If you have a modified vehicle and you live in Washington or plan to do so in the near future, you need to know the laws that govern the changes you can make. The following information will help you understand the changes you can make while still allowing your car or truck on Washington`s roads. Glass pack = silent. unless they have written down what a silencer should be. The best way to avoid a ticket is to avoid trouble or make sure your car can`t be misunderstood as illegally altered. When I was young and stupid and did cruises and street racing, my car was intentionally kept «in stock» to look from the outside. No blue headlights, no flashy wheels, a deliberately quiet exhaust, and a car that no police officer would normally suspect. I stopped running and doing stupid things and haven`t been crushed in years. and both of my cars have a VERY noisy exhaust. However, it`s not worth it for an officer to harass me because even though they see me all the time in my beaten car in town, I never do anything stupid or illegal, so they leave me alone.
All vehicles must be equipped with silencers that prevent unusual or excessive noise. Just so everyone knows that Washington State really has the modding community by removing the FACTUAL requirement of a «modified silent exhaust noise/ticket». In the past, you could have tickets dismissed if you read the law to the judge and found that the officer had not taken out a dB meter and performed the prescribed test. So at the end of the day, you can challenge the noise order as vague and unconstitutional, but save that for the court. The last thing you want to do when you`re arrested by an official is get into an argument. If you have something in your car and you don`t want it searched, you should use a quiet exhaust if you have nothing to hide, let the police officer drive through your car, take the ticket, go to the courthouse with photos of your exhaust system and proof that your exhaust is quieter than the legal limit, and prove the incompetence of the officials and prove that he or she chose you and harassed you. If you are respectful, but firm and competent, charges are likely to be dropped to avoid further litigation. Washington has a variety of laws covering suspension and lifting height of vehicles that determine whether it is a legal driver`s license. Washington also has bumper height regulations based on the vehicle`s gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR).
In the area where I live, the sheriff/CHP is really bad about expiration tickets. But most of them don`t know what`s illegal. If you don`t run or do stupid things, you can often get away with more. Vague laws can be fought in court, but if you have a criminal record or are doing something illegal, the last thing you want is attention. This is where the exhaust comes in. If you`re a young kid running around and suffering from burnout, you might not want exhaust fumes that can be heard 10 blocks away, and that`s impossible to defend because it`s less than 100 decibels. Just hang out the window and make the sounds yourself. Isn`t it technically illegal to use spare parts for your vehicle? However, SEMA made a good point.
Since the law no longer defines what is «too strong», the law can be challenged as vague and therefore unconstitutional. It can be argued that an official cannot accurately guess the dB of a vehicle (especially if an actual «too noisy» limit is no longer set), nor can he simply guess whether an exhaust system is not OEM or high-performance OEM. If the reason an officer stopped you was because you have an «illegal escape» because the law is vague about dB limits and the officer cannot know all OEM offers, it can be argued that the stop itself was illegal harassment and that any «evidence» or examination of your vehicle after stopping is an illegal search. A sticker certifying that the tint values are legal is mandatory on the driver`s window between the glass and aluminum foil I learned this lesson when I was 16. My front-wheel drive car looked mostly standard, but was sometimes checked by police, even though the exhaust was close to standard decibel levels and well below the legal limit. I realized how the law worked when I was driving in my father 400hp `72 montecarlo and we were blown up by a policeman parked with an open head. That`s right. No exhaust connected. Guess what? The policeman glanced and then continued looking for bigger fish. The car was so loud that my ears rang for an hour after a 10-minute drive. We couldn`t even shout about the noise. But my standard-looking car with a quiet exhaust would be crushed.
And the car without exhaust passed without a second look. Was it in the purple neon bill? I`m surprised I didn`t catch more flack for the 510 because it`s Kubota orange and noisy as hell. I was arrested in Oregon the last time I was in Canby. This was before the event at the Twisties at Tillamook Cheese Factory and Cannon Beach. Guy was nice, saw me drive past two cars on a rare straight, kept asking me if I had a muffler, and I kept yelling that there was a glass bag in the middle of the car.