A11COS

Hi all,would appriciate any help or knowledge,links etc any one has on this subject. Basically came home from work today to find that Herts Police had visited our property leaving a card asking us to contact them? After calling them we were later visited by 2 community/plastic police who informed us it was to investigate a complaint about our 57 plate Fiesta ST that was sat on our driveway again where it has spent alot of the past 6 months whilst missus is on maternity leave, my missus had been out with our 6 month old daughter and her mother visiting an aunt all day,our Performance Blue ST is running a Remap, K&N 57i, De-restricted Flexi, Ford Cat & Manifold, Cat Back Exhaust,it rolls on standard rims & is lowered with stripes, its also insured Fully Comp with all Mods declared!!. its used as a pram nowadays when used so it has 2 baby on board signs in rear window,a baby toy on passenger front window & is registerded in my missus's name! It has been modified from 4 weeks old, is serviced by supplying main dealer, still under extended Ford warrenty & in november passed its first MOT? Weve never had any complaints about the car ever before??? Community/Plastic Police would not tell us how or when the complaint originated but apparently the enviroment angency want to test the db of the exhaust?? Earlier not once but twice 3 Police officers turned up in 2 cars,and banged away at our door for some time on both occasions also checking the rear of our property according to neighbours???. Normally the missus is at home with the Bubs & i play with Traffic daliy working as a Highways Electrician so you can only imagine had she been home what she probably thought they were all calling for eh!! Still i think 3 officers & 2 cars is excessive & possibly intimidating considering vehicle is registered to a female?? & all for a possible noisy exhaust!!! I know bikes have a db limit but not sure on cars??? i also know aftermarket cans/exhausts for bikes are marked not for road use! Surely we should have recieved a letter from the Enviroment Agency regarding this as incident could go legal let alone its proffessional to send letters isnt it??? Will be investigating this further and have just been on ebay for a db-meter!! anyone with any info,links,experience,knowledge of db levels for car exhausts,exhaust markings and the Law etc etc please reply here or email me at da.systems@btopenworld Thanks for your time reading this long post but i felt it needed to be to be fully understood!!.
Drive safe, speed is for the track as them lamp colums & barriers aint always forgiving!! ive seen enough twisted ones with flowers long after replacement to know!!!

botters

iTrader: (2)

89 db if i remember correctley but could be more

Chopshop85

iTrader: (4)

If it exceeded the db limit it would fail its MOT supposedly. Although I've never seen an MOT station with a db meter!

The legal limit is 74db

focusv8

There is no set db limit for MOT.

There is / is about to be regs that prevent modifying the exhaust from how the manufacturer installed it.

It has to be no louder than would be expected for a similar car, as yours is a recent model it's easy enough to compare.

Reference the Environment Agency, that seems slightly incorrect, I believe they are only involved in noise from stationary sources not from vehicles.

Have any of the Police actually listened to the car running?

.

RSLUBBY

iTrader: (19)

you can get a free bd meter on the i phone works quite well

It's Czech Mate

there is no limit apart from it being judged excessively louder than the manufacturer system @ MOT time

Tell the Law to Jog On

brad

This is the reply a friend has just given me , just incase you can't figure it out he's a traffic copper.

I had this chat with VOSA a few months back, there is no set limit.
We went with is it excessively noisy compared to an identical car that's just left the show room - ie some Harley's are Fuckin' noisy but they're made like that.
You may also get into the realms of inefficient silencer but again, there's no set level. I'd see what Goodwood limits it's cars too to go around the track on non event days.
Think it's somewhere around 135db at the exhaust tip???
If you burble past sensibly, that's cool. If it's 3am and your hammering it through a residential area, that's not. That's when I've given tickets out.

Dlatch!

doing stuff like this beats actually catching criminals
must be a fine linked in there hence why they chasing it

Eigdoog

I got told it was double the standard sound also with cars like TVR i didnt think there really was a limit as there loud anyway. I asked something like this before and thats kinda what i got told.

stevieturbo

Clearly you have no idea whatsoever how loud 135db is. That would deafen you.



If the police are making an issue. Ask them in writing for details of the db requirements of your vehicle, the government approved db test meters they use and exact details of the test procedure and conditions of any test.

They dont exist.

Sadly the law goes grey and allows their expertly tuned ears as enough for evidence for excessive noise.

Although there is another shitty law, that any deviation from manufacturers standard....isnt legal. Which is every single exhaust made other than the original.

SO really...despite proper procedures as always they can almost do whatever the fuck they like.

Chopshop85

iTrader: (4)

135db?!?!

Thats the volume of a jet turbine flying over at around 300m.

A 12guage shotgun is about 130db!