[CJ428CJ]

If "Loud" can't be defined, and quantified it can't be enforced. It's the cop's "Opinion" against yours, abd even representing yourself pro se', you could beat it. Excessive noise has to be first measurable. 95db at 50 feet for instance. The measuring instruments must be calibrated and certified, and the cop must provide documentation azs to his/her training received to use the instrument. The conditions under which the measurements are taken must be described in the statute, or procedure. Uphill, downhill, highway cruise, 35mph, idling? Now, a defective, or malfunctioning exhaust could be a trial issue. If your car has a recent State inspection, or you go and get another one demonstrating no defect, or malfuinction in the exhaust system, The judge will ask you if you have had your muffler repaired. You must state, and document, that your muffler was not defective on the date the violation was written, and therefore no repairs were required. You're "Not Guilty".

I researched this a bit here in California because a local cop was giving me a hassle about how loud my Cobra was. He told me that if he saw me driving around town in it again, he'd ticket me for excessive noise. I Googled it a bit and found a California Highway Patrol bulletin that basically said the same thing that Jack21 said above. Because it would be impossible to measure the sound levels accurately in other than a laboratory environment, the CHP bulletin concluded something along the lines of, "if it looks like it has a muffler on it don't ticket but if there is no muffler on it go ahead and ticket it."

Chris