sweat it personally. On a practical note I wouldn't want to piss my neighbours off with an excessively noisy system and I wouldn't be too impressed if the shoe was on the other foot, so I have the option of using a sub silencer with mine if it's too much.

How many coppers carry equipment around with them that can accurately check dB levels?

I remember :bow: Brian :bow: posted something recently to the effect that he had been given a "make good" ticket for his Mugen exhaust and the noise it was putting out, but I don't know whether the policeman who did him had any way of actually checking, or whether it's sufficient for them to subjectively decide that it's too loud. The latter seems unlikely. Brian.......?

MOT time will be your first encounter , especially if you have a straight thro , Decat pipe .

I think the law bases any judgement about noise on whether or not it is worse than the type approval for that particular vehicle from the manufacturer .

When pulled on a bike , they give you a fixed penalty and issue a " rectifier " where you make it good and take the car to an MOT station to get the ticket stamped .

I agree with that. Stick with a catback system, and don't do away wit the mid box and you should be OK. De-catted systems are asking for trouble.

Christ, some of the Nova boys around here are well and truly stuffed then! Good get the bleeders off the road! (the Nova boys that is).

Simple answer to this (I think).

Keep the original end box. When you go for the MOT swap them over. The original should provide enough silencing.

This is what Harley owners have been doing for years since 90% of Harley owners opt for the illegal straight through pipes. The dealer gives the original strangulated jobbies and its a 5 minute job to swap them over.

I followed a kiddie with 6 , yes 6 exhaust pipes showing out of the back valence , looked awful and sounded even worse .
He wanted to race with me too :LOL: