States where open headers are street legal?

this question is because you want to re-locate? certainly not legal in Oregon but 3 cars that I ran on the streets daily with straight pipes never got a second look

 

I live in California and run my car with open headers. I've never gotten pulled over for anything other than speeding. Right here it's only illegal on some streets, like in the rich people areas.

Last time a cop pulled up next to me and yell with a big smile on his face, "that ain't no rice burner!!! YEAH!!!" and gave me a thumbs up.

 

To answer the question, I think it would be illegal to run straight pipes/headers and no mufflers.

To me it's not illegal until someone complains. That said I guess it boils down to the local cops. If someone wants to be a Richard Carnium, then look out.

In VA, if you have antique plates, no state inspection is required. So at least you don't have to worry that. But you had better have your ducks in a row if the cops pull you over. They can still write you up for improper equipment.

 

Texas Transportation Code - Section 547.604. Muffler Required

§ 547.604. MUFFLER REQUIRED. (a) A motor vehicle shall
be equipped with a muffler in good working condition that
continually operates to prevent excessive or unusual noise.
(b) A person may not use a muffler cutout, byp***, or
similar device on a motor vehicle.

Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 165, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1995.

HOWEVER: As I drive around central Texas including Austin and San Antonio and my home city of over 20,000, this most certainly is not being enforced by noise ordinances which is what a law officer would need in order to stop the vehicle to do the inspection (unless it was a rod with obvious open pipes). My city for a fact has no noise ordinance and the local cowboys rattle the windows of the hospital daily with their pickups. We don't have any street rods abusing the lack of law to my knowledge and that might be key. There are THOUSANDS of straight pipe vehicles in the state of Texas. Yeee Haaaa!

 

I suspect that there isnt a place in the entire world where this would be legal,
but then again, as everybody said, you cant get away w/ many things if you act thoughtfully.
Then there is always the ******* SOB cop that thinks is rambo and punish you to death!
It happened to me a few times, but here is a diffrent story, italy is halfwy between civilized earth and 3rd world!

Anyways,i run open dual 2inches exhaust exiting "bellflower tips style" through coktail shaker
tips (unbaffled) on a 2 liter sohc ford w/ 4 motorcycle carbs. It sounds mean trust me!
But still i also get thumbs up by cops and people, then occasionally panic begins.
If i see the law in time i would normally shift up to the next gear and keep the revs down to a minimum
so that it growls very deep but low on dbs, then as soon as i p*** i'll push the pedal and all hell breaks loose!
Nah just kiddin,im not that much of an A-hole, but when accelerating it sure makes you a bit deaf.
I always wonder if i had a stereo if i could hear the music w/ such noise....
The best voice a 4 banger can have!

 

I think all of the Harleys running straights or nearly straights and the Honda types with the fart pipes have numbed a fair majority of law enforcement personnel to louder pipes than was the case 20 or more years ago. It's not legal but most of the time they decide that they have better things to do than worry about your old loud car unless there is some other obvious thing that isn't legal.
Act like an *** and rap it out from every stop light or do the Harley rap the pipes thing at stop lights in town and you will most likely end up with a nice fat ticket if not a string of equipment violations. Maintain your cool and don't bring undo attention to the fact that you have open headers and usually everything is cool.
As for me, it bugged the **** out of me to have to listen to my o/t truck with open headers for 25 miles on the highway last week when I drove it to the muffler shop I go to to have the exhaust hooked up to the new headers. I just don't enjoy driving something that loud all that much. That probably comes from too many years of working around loud equipment in places where I worked.

As a side note, I have always viewed guys who show up rumping through rod trots with open headers as just trying too hard to draw attention to their cars. Something on the line of Hey look at me, look at me, I can't get attention any other way.

 

I really don't know the laws about mufflers here in Georgia, but unless you live in the metro area around Atlanta, there is NO inspection of any kind on ANY vehicle! When I was having the exhaust system (including the cutouts) installed on my GTO, 2 local cops and 1 State Trooper stopped by and commented on how neat the cutout setup was!

 

Pulled over multiple times in rural Northern California for "excessive noise"...3" pipes dumping into short flowmasters does cause some racket. Usually if I saw a cop in the area I would baby it and upshift quickly to keep the noise down. In every instance when pulled over the first question I got from the cop was "what do you have in that thing, and can I see it?" No tickets yet!!!

 

Once again, adult behavior prevails. Cops are way too busy without having to hastle a slightly loud exhaust with the owner behaving himself. Now, having an large extended finger decal on the back of the car, no front plate and downshifting at five over in a residential area is a profiler's dream and worthy of a stop. I know some cops and they don't want to get out of the car unless they have to.

No front plate or legal exhaust in decades and the only time I got stopped was for a few technical questions from the cop.

 

Me too.

I hated riding with others when I had my HD due to the stupid LOUD PIPES bs. The truck I just got is annoying with short gl***pacs on about 4 feet of pipe with headers. Untill I have the cash for new exh I don't drive it much.

South Park had a episode about this -

http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/1312/

This clip says it all-

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/254813/?searchterm=The+F+Word


David

 

Her in Sweden is it necesary to use mufflers
but some motercycles drive some times with out muffer and only put them on when the have to take them for the inspection
but if vehicels are 1950 or older have no inspection

 

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In the old days here in NY you would have gotten a ticket for being caught with what you have. The old days term for that would be "Dumpers", don't know what it's called today. If a cop found a switch or cable....you got a ticket.

 

Hearing loss is traditional. All the old drag racers I know can't hear worth a ****. Now days, they run their TV volumn a lot louder than the straight pipe rattle of some puny *** six holer. You young guys should ask old racers, equipment operators and musicians if they are sorry they didn't protect their ears.

 

Here they were called 'cut outs' and still are I guess. I'm sure they've always been illegal here too, but the cops didn't h***le us in the 60's and don't now. Of course they might if we were obnoxious about it.

 

Oh c'mon, i sure dont want anybody lookin at my beater as it is now trust me!
It just wouldnt be as fun if it was as quite as a new honda wouldn't it?
the sound has to be loud!
Isnt it all part of the game? Lower-Louder-Faster?
I bet it helps if you're not acting like i **** also!

 

I have never been h***led in any state which amazes me. Have driven to Texas and back with open headers without a h***le. My work van tailpie and muffler have fallen off and it is super noisy. It is getting fixed this week but have driven it like that for a very busy month with no h***le. I am sure an officer having a bad day could change all that!! ~Sololobo~

 

There is a pleasing loud and an OBNOXIOUS LOUD. Most of the time, people shoot for OBNOXIOUS and that **** gets real old, real quick.

I've been around aircraft and flight lines all my adult life, and I intend to keep the hearing I have, thanks.

 

I don't have any problems running open headers here in Wy., but I think you could probably drag a dead ****** behind your car and nobody would give a ****. I know what you mean by obnoxious loud, I live on a main street and just around the corner from a couple of "biker"(is this what they are still called?) bars. I have all the "Wild Hogs" blazing by my house at all hours of the day and night, on their super cool Harleys.

 

you are saying you don't have safety inspections on your cars, and you can stay drunk, 24/7

 

Nope, same laws as everywhere else, just the cops are too busy chasing murderers and illegals to bother with most equipment violations. In Albuquerque they recently p***ed a strict law on vehicle noise, waiting to see how much it's enforced. It was targeted at the Harley crowd that sits at lights rev'ing unnecessarily.

 

Man, what's up with all the Ned Flanders types these days?

It's hot rodding. If you wanna be Johnny Law Abiding, buy a Prius.

 

Yep. You can get one cold beer and gas at the store 24/7 and drive off with it, wouldn't want to hurt profits just for public safety.
Mississippi isn't a muffler free state I got a no muffler ticket at Cruisin the Coast this year. :-( LOL

 

I been driving the wheels off mine and no tickets And its to loud for me lol.
Looking to try to make some better baffels for my zoomies.

 

Agreed, the Harleys and tuners have numbed the general population and the law enforcement community to loud pipes. Cops have bigger issues than a loud exhaust. However, that wasn't always the case. Late '50's, my Dad used to run dump tubes on his '40 Ford coupe. Occasionally, he would run 3 flat washers behind the block off plates, so they sounded good, but still appeared closed. All was well until he was going through a mountain p*** in Northern Arizona. P***ed by a parked Highway Patrol on a downhill grade. He got pulled over, and the patrolman made him take the washers out right there on the side of the highway. No ticket though, at least not that he told me about!

 

I live in Ohio, I have open headers on every car I own and the only one that I have ever taken any **** for is my 96 pickup which is the quietest of them all. I think the cops are just so astonished by what there seeing that they just expect it to be loud.

 

In Michigan it must be OK the Dream Cruise sounds like a drag way every summer on Woodward

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5crdvjlriU&NR=1






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPLNGj_t8H4&feature=related

 

I have run cutouts for three years now. I drive around town with them open with no problem. Just don.t act like an idiot. I do close them when I leave the house early in the morning so i don't disturb my neighbors .

 

Yeah, i must agree to this, it has to mean something otherwise is plain noise.