GOT PULLED OVER TODAY in my S14!

[Chicken Magnet]

Warning to rice rocket enthusiasts here in the central valley (Modesto, California). Cops are cracking down on our cars and checking for street illegal parts. Here's my story:

I was driving this morning to drop off my videos at Blockbuster when I passed a cop that pulled over a poor schmoe. Well, a minute after, I too, got pulled over. So I parked it in front of Blockbuster and he asks about my exhaust (Apexi Dual N1). He says that it's illegal to put an aftermarket exhaust on if it makes it louder. I told him that I bought the car with it on. He then asks me to pop my hood. I just have and Injen CAI intake in there with the CARB approved sticker on it. He was checking to see if I had a different engine in there and I didn't. Thank God! So I take my ticket with only a warning and he lets me go. He says that I don't have to do anything i.e. go to court or modify anything.

Right after, I went to school and my friend told me that he got pulled over as well. I looked at his ticket and it was the same officer and he was pulled over an hour after me. He has a Civic with a GSR engine and he got it worse than I did. He has to get it smogged, replace the exhaust, and bring it to a place to get it checked. Now he's thinking about selling it!

Moral of the story: Don't get caught with illegal parts, especially in California! DAMN GREDDY, WHERE THE HELL IS MY STREET LEGAL TURBO?!!!:mad:

[RBS14]

thanks for the heads up, i'll stay on the lookout!

[HaLo]

Archive this thread for people always asking what happens when you get caught with a SR engine...

[Maeda]

hmm did the cop seem knowledgeable enough to spot engine parts?

Hope i dont see that in good ole glendale =\
I bet they get briefed on common cars and common mods...

[SilviaDriver]

wat yr is your friends civic and wat yr is the engine?

as far as i know it. it is LEGAL to swap a GSR motor into your civic IF..the motor is newer than the car. in other words

99 GSR motor
95 Civic

legal.

[Chicken Magnet]

Maeda: The cop seemed like he was looking for the obvious i.e. exhaust, maybe a snail under the hood, etc. If I had an SR20 in there, he probably wouldn't have known any difference, unless I had anodized parts that would've caught his attention. The only thing that really caught his eye was the shiny intake and the red hoses. Good thing I had the CARB sticker right on it.

SilviaDriver: It is true that you can swap a newer engine into an older car PROVIDED that it has the same exact engine code as what came with the car. So a GSR motor swap into a Civic would be illegal, at least in Ca.

It would even be illegal to swap a VTEC engine into a non-VTEC Civic, even if it is a Civic VTEC engine. I think it has to do with the VIN # and you might be able to do it if you change the VIN #, but then again I am not too sure.

[240fluke]

Chicken Magnet, YES, you CAN HAVE an engine in your car from either ANOTHER manufacturer or your own manufacturer as stated in the CA DMV. HOWEVER, you need to have notified the DMV of this so that they can give you the proper plates to affix to your car so they know that engine belongs in your car. If you don't believe me, check out the DMV website.

www.dmv.ca.gov

Tim '95 SE

[mixedwell]

YES, you CAN HAVE an engine in your car from either ANOTHER manufacturer or your own manufacturer as stated in the CA DMV. :confused: really??!


uh.. where does it say that? actually from what i know... its illegal to do that unless ur from some exempt year like, 76 or something. thats why some of those HOT RODS dont get intoruble for lots of sh!t. sucks but thats life...

show me and ill belive u! SHOW ME NOW! holla

mixedwell ;)

[chokudoriS13]

It is indeed legal to swap an engine from the same manufacturer as long as its of the same model year or later and all the required smog equipment is swapped with it. I have a pic somewhere of an EG hatch I took a pic of at a meet. He had a GSR motor, with a California Replacement VIN (exactly what it said) screwed into his radiator support. All you have to do is go to a state ref., and they will note the swap in your records (provided the motor is not JDM, of course).

[SilviaDriver]

Originally posted by chokudoriS13
It is indeed legal to swap an engine from the same manufacturer as long as its of the same model year or later and all the required smog equipment is swapped with it. I have a pic somewhere of an EG hatch I took a pic of at a meet. He had a GSR motor, with a California Replacement VIN (exactly what it said) screwed into his radiator support. All you have to do is go to a state ref., and they will note the swap in your records (provided the motor is not JDM, of course).

you are correct. mayb i should of added the STATE REF part. but eh too late now cuz ya beat me to it. my friend has a EG with GSR motor and hez going to the State Ref to legalize it with all the papers etc.

[blatch]

Here in good ol' Indiana no one cares. My friend drove around in his gsr running open header for a couple of weeks. No biggie. With all of the trucks with TNT in their exhaust pipes, rice burners don't seem like that big of a deal, and they're quiter!

[andrave]

I have a 2.5" exhaust with no cat and a tanabe muffler on my ka and its loud, and backfiring, and no one really cares. I got pulled over once on 4thof july and the officer checked to see if I was drunk (spot check) and he noticed how loud the exhaust was and wrote me a warning, but I didn' thave to fix it and he didn't care if it had cats. The guy that inspects my car doesn't check under the car for cats, but he HAS finally started busting down on windshield banners, so I'll prolly have to scrape mine to get it passed.

[Dousan_PG]

i dont think he can pop your hood w/o probable cause. you need a lawyer haha

it is ok to modify your exhaust. but you did the best letting him go about his ways. some cops are pricks, some are cool.

