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I applaud any and all efforts to take loud cars/bikes off of the road. I wish it was legal to shoot people with loud exhausts. I 100% mean what I just said.
These a-holes wake up whole neighborhoods of people, ruining quality of life. In my case in the summer, it’s constant. I don’t care if the cop did something wrong, I applaud him. Any tactic that harms people with loud exhausts is fine by me.
I had received a $60 ticket in NYC for my exhaust and I went to court to fight it and won. The judge ruled without even a sound meter test receipt the ticket cannot be upheld.
I applaud any and all efforts to take loud cars/bikes off of the road. I wish it was legal to shoot people with loud exhausts. I 100% mean what I just said.
These a-holes wake up whole neighborhoods of people, ruining quality of life. In my case in the summer, it’s constant. I don’t care if the cop did something wrong, I applaud him. Any tactic that harms people with loud exhausts is fine by me.
Agreed! I close my windows and run the air conditioning even when it's cool outside, so I'm not awakened by loud dirt bikes and Harleys at night.
One wakes my entire neighborhood at about 2 am when he gets off work at a bar. High pitched shrieking sound punctuated by backfiring. He revs the engine repeatedly as he travels. I am sure he wakes us on purpose.
Another guy who used to do this died in a crash. We were all happy when the noise went away.
I live on a sharp turn the motorcycles love to fly around every day. I tell everyone, every time this topic arises, that if a bike ever crashes against my fence I’m going back to sleep. They’re not getting a 911 call out of me.
Quite a few performance vehicles these days are being optioned out with active exhausts where you can change the baffle control/arrangements with a button on the dash to produce different sounds and intensities. Not all of these modes meet the legal sound limits, but most of the ones I'm aware of have a NORMAL or QUIET mode which meets the 95db limit and this is the mode that is supposed to be driven on the street. Then there is usually a SPORT or TRACK mode that are louder than legal and meant to be driven at racing type events. This is usually clearly outlined in the manual.
I would imagine this is the same thing with the Hyundai. There is probably an exhaust mode that fully baffles that muffler up and it meets all the CA laws. The driver was probably driving in one of the other modes, and technically didn't meet the 95db limit. So while yes it was a stock exhaust, it was driven in a mode that was not technically legal for street use.
I would have informed the driver in a much nicer way however.
Quote:
The owner of this Elantra N took the car to an inspection station, and was allegedly told it had to be tested in the vehicle's loudest mode.
Not sure I agree with that, but i can see why CA would test this way as I'm sure plenty of folks will drive on the road in "track" or "sport" mode. But this presents a bigger problem as a lot of other manufacturers have similar active exhausts, and I'm sure in the loudest mode all of them would fail the CA test.
Like the Veloster N, the Elantra N crackles and pops like a rally car, with a valve in the exhaust that can make the car quieter or louder. "There's a normal mode that meets the [noise] regulations," said Chahe Apelian, senior manager of vehicle development. "The sporty exhaust is meant to be for the track."
By making the default exhaust mode tame enough to meet restrictions, Hyundai was able to sneak a much louder sound past the regulators. We hope other automakers can learn from this and give their cars a throatier exhaust note.
This is a Fed/State issue with the manufacturer. Hyundai is not the only one guilty of this.
Last edited by BostonMike7; 10-04-2022 at 02:10 PM..
I'm going to post a long response from an aquaintance covering this (I hope the pictures come through):
"WOW. Okay, so we've got to break this down. As a forward disclaimer it's worth noting I am a powertrain NVH engineer, current SAE member, Elantra N owner, and I have the most updated J1492 sitting here in front of me. TLDR: if you don't want to read, Cali conducted the testing wrong at that site.
1. The violation in question is the California Vehicle Code sections 27151 (b). Section (b) reads: "For the purposes of exhaust systems installed on motor vehicles with a manufacturer’s gross vehicle weight rating of less than 6,000 pounds, other than motorcycles, a sound level of 95 dbA or less, when tested in accordance with Society of Automotive Engineers Standard J1492 October 2008, complies with this section. Motor vehicle exhaust systems or parts thereof include, but are not limited to, nonoriginal exhaust equipment." Here is the link to that ordnance of which went effective January 1, 2020: Law section. A gentleman posted an earlier version of this, but this is what's current being used as it's the most updated.
2. I have pulled the SAE J1492 standard, updated, which supersedes J1492 OCT2008 as of 2021-10. While I cannot post the whole J-standard legally, I can quote the section that proves the testing was absolutely 100% conducted incorrectly. Section 8.2 (Provisions for Reporting Results When This SAE Standard Is Used to Assess Against A Limit Value - AKA Compliance): "...Any mode that can remain enabled through a power on/off cycle shall be included in the modes identified for compliance assessment." As many owners of EN's know, the car defaults to normal mode after a key cycle. Thus, by the SAE J standard Cali is using, they needed to test the vehicle in normal mode. This case is really clear-cut honestly.
Also, there's been some incorrect statements about the "sound levels". Firstly, the exhaust noise in question is measured in Sound Pressure. This means (in simple terms), they are taking a fast exponential time-averaged measurement of the pressure of sound waves compared to the ambient reference. Per J1492, this is to be "A-Weighted", meaning there is a transfer function that place emphasis on the frequency ranges that the human can hear best (20Hz-20kHz). The biggest thing about sound pressure is that it is NOT distance corrected. I literally cannot emphasize that enough, as if you double the distance from the source the dB decreases by 6. Unless you are standing .5m from a Veloster N's exhaust at outlet level, you are not getting hearing loss...
Picture below is the test environment standards for outside testing. You can also test inside a hemi-anechoic test camber, but obviously that's not feasible for Cali to do.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I'm glad I live where there is no state inspection required any more. We stopped doing smog tests in 2020 here in Washington. I restored a 1963 Ranchero and drive it around for several years with only short glass packs and never got bothered by the cops. Fortunately the neighbors didn't complain, either, and the same when I upgraded to a 1972 El Camino.
I'm glad I live where there is no state inspection required any more. We stopped doing smog tests in 2020 here in Washington. I restored a 1963 Ranchero and drive it around for several years with only short glass packs and never got bothered by the cops. Fortunately the neighbors didn't complain, either, and the same when I upgraded to a 1972 El Camino.
Decades ago, California did away with random safety checkpoints set up around the state because they "unfairly affected the poor".
What about the rest of us?
Should we be forced to share the roads with vehicles that lack working brakes, have bald tires, no lights, no insurance, etc.?
Of course not, but that is just an example of how wacky California laws are.
I applaud any and all efforts to take loud cars/bikes off of the road.
I have an idiot running down my road with a very loud bike every day at exact 3:15am.
Called the cops, but for some bizarre reason, they can't catch him....
Not sure, perhaps Texas laws are ok with that.
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