Board logo

exhaust noise
A1 - 25/4/12 at 09:56 AM

on a mass produced car... got a row from a gentleman in blue last night, he was very fair, but it was about the noise of the car. its not massively noisy, but i was thinking ill just test it to see. is there a noise limit for mass produced cars? I know theres one in the IVA, but ive read online that theres not an equivalent one for our tintops?

or were they just looking for anything to pull us for cause we accelerated a wee bit up a hill when we passed them (not as hard as youre all thinking right now!)

cheers!


samjc - 25/4/12 at 10:18 AM

Being a young driver i get this a fair bit. granted i did the speedlimit in the tunnel once or twice but even the police dont know the limit as i ask everytime politely whats the tintop legal requirement but ive always gone off iva as mass produced cars have to go through a similar test. what tintop is it ??


A1 - 25/4/12 at 10:38 AM

its an evo 9, dont want to say much on here incase the wrong eyes see. maybe thays paranoid but hey

ill give it an iva noise test and see how loud it is but it really isnt too loud.


theduck - 25/4/12 at 11:03 AM

Dependant on age, there will be a manufacturers noise reading on the V5 (My 2008 Clio had one) and it is illegal to modify a car to be louder than it was out the factory.

Obviously for cars without a standard reading on the V5 there is nothing to compare to and so it is mostly unenforcable.


A1 - 25/4/12 at 11:15 AM

nice one cheers, ill have a look at that.

how do things like the fq evo 10s get round that? what about folk like mongoose etc? is that why modern aftermarket exhausts sound so lame?


adithorp - 25/4/12 at 11:16 AM

From memory, there is or was something in the MOT manual that said they could fail if they were (something along the lines of) "significantly louder than a standard version of that model"... which is pretty vague and subjetive.
I suspect that the type approval rules on noise are the same as IVA. That would account for the level being reduced when SVA changed to IVA.


theduck - 25/4/12 at 11:33 AM

quote:
Originally posted by A1
nice one cheers, ill have a look at that.

how do things like the fq evo 10s get round that? what about folk like mongoose etc? is that why modern aftermarket exhausts sound so lame?


Not sure I get what you mean about the Evos? But assuming you mean standard, then as long as they are within the limits they have to obey then thats fine.

Aftermarket exhaust manufacturers are doing nothing wrong unless they sell it saying its legal for road use and its not. The amount of parts 'not for road use' that are on road cars though is incredible!


A1 - 25/4/12 at 12:13 PM

aye good point... It seems kinda vague and subjective to everyones idea of 'significantly' its definitely not significantly louder than standard, a wee bit more rumbley and free flowing but thats all


theduck - 25/4/12 at 12:24 PM

MOT says significantly louder, law says it cannot be louder than standard.


HappyFather - 25/4/12 at 04:15 PM

From what I was reading when considering getting a plate in Portugal, the EC Approval has noise limits for tintops. On the net some even said that some years ago limit rules were changed by lobby of Mercedes and the likes, don't know if it's true.

There are 2 tests with different limits. There is a stationary test on a specific RPM and a drive-by test. The one that concerns you is the drive-by test.

Limits are something like car has to go on a straight at 50Km/h (or equivalent in miles) on 2nd if 4-speed or 3rd if 5 speed+. When hitting a line, it must put the peddle to the metal and some meters afterwards there's a noise reader. Noise should be bellow 74dB.

If the car has a direct injection diesel engine, add 1dB to the limit.

If the car has a manual 5-speed+ gearbox and an engine that produces more than 140kW and has a power/weight relation of 75kW/t or more, add one more dB IF the car passes the line where the meter reads at a speed above 61Km/h.

There is a 1db threshold to account for inacurate readings.

So, for an evo9 it might be 74 plus 1 for the power plus 1 threshold, thus 76dB.

Read dB(A) where I have dB. I don't know how to convert kW to HP. This is taken from the transposition to Portuguese law of the European Directive 2007/34/CE.


coyoteboy - 1/5/12 at 11:42 AM

I don't think the UK is enforcing the EU directive (much the same as loads of other ones). I personally have never been looked at despite being in a GT4 with a 2.75" straight through to the rear box. Makes things rattle in the kitchen when idling in the drive but at ~2000rpm it's pretty quiet, but I did ask for that when spec'ing it (custom build from Blue Flame).


RK - 1/5/12 at 12:21 PM

I would like to know if the Harley Davidson goons are ever checked, or are the police too afraid of them? We have a neighbour who is loud enough to wake you up in the middle of the night, sometimes.


matt_gsxr - 1/5/12 at 12:55 PM

quote:
Originally posted by RK
I would like to know if the Harley Davidson goons are ever checked, or are the police too afraid of them? We have a neighbour who is loud enough to wake you up in the middle of the night, sometimes.


Not only noisy but the aesthetics of the noise irritate me (sounds like a failed injectors to my ears).
Ban them all (I hope Flak isn't looking).


RK - 1/5/12 at 01:03 PM

Yes, David is far too helpful to annoy unnecessarily.