[silnv]

Here in Ohio I dont think they care about too much. except window tint. 50% is what is legal and people get pulled over left and right for that. If caught prepare to get raped with the ticket.

[andrave]

actually in some states its NOT legal to modify your exhaust. In WV the state motor vehicle code states that it is illegal to use any exhaust on your car that did not come on it from the factory (or a factory replacement). However, thankfully it isn't enforced at all.

[SilviaDriver]

he cannot give u a fix it ticket for your exhaust w/o checking how loud the db is. but hey..rather get it than sit there for 30 mins getting hussled y by a cop...and yea he cant pop ur hood w/o a cuase

just like the story i heard about a cop pulling over these people smokin weed,and hey popped his trunk and found weed all in there..went to court..and they were found innocent becuz the cop popped their trunk w/o a cuase. might want to add, they didnt get pulled over for smoking..cops juss pulled them over. eh something like that

[misnomer]

Well, I guess that's what you get for living in a Nazi state like California :P

[AKADriver]

Originally posted by silnv
Here in Ohio I dont think they care about too much. except window tint. 50% is what is legal and people get pulled over left and right for that. If caught prepare to get raped with the ticket.

That's the way it's always been most places. Normally, police don't want to bother with stopping people for the various things that are illegal from state to state. Common things like lowering, exhaust modifications, and clear corners are illegal almost everywhere. Police HATE dark tint, though, for their own safety, and will stop you for it.

But, lately, with the anti-street racing crackdown, it's become more and more common for modified cars to get reeled in. As usual, street racers ruin everything for the rest of us...

[240sxspeedracer1]

What exactly is probable cause?
Isn't just seeing a big azz exhaust probable cause enough to check the engine for more mods?

[jdmhatch]

Yeah, they are definately gonna say he checked under the hood because he saw the exhaust. Oh well, what can you do.
Speedracer, where in the Bronx you at? Cool to see some local people on here.

[toddnappi]

Wow, life sucks in CA, I don't know how all the LA tuners and such do it. In NJ I've never been pulled over once in a year with Hotshot Headers/High Flow Cat/Apexi Dual N1 AND somehow I managed to pass inspection by 1 point. I don't think people know anything about cars aroung here. One time a cop asked me if my Injen Intake was "a turbo or something".

[240fluke]

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d03/vc4161.htm

Here is the link to check out for motor swaps, where a new placard is issued once the DMV is notified. I am still trying to locate the same year or newer portion of the motor vehicle swaps, but this link helps state that cross-manufacturer engine swaps is perfectly legal.

Tim '95 SE

[Chicken Magnet]

Originally posted by 240fluke
Chicken Magnet, YES, you CAN HAVE an engine in your car from either ANOTHER manufacturer or your own manufacturer as stated in the CA DMV. HOWEVER, you need to have notified the DMV of this so that they can give you the proper plates to affix to your car so they know that engine belongs in your car. If you don't believe me, check out the DMV website.

www.dmv.ca.gov

Tim '95 SE

I stand corrected! Thanks for the giving us the correct information. I do not have my DMV handbook with me with the do's and don'ts so I had to rely on my memory, which was obviously imprecise. A cop gave me the book, because he got sick of seeing me in the precinct due to all the illegal mods they said I had on my car. They saw me at least once a month when I was tuning my Civic in SoCal. Sorry for the bum scoop guys!

[91CRXsiR]

if you think you are going to get pulled over ..

next time just park the car right away and turn it off.. and get out and walk away..

if the cop hasn't turned on his cherries.. he can't do anything to you...


or.. you can just do like me and RUN like hell =) .. but you gotta know your area.. so i dont advise that.

BTW:.. you ever notice how police chases are always w/ slow ass cars? .. i want to see a police chase w/ a Supra TT or something like that haha

[nismo_sr20_wut]

Cops in cali will pull over anyone with mods i.e. exhaust, my friend has mx exhaust and got pulled over and had to drive to san pedro court from san diego (thats where he was pulled over) to show his certificate from greddy and get the fine waived, they will pull you over for anything on your car and then if you dont have the papers to prove your legal you will get a ref ticket, and the cops are getting trained to spot illegal parts, my friends crx got pulled over and he said the cop pointed his finger and said thats illegal, thats illegal, thats illegal, thats illegal, and gave him a ref ticket. As far as engine swaps go, if you have a us spec car with a us spec engine from a different car you must get it registered with that motor. (i.e. 89 crx with an integra motor would get registered as a 89' crx 1.8 liter dohc) You can set up appointments to get your car registered with a ref. if you do not get your car registered and it has a different motor, even if its us spec it is still illegal. However j-spec engines are illegal all together, no matter what you do jspec engines will be illegal simply because they are from japan and you cannot use a jspec motor its against the law, the engine will pass smog but if a cop sends you to a referee and you have the jspec engine then you will get fined and more.

[DRO916]

Originally posted by SilviaDriver
just like the story i heard about a cop pulling over these people smokin weed,and hey popped his trunk and found weed all in there..went to court..and they were found innocent becuz the cop popped their trunk w/o a cuase. might want to add, they didnt get pulled over for smoking..cops juss pulled them over. eh something like that

that cop already had the right to ask them to open the trunk because of probable cause ("cop pulling over these people smokin weed"). since he already caught them smoking, or even smelled weed, thats automatic probable cause. anything to raise suspition is probable cause.

if they rufused, the cop would just try to find a way to impound your car which is worse.

[Maeda]

whats an ref ticket?



looks like im going to have to find a bottom mount exhaust manifold for my snail ^_^