Virginia Signs into Law Anti-Hobby Exhaust Noise Bill

I follow SEMA activities and contact my reps when necessary to get in my $.02. I got this msg yesterday... not happy.

Virginia Signs into Law Anti-Hobby Exhaust Noise Bill

Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) signed into law SAN-opposed legislation (H.B. 632) to reform enforcement of Virginia's exhaust noise laws. H.B. 632 repeals a 2020 bill which prevented law enforcement from stopping motorists solely for exhaust noise violations. Virginia prohibits mufflers that use an “excessive or unusual level of noise” and mandates that mufflers must be identical to their factory setting, comparable to factory equipment, approved by the Superintendent, or meets or exceeds standards of SAE International, ANSI, or the U.S. Department of Transportation.

In the next legislative session, the SEMA Action Network (SAN) will be seeking to implement a fair testing procedure and decibel limit for vehicle owners accused of unreasonable exhaust noise violations. Accordingly, please encourage others to get involved now by signing-up with the SAN without cost or obligation.

Thank you to those who voiced concerns with lawmakers about this effort.

If you're not already involved in SEMA legal efforts, please sign up HERE

This is sad. My town has looked at this numerous times and so far cannot find a testing procedure that would withstand a court challenge. What a mess. Especially the part with "mufflers must be identical to their factory setting, comparable to factory equipment," So what was the original dBa level of a '69 Roadrunner? Are there records of this? And under what conditions, idle, cruise, WOT? And what is comparable to factory equipment? Any oval muffler is an acceptable choice as it is "comparable" to the stock muffler? This is a can of worms that Virginia has opened up.

It is a can of worms and hardly enforcable. Most agencies don't have decibel meters and under what circumstances and criteria are the systems tested? It would have to be uniformly applied. This is really just another way to harrass someone, give LE probable cause or collect more state revenue from fines, because they know most people won't fight it.

years ago, dad got a ticket in his 69 z28, for un-necessary noise. it had chambered exhaust on it. he fought it and won. he called the illinois epa and found out that the z decibels allowed was up to 85. also it had to be measured no more than 25 feet from rear of car and no more than 2 ft lt/rt of the centerline of vehicle. also no more than 30 mph speed. at that time, the only place that had a decibel meter was the shell refinery. he has all his paperwork in hand when he went to court and the judge threw it out. funny that the officer that gave him the ticket later became the chief of police and him and dad are really good friends. epa should have all the info and procedures for measuring noise.

This was the purpose of the SEMA-supported bill. I don't know if it's still in play (i.e., is this SEMA's next step?), though.

Virginia has introduced SAN-supported legislation (S.B. 180) to implement a fair testing procedure for vehicle owners accused of unreasonable exhaust noise violations. This bill applies to motor vehicles with a gross weight of 6,500 pounds or less. A vehicle cannot be in violation of the 85-decibel exhaust noise limit unless it has been tested under these fair standards. The bill currently awaits consideration in the Senate Transportation Committee.

S.B. 180 implements an objective testing procedure for determining if a vehicle’s installed exhaust system is in excess of 85 decibels, measured at a distance of at least 50 feet.

S.B. 180 supplies inspectors with an enforcement standard, replacing a system that relies on subjective judgments on whether an exhaust system amplifies the noise emitted by the motor vehicle.

S.B. 180 allows the operator of a vehicle to defend an exhaust noise violation, recognizing that the best way to address exhaust noise is by establishing a fair and reasonable exhaust noise decibel limit.


What passed is totally subjective and can be applied in a punitive manner.

New york state passed almost the same bill,effective 4/1/22, for all vechiles stock type exhaust only.Fines starting at $750&up for repair shops installing,modified exhaust,multiple infractions loose your repair&inspection license,plus hefty fines.state of taxes&commies.

Enforcement will be tough. Back in 78 my bro bought a Z28 brand new. They pulled him over for lack of a front plate(required in WI) and while he was stopped the cop says"thing's kinda loud too" My brother said" Not sure what ya mean...it has 200 miles on it....if it's too loud you should talk to Chevrolet" lol Cop let him go. This is a huge unenforceable can of worms. They going after Harleys too?

Brad the biggest problem is there is no coloration between the Federal EPA "drive by" test procedure that is done on every on-highway vehicle and the "20 inch" test done for say motorcycle enduro and pro motocross and numerous other stationary sound testing. They have been trying to get some kind of standard between the two but it always ends up being skewed by something. The Federal sound test is done basically as a 50' foot drive/ride by with the meter at 25' or the middle of the test area and at 50' perpendicular to the middle of the drive by area. Probably the easiest way to see this is to watch the On Any Sunday motorcycling movie and watch Malcolm Smith at the ISDT in Spain do the "acceleration test". He comes off of the line and just about ten or twenty meters/yards off of the line where he is tapped out in second gear and about to hit third there's a sound meter sitting about 50' on the side. It not only reads the exhaust sound level but ALL of the noise generated by an accelerating motorcycle or vehicle. Everything, including tire noise, chain noise, air intake noise, engine noise and expansion chamber thin wall and muffler/exhaust noise. That's what the Federal EPA and EU/TUV test does almost exactly to all vehicles and that level is usually around 82dba at 50' drive/ride by. Now try to stick a sound meter at a 45 degree angle at 20 inches from the end of a tail pipe at get it to read 82 dba and it's not going to happen with any EPA legal On-Highway vehicle. One of the most Apples to Oranges comparisons that exists.

Go to the 4:20 minute mark here and that's how the EPA/TUV/Transport Canada/SAE/etc. sound test is basically conducted around the world. 50 foot drive/by full throttle at 50 foot.

Yes motorcycles too including harleys.

i agree 10,000% on the Harley exhaust noise enforcement.
i live down the street from a biker bar. the exhaust noise gets pretty bad.

i do live next to a county highway. i accept SOME of the noise from living next to the highway. but there should be limits.
there are a LOT of cars drive by my house WFO 75+ mph, yet the limit is 35mph and no one seems to get a ticket, straight piped with no mufflers. the noise is extreme.

i would suggest a law anyone with a loud muffler should be required to sit 10' directly behind their car, no ear plugs allowed, in a chair and someone runs it thru thru rpm range and hold it at WOT for 10 seconds. they go thru the cycle for 5 min. they will be required to do this every week as long as they drive the car.
there will be a LOT of people with severe hearing problems or a bunch of quiet cars.

I paid money to put my car on the Dyno for the specific reason of hearing my exhaust at wide open throttle lol.

Some cars are annoying and obnoxiously loud I get that.

Think this should be for the obnoxiously loud Harley and ricer owners. That was probably the inspiration for the bill. How many "performance" V8 cars with loud exhaust do you see on the streets compared to ricers and Harley's? Then you got people with loud Harley's and they need to put a stereo on it louder than the exhaust!

You obviously don't live in my 'hood where the ricers and fart pipes running up and down the street CONSTANTLY and FAR outnumber the Harley's! I would rather hear a straight piped Harley ANYDAY than one of those P O S's...

The real problem in my area

Id love if they enforced whatever laws are already in place for excessively loud exhaust. Some cars around here you can hear them at WOT from blocks away and it's annoying. But it needs to be done within reason because all you need is that one police officer who's having a bad day to cause a lot of problems for someone who isn't intentionally doing anything wrong at all.

Why does anti-noise legislation equate to anti-hobby? Does one ASSume that all gearheads love obnoxious noise like those cited above?

Complaining about an event that lasts about ten seconds, quite harmless and soon forgotten doesn't make a lot of sense either.

LOL Last year I told one of my old friends that many pickup trucks around here have bigger tires and louder exhaust than my Barracuda. I have to do something about that. Will soon have more room for bigger tires and then i'll be looking for bigger exhaust.

My brother has collected 2 of those excessive noise tickets. Both were dismissed as there was no documentation on what 'too loud' was as no decibel test was performed at the time the tickets were issued.

posted by someone who doesn't live near a highway. especially a INTERSECTION. that 10 seconds becomes several minutes depending on traffic. now multiply that 1 motorcycle by 100+ going on a group ride. now that 10 seconds becomes 30-40 minutes sometimes in excess of 1 HOUR of constant nasty Harley exhaust noise being revved up and down when waiting at the intersection.
worse yet the biker bar is stop to one of those poker runs with 100+ bikes driving by. now i get to listen to , loud obnoxious exhaust noise for a ENTIRE DAY of this crap.
if they actually had mufflers this wouldn't be a problem.


i actually did get the bar owners attention when i parked out side his bar with my supercharged 08 mustang that makes 650rwhp with 3" exhaust cutouts that were opened directly in front of his door that was open. needless to say it louder than most of those motorcycles. i let the exhaust rip for a good 20 seconds before the entire bar cleared out with them whining about the noise. this lead to me finally getting a open discussion with the bar owner. he actually sat by my house for about 30 minutes and agreed it was a problem. after this discussion things improved a bit and he doesn't hold as many events, asks the bikers to take different routes and asks them not to rev up the bikes at intersections to respect the neighborhood residents.

