I was pulled over the other day, and giving a asbo or section 59 I think it's called, and giving 21 days to have the exhaust changed, no db reading was used, also what happens if I don't fix it within the 21 days, also it says I can't sell the car I can only dispose of it by scrapping it what about sorn can I sorn it, as I was going to sorn it anyway at the end of the month, never had this before so unsure, any help be great, thanks

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Any exhaust modification is technically illegal.

What is it on the exhaust you've changed? have you decatted it / race tubed?

I would think you can sorn it unless there's some funny law that says a loud exhaust is dangerous even if the car isn't used...

Not sure what is on the car, I haven't done anything to it, just bought it like that already, says I can't sell the car without fixing exhaust, but doesn't say anything at all about sorn, so what normally happens if you don't fix it within the 21 days for defect of having a loud exhaust.. Cheers

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The normal procedure is to take your car to an MOT centre for the exhaust to be retested then pass the documentation to your designated station.

Tbh, the tester will only check that the exhaust is unmodified and fit for the road not test the volume.

If your exhaust has been modified (decat or suchlike) then it will fail and you'll need to rectify that within the prescribed time.

There is no official means of testing the decibels emitted from the exhaust at mot but it can still fail for being too loud - presumably testers discretion.

100dB is the limit IIRC when cars are put through an IVA?

Was always led to believe from an mot tester I know that technically speaking any modification to how loud an exhaust is will render it illegal although they will turn a blind eye to it if not ridiculous.

The thing is, some cars are incredibly loud even with the standard exhaust, Jag F-Type comes to mind. Is this more about the fact that the exhaust has an untested modification than the noise levels?

The thing is, some cars are incredibly loud even with the standard exhaust, Jag F-Type comes to mind. Is this more about the fact that the exhaust has an untested modification than the noise levels?

They must have some means of getting round it.

I know my bike has a valve/flap inside the exhaust which opens once a certain amount of revs/pressure in the exhaust is reached. Once it opens you know about it lol.

They must have some means of getting round it.

I know my bike has a valve/flap inside the exhaust which opens once a certain amount of revs/pressure in the exhaust is reached. Once it opens you know about it lol.

Yeah I was thinking about bikes too, and for bikers a louder exhaust can for a safety feature :). I mentioned the F-Type cos I just saw it on Top Gear, and it has a button to make the exhaust quieter lol, maybe that's how they get around the regulations. If that was my car though that button would never be pressed.

Yeah that sounds about right, probably how they get round it then.

Sounds good at 10k+ rpm

Is there a noise limit for the roads from Factory cars? 458's are immensely loud and any Ferrari with a Scuderia Exhaust from factory is horrendous, even little 125cc Aprillia RS's are louder than most cars lol

I know tracks have limits, most are 102DBs, never seen anything written for the roads, something for a rich guys to test in a court I suppose.

Okey Dokey here we go.

Can't paste into this site for some reason.

Google Eu Directive 92/97 and section No 540-2014.

It's all listed on there, basically modified exhausts have to have type approval, and factory cars are indeed limited by again like the fuel consumption tests they are ultimately flawed, on idle of course they are quiet and they are done on certain speeds and placing a microphone at a set distance, testing procedure is all on there.

this is how the likes of Ferrari get away with it, the noise comes in a set level and given they have made their exhausts a deeper tone compared to when this all came into force they have shorter wave lengths so thus the microphone isn't as sensitive to it. very clever indeed.

get an additional silencer fitted to make your current exhaust quieter. go to any custom exhaust place and they can do it for you. longlife/top gear exhausts etc.

Yeah I was thinking about bikes too, and for bikers a louder exhaust can for a safety feature :). I mentioned the F-Type cos I just saw it on Top Gear, and it has a button to make the exhaust quieter lol, maybe that's how they get around the regulations. If that was my car though that button would never be pressed.

Could be argued the F-type has a button to make the exhaust louder ;-) it's not standard across the whole range as far as I know.

With bikes the exhaust flap valves tend to be for improved performance across the rev range, where car engines do more of that through variable cam timing for example. Historically they used to engineer cam specs to reduce the noise output exactly at the rpm region where the noise test was taken - you could often see this as a power dip on dyno graphs.

Whereas having it button operated is purely for noise effect. Sounds artificial to me when you hear a speedy car set off and then very abruptly sound a lot louder :(

May have changed now but I know in the past the guidance for a bike MOT for a non-standard exhaust was very subjective to say the least - i.e. compare it to another similar bike...

Noise testing is very subjective again, even just having the vehicle parked on grass rather than tarmac can reduce the reading and telling fibs about the cc to have the test carried out at lower rpm works too ;) With Ferraris (and Ducatis) if the approval process is carried out in Italy I'd suggest there's a little bit of patriotic licence applied :p

I always thought the law was that if you modify a standard exhaust to sound louder than standard then it's illegal, but if you change the whole thing from manifold to the tip of the exhaust then it's not illegal as it's not a standard system, what happens if you don't fix the problem within the 21 days you get to fix it as I have no intentions on fixing it, as it's going off the road to fix a few things fixed on it, also I have went to every mot station and they have said they would pass it if it was a mot but don't want to stamp it incase I get stopped again and it comes back on them,

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http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=350423106707 should this be fine for mine, mine is a mk1 focus zetec 1.6, looks decent price,

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