Fined for a loud exhaust

[SRi-Jonny]

Hi guys looks like loud exhausts may soon be a thing of the past. Opinions please.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8112905.stm

[RichBurley]

Never once have I heard a car with an exhaust, that has been made louder, and thought "that sounds good".

[prand]

Racing circuits have decibel limits for car exhausts, why not the streets?

I am in favour of this. I am of the belief that modifications to a car should at least improve a car's performance, and looks are secondary. I'd imagine the vast majority of fat, noisy rear pipes are all show and no go. So if this makes some herbert think twice then good.

Edited by prand on Friday 26th June 14:16

[randlemarcus]

prand said:

Racing circuits have decibel limits for car exhausts, why not the streets?

I am in favour of this. I am of the belief that modifications to a car should at least improve a car's performance, and looks are secondary. I'd imagine the vast majority of fat, noisy rear pipes are all show and no go. So if this makes some herbert think twice then good.

Edited by prand on Friday 26th June 14:16

So whats the legal decibel limit then? And I'll presume you will foot the bill to have my bike (which is bog stock from the factory reduced to your arbitrary limit?

[anonymous-user]

RichBurley said:

Never once have I heard a car with an exhaust, that has been made louder, and thought "that sounds good".

Actually I think you have a point there, the vast majority sound awful, you'd get more soul-stirring noises coming from a curry-house toilet.

[Mario149]

RichBurley said:

Never once have I heard a car with an exhaust, that has been made louder, and thought "that sounds good".

i presume you're just referring to chavtastic-type exhausts for 1.0 litre corsas etc?

[RichBurley]

Mario149 said:

RichBurley said:

Never once have I heard a car with an exhaust, that has been made louder, and thought "that sounds good".

i presume you're just referring to chavtastic-type exhausts for 1.0 litre corsas etc?

Pretty much, yes. But I've just had a Mark IV Astra drive past with an unnecessarily loud exhaust. In no way did it improve the car.

[madbadger]

RichBurley said:

Mario149 said:

RichBurley said:

Never once have I heard a car with an exhaust, that has been made louder, and thought "that sounds good".

i presume you're just referring to chavtastic-type exhausts for 1.0 litre corsas etc?

Pretty much, yes. But I've just had a Mark IV Astra drive past with an unnecessarily loud exhaust. In no way did it improve the car.

How about one on a proper car?

[Negative Creep]

Seems fair enough to me. There was some muppet on a Harley riding along the High Street yesterday, the exhaust was deafening. I don't mind a bit of noise but this and many like it really do take the piss

[grumbas]

I'm sure there are plenty of cars with European type approval that will fall foul of the 89db limit being suggested?

What about kit cars, I'm sure the upper limit on the old SVA test was higher than this too?

But then I guess it depends on how they're going to be testing it?

[Mario149]

Negative Creep said:

Seems fair enough to me. There was some muppet on a Harley riding along the High Street yesterday, the exhaust was deafening. I don't mind a bit of noise but this and many like it really do take the piss

it's the scooters with stupid exhausts that wind me up. they are so loud, so high and so piercing it's a nightmare. i personally can't beleieve they let them on the road like that. far worse than any over-exhausted chav car i've ever heard

[exitwound]

What a load of utter bks!!

If you don't like the sound of an unsilenced V8, then you've no business being on PH. Go find an electric car forum and leave the real car enthusiasts to enjoy what they like best..

[Goochie]

RichBurley said:

Never once have I heard a car with an exhaust, that has been made louder, and thought "that sounds good".

Generally I agree with you however, there is a Mitsubishi 3200GTO down our road that sounds glorious at part/full throttle. At idle it is no louder than standard.

Also, a former colleague had a 3.2 V6 Vauxhall Omega with a custom exhaust that sounded as good as a Nissan 350Z

[red rider]

[quote=randlemarcus][quote=prand]Racing circuits have decibel limits for car exhausts, why not the streets?

Surely the only reason that Racing circuits have decibel limits now is because all the moaning bds who move into that area, who usually have no interest in motor sport what so ever.
Me personally if i moved to an area with a race cicuit or near an airport or football staduim whatever i would accept it for whats already there.

[cardigankid]

An exhaust which produces some noise helps you drive better.

[Zad]

cardigankid said:

An exhaust which produces some noise helps you drive better.

Maybe if you are a good driver it does. Chances are that a high % of those who chose noisy exhausts did so just for the volume. When my back box went (no tittering there missis) it did sound rather good, but it was sooo embarrassing driving back home.

[grumbledoak]

Don't mind the theory, stupidly loud Harleys are a pet hate of mine (it is a horrid noise). But it sounds like a very tricky law to enforce correctly and fairly. I would imagine that most standard TVRs are louder than that, yet it would be difficult for the officer to check whether or not a car was modified.

[cs02rm0]

Article said:

Vehicle noise levels should be between a maximum of 82-89 decibels

Eh? What if the maximum noise level of my exhaust is 81 decibels?

Isn't that quite low anyway? I'm sure on car programmes testing noise levels inside cars they've been ~70 decibels. No idea how linear the scale is though.

[moparmick]

The problem is, sometimes a car needs a large free flowing system, my car has got two 3" exhausts into the quietest, least restricting mufflers i could find.
Also the car sounds louder since i changed the heads for full port race heads.
Mick

[dnb]

There's another thread about this running in the General TVR forum. It seems that the police in that area may be doing something not completely legal - they're making their own laws IF they are doing exactly what is reported (which I doubt). More likely, they are fining people for having exhausts which are noticably noisier than the car should be as standard (there is already a law against this). And in order to keep the tuned car owning population scared and the moaners happy, they are reporting that they have more power than perhaps they really do.

To take an example, my grey import Impreza was SVA tested so it could be used in the UK. It passed a 102dB limit noise test, so as far as I can see that is all it need do unless a new UK law is passed to create an enforcable limit - since it was SVA'd then there are NO vehicles of the same model to compare it to.

Similar story for TVRs. They were loud when new, and tested to low volume production rules so as long as you've not been silly (like 120dB+ drainpipes) they can't do much about it other than see if you'll pay an arbitrary fixed penalty fine.