Plenty of cars and motos don’t meet the letter of the law in California. Cops have just been super lenient. Still, the OP hit the negative lottery, as the chance of getting ticketed with a stock exhaust here are immaterial. Bad luck.

And he didn’t pull him over for the plate. He just used that as his reason for the stop, so that he could check the exhaust.

Shame the cops aren’t going after all the dip****s with open pipes instead. CHP could write a thousand tickets next month during car week when all the tards come up from LA with their race exhausts.

 

Send the ticket to Porsche for them to pay.

 

But you can publicly relieve your bowels anywhere in Commiefornia and law enforcement could care less...
DEFINITELY FIGHT THE TICKET!!

 

Maybe it would be a good idea to have the car proactively tested at a state referee and keep the compliance certificate in your glove box for those times you get pulled over...

 

I don't have a front license plate on my Cayenne GTS and hopefully I never get pulled over because of it. I didn't put one on because I figured with the millions of Teslas out here in CA running around with no front plate, that they'd start giving other cars w/o them a break.

Anyway, I'm sorry that happened to you. That's just wrong.

 

Well, according to CA code looks like the stock exhaust is not to code.

When the PSE valves open, the muffler is bypassed.

27150(a): Every motor vehicle subject to registration shall at all times be equipped with an adequate muffler in constant operation and properly maintained to prevent any excessive or unusual noise, and no muffler or exhaust system shall be equipped with a cutout, bypass, or similar device.

 

Again this is up to a lawyer to argue, but exhaust gasses still pass through the muffler and out the exhaust tips. So they aren't bypassing the muffler. I believe the letter of the law is more concerning systems like below. I've seen people put these on something like an E60 M5, but this is pretty rare from my experience. Maybe it's more common on old muscle cars or in other parts of the country. As for the "excessive or unusual noise," that is pretty vague and not sure how one would determine what is or is not unusual or excessive. I think it might be an easy argument to say a bone stock car should not be considered unusual or excessive since it was designed to conform to local and federal laws.

https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/el...triot-exhaust/

 

Well, I guess technically you're correct. Since the direct path enters the muffler and exits the tips.

Doesn't seem like it'd stand up to much scrutiny when queried though since it is a straight exit path. Clearly the police are interpreting it this way.

Anyway, I'm in TX so more of an academic discussion.

Good luck OP; I do think it's BS.

 

I dont think they are interpreting the exhaust path as illegal, I think they are extrapolating the resulting sound exceeds the legal max... also I doubt that a non-conformant exhaust would pass CARB I dont think PAG would build a car that was potentially illegal in Ca.

 

Emissions are all upstream of the muffler section, so not a CARB issue. Even PAG says PSE doesn't change emissions.

The code appears to be restrictive on changing the characteristics (sound) of the exhaust.

The ticket that was posted earlier didn't say anything about exceeding db level, so it wasn't a noise violation.

 

you know I know that already so not sure why you are gaslighting me.

the OP's ticket clearly states that the exhaust system is not compliant; the only law that applies here is the sound violation that is the (non)compliance issue here. YMMV

 

One detail I haven’t seen: The “PDK SPORT” button which the police probably read as lit up has no effect on the exhaust. You should take this to court - print a page from the manual explaining that the PDK SPORT button only modifies the shift program.

Unless the policeman has a porsche or knows all the functions of the GT4 RS I think that is the argument I would go with.

 

Ok then, why did you bring up CARB legality? I was just responding to your comment.

Calm down.

OP stated he was doing 30 quietly, so clearly police think a code is in play beyond noise.

I’m just spitballing here.

I didn’t write the ticket, nor advocating for any nonsense code.

 

I think i can shed some light on a few things as i also live in CA and have seen countless friends get state reffed for various reasons.

Currently CA has been cracking down on sports cars with loud exhausts. It doesn't matter if your car is stock or not, if the cop believes that you are running an illegal exhaust, that's what they will put. So due to that, let's just ignore that because we all know the GT4RS is stock. Because of current sound laws in california, cops will pull you over if they think your exhaust is too loud. However many cops dont actually know what 95db sounds like, and to be honest it's A LOT louder than most people expect. However with the influx of EV and the majority of Eco cars being totally silent, anything that isn't those two start to stand out more.

State Ref. As someone stated, there is no real way to test someone's db while on the side of the road and so if a cop claims that you are above the sound limit, well chances are they are lying and just relying on their hearing as a judge. A state ref test for the exhaust as stated in the procedures (which i think someone linked) has to be done on a vehicle a certain distance away from the exhaust and in the mode that the car would run right from startup. This is the reason that all of the cars that come out recently always default back to "normal" after you shut the car off. I mean ok it's not the only reason, however this is what the state ref (at least in california) needs to abide by. This is also why the issue with the Hyundai got even more messed up, because the State Ref that tested that person, did so in Sport Mode with the valves open which will fail 100% of the time.

Sport Modes are not illegal in california. Most of the time a sport mode doesn't even affect the exhaust if they are valved. Hell even my Veloster N you could run Sport + but have the valves closed. Whenever cops say things like this, it's mostly a scare tactic. However most of the cops have no idea how cars run, there's a video on Tiktok running around where someone gets pulled over in a GT3 and the cop asks to look at the engine and makes the guy pop his hood. Only to be met with an empty space.

Like someone said above, you are effectively guilty until proven innocent and even then it's on your dime to prove your innocence. If its something you feel like you want to fight, i recommend getting a traffic lawyer who has a much more in depth knowledge of the traffic laws specifically for the state and even for the county that you are in (yes traffic laws can differ per county).

Now take what i said here with a grain of salt. I only know these because of what myself and my group of friends have gotten into. My friend was state reffed for a modified exhaust, my other friend was state reffed for illegal modifications on his S2000. Ive been pulled over for no front license plate as well as modified exhaust. One thing i've always done when being pulled over (not that i get pulled over a ton) is i just turn off my car. Make all the lights go out. Then if the cop wants me to start the car up then i'll do it per their instruction and just not touch anything. They can't threaten things that done exist if they dont see any flashy lights. Again it's mostly a scare tactic to force you to go get state reffed even though the car is stock. If sports modes were truly illegal, they'd have to give up their own cars as they all drive Chargers.

 

It seems like a lot of people I know through the grapevine are getting pulled over for no front plates in CA in the last few weeks. Seems like something they are cracking down on statewide? I thought they aren't allowed to enforce traffic laws anymore? I see people running red lights and driving with expired tags all the time and never getting pulled over.

Honestly it's such BS that they are targeting enthusiasts for minor infractions. Loud exhaust? Give me a break. As others mentioned, Harleys are much louder and never seem to get into any trouble. And I'd wager the typical Porsche driver is mostly driving very considerately, only revving out the car occasionally, whereas Harley riders seem so love revving their bikes up and down the same block repeatedly at 5am.

I've traditionally been a staunch supporter of law enforcement, but recent trends in CA are making me rethink this. Where are the cops when there is a sideshow, or an Altima with blackout tints weaving through traffic at 90+, or the criminals driving stolen cars/stolen plates breaking into cars in broad daylight? I guess they would rather make some easy money ticketing law abiding citizens since we won't run or turn violent, and let the real criminals do whatever they want.