haha this isn't an illegal stop. if you have your rear windows tinted then there is reasonable belief that your other windows are tinted as well, meaning you have an illegally modified car. I'm not saying he's not a jerk for getting you for all those things, but it is a legal stop, he is doing his job, and end of the day when you put all these parts on in california you know going into it its illegal! so you can't be mad when you get a ticket for it. i have all of my windows tinted as well so if i get a ticket, i will gladly take it, have it removed, get it signed off, and then get it put back on (buy the lifetime warranty and if the shop offers free replacement for fix it tickets, GET IT)

it amazes me, people these days cry about why they are getting hassled by the cops when they are breaking the law. its not like he put the tint on your car, you did it so just accept responsibility for it and move on!

Your car looks great though! love the blue, and the tint is a must. oh well :thumbup:

I am not complaining or anything. Just sucks that I got hassled when my car doesn't really look or sound like its a racecar.

Anyway,
Has anyone had this happen to them before? Do you guys know if the inspection station will inspect the tint/mufflers(full car)? or will they just do the Header inspection?

Also its pretty funny the guy stopped me for loud exhaust due to the fact that my exhaust was probably quieter than his bike. No where near the rule.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if the officer expressly said the reason for the stop was because the "car looks like it races," then that is an illegal stop.
He didn't say anything about pulling you over for tints or some such. He just added that and the rest onto the ticket pile. Audio from his dashcam will provide evidence supporting that.

Again, this is only if he stopped you for looking like a fast car. What a crock of crap for him to do if that really was what he stated.

OMG...dark tint...

Jeeze, this is exactly why I refuse to drive near LAX, downtown Pasadena, or Sunset Avenue anymore...cops pulling people for the lamest stuff

And no, my tint or lack of a front plate doesn't make me a menace to society...(and I don't buy using tint/plate violations as pretext to stumble upon criminal activity during a traffic stop)

That sucks dude! Anyways, i gotta check out your JRSC.

Yep. There is a thing called "probable cause" which means that a reasonable person (cop) would believe that, based upon the available visible evidence, that a violation of the law has been committed. He could not have known about the headers in advance or from what you said, the tinted windows. Since there was no visible evidence justifying pulling you over, he did not have probable cause. This is an easy ticket to beat.

@ApolloSki He probably could have towed/impounded your car for the catless header. So you got off lucky. Nice car btw.

Eh, depends. If the back window is illegally tinted, you can get pulled over for that.

But if the back window is legally tinted, that doesn't create reasonable suspicion that the side windows would be tinted.

Unless you have some caselaw I'm unaware of.

Why did you pop hood?

How did he know you had headers? they jacked your car up?

You are correct. But cops know better, and he'll just say he saw tint or the exhaust sounded loud.



Almost no police have dash cams in Southern California. But it wouldn't hurt to fight the ticket and request all recordings. If you have a recording of him saying that he stopped you JUST because he thought you looked like you raced, you'd have a pretty good 1538.5 motion.

It was an airport motorcycle cop so I'm pretty sure he doesnt have a cam. I'm thinking about contesting the ticket and see what they say after I tell them my story. I mean I could understand if he said his probable cause was window tint, but the reason he gave was absurd...I was so baffled that I wasn't thinking straight at the time.

Just get a lawyer and fight it, worst case scenario?: you pay the ticket.

I've thought about moving out to California, but these draconian car laws do a good job of making it a no-go.

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