Ticket for smoked tail lights and exhaust
 

Hey everyone, sorry if this isn’t the right place for this post. Today I got pulled over, reasons being my smoked Valentis and my loud exhaust (understandable). I was under the assumption smoked valentis were DOT approved. The officer told me if I can find documentation from the manufacturer saying it is approved, or if I take it for inspection and they check the lumen output of the taillights. My questions are, where can I find this document (if it’s out there), and where do I go for this inspection? Sorry if this is a stupid question, I can’t find more info and this is my first interaction like this. Thank you all :)

The dot approval will be stamped on the taillight housing if they are.

California has a law that prohibits anything, even from the manufacturer, that would effect the light output taillights.

I don't recall where I read it before but there is a code that states that the light output of rear taillights need to be clearly visible up to x-amount of feet (I believe it's close to 1000 ft.) You could probably google this and it'll come up. Mainly to keep you from getting rear ended and what not.

Imagine if you were behind a black car at night with lights that were just blacked out and you could barely, BARELY, make out that they are stepping on their brakes.

I also believe CHP stations have a system that can measure if your lights are actually emitting enough light.

You'll have to go to a State Inspection center to get proof that your exhaust is/has been "fixed" to be below 95.00 Db, The officer should have given you some information on how to scheduled the inspection.

The'll be able to test your lumen output there as well

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/f...ctionNum=24600

Section "e" - "E"xplains it...

I told this to the officer and showed him, he was saying that manufacturing companies can just stamp it on even if it’s not?

Thank you! The officer told me i need to be at 80 DB, is 95 the actual limit? Because I’m catless headers and no muffler, and hoping just putting the muffler back on will solve the issue.

Ahh, thank you, I’m confident these lights are bright enough and will get it checked out, but worst comes to worst I still got my stockies and will eventually start looking at different (not black) tailllights :cry:

If my understanding is correct, the law states it should be visible from 1000 ft away IN THE DARK. I’m confident the valentis are bright enough, I guess it was just bad luck with the sun shining right in my tails as the officer was behind me.

Catless header, no muffler, blacked out lights = giant sign saying "pull me over".

It worked.

Good luck getting it cleared up. I would put a legal exhaust back on. They will notice at the inspection station and you will be worse off if you pull up without the cats.

Well when you put it that way, it sounds bad. But in my area there are a number of cars like that, guess I just got the short end of the stick. But anyways, will they really inspect for a cat if it is for a dB violation? The officer did look under my hood but I guess didn’t notice the headers.

I live in San Jose. Yes, they will inspect your exhaust. No, you didn't get any short end of a stick, you have an illegal car and got caught.

Just a heads up, I'm pretty sure Valentis don't have enough reflective surface on them to be CA legal. I've heard of someone getting pulled over and they had to put some reflective tape on their tails to make it compliant. You might get hassled about that as well.

People also modify parts after purchase, so the stamp doesn't always mean much

Put all your cats back in, stock intake, etc. Not worth the risk of multiple trips, extra violations, etc.