I guess I better not get into this discussion. I own 3 Harley's with loud exhaust,. A Dodge 2500 Diesel with 6 inch lift, stacks and 37 inch tires and My 68 Charger has Glasspacks.!!!!LOL
Mike

P.S. I think barking dogs are a lot more annoying than my vehicles.

Muffler/exhaust science has now advanced to the level
that you can have a factory-like quiet exhaust
with no more than 2% Horsepower loss,
and that is above 5000 rpm, wide open throttle.
Below 3500 rpm the HP is less than 1%

The vast majority of Dynos cannot reliably repeat measurements at 1% variance.

A well designed “quiet” exhaust can produce more peak Horsepower than a straight pipe,
not counting “tuned length zoomies”

As mentioned earlier, it's not all about a loud vehicle but more about the driver/rider. A loud vehicle at cruise is a lot less annoying than one that is being throttled; case in point, Harley riders who think it's cool to blip the throttle every time the clutch is disengaged and continuously blip the throttle while sitting still...obnoxious noise for the sake of noise. Learned behavior.

The answer for everyone and even motorcycles with a cigarette lighter, Bluetooth and earphones or helmet speakers via Bluetooth and FM.

It is illegal to wear headphones or earplugs over both ears while driving in in most states. If one ear is still exposed to ambient noise, it's noise.

Did you pull those numbers out of the air?

Get this a lot in my sub. It's annoying as hell with young kids who are in bed by eight. My car isn't quiet by any stretch, but if you idle it to the house it isn't bad.

So my motorcycle helmet earphones are illegal along with my motorcycle helmet that covers my ears? And I never suggested wearing headphones in a vehicle (car/truck) BTW. Thought the cigarette lighter engine sound through the CAR'S interior speakers would lighten things up here just a little.....I guess not?

If any of you nay-sayers lived on my street you'd be saying that this law couldn't be enacted soon enough !! I'd love our government to pass this law and while they're at it, put randomly spaced speed bumps all the way down the street.

The speed limit used to be 30 mph but the racing and speeding prompted complaints. So they lowered the limit to 25 ... like that's going to do anything !! In the 20+ years I've lived here I've seem the cops out with radar a handful of times - around 2 in the afternoon - just in time to catch the little old ladies who are late for their hairdresser appointment. The real action starts around 3 when the day shifts end but there is not a cop to be seen then because, well, that's when their shifts change too! And the cops in this city have no balls anyway!

A lot of our residential roads were already 25 around here. Now for same reason a a few people wanting something to do they've gotten them to lower it to 18 in more and more areas!! We're on a hill with an intersection at the bottom and years ago they got rid of the 4 way stop because there were too many accidents from people not being able to stop in winter and not being able to get up it. Now people who don't even live up here are pushing to put it back. They complain about road safety yet at the kids baseball diamond down the road they insisted on the city turning the parking lot into a basekball court so now every night of the spring and summer the roads are packed with cars you can barely get by and the parents stand in what's left to socialize

The spicket keeps opening more and more, pass one little law, then it’s just one more, then just one more, before long you’ll need permits to drive your car out an about for 30 minutes

Putting cut-outs on the Cuda, that should make it easier to deal with the noise ordinance enacted by the state.

I figured they did that to keep it from stalling.

Perhaps because of this??? "mufflers that use an “excessive or unusual level of noise” and mandates that mufflers must be identical to their factory setting, comparable to factory equipment, approved by the Superintendent, or meets or exceeds standards of SAE International, ANSI, or the U.S. Department of Transportation".

Now I support stifling the obnoxiously loud open exhaust, as others have written, on some of these motorcycles and ricers. They are beyond some aftermarket mods for performance and better sound, and have reached pure torture to the ears on some and pure obnoxiousness. But a tuned exhaust on an old 70's car will not be allowed under this Bill.

Yes John I agree with you here! So annoying. Turn your damn idle up if this is what you have to do to keep it running, which I doubt. Just being obnoxious and "look at me everybody" behavior IMO.

But it's a Harley so the idle screw is going to back out anyway.

Some are silly, a loud offensive noise is just that. We cant cherry pic hogs, lawn mowers, weed eaters and say our cars are ok.

Im good with noise, but it seems the local biker clubhouse might of got raided as its been two quiet weeks here, noticeably nice.

My neighbors are pretty cool, there view is ham it up on the weekends but let people be during the work week.

Yes and even on weekends I don't fire up anythong loud, like lawn equipment, before 9 AM.

in ny yes