Police man looking under my hood!

lethal6

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Ive look online, and most people do not know the answer to this, they talk out of there ass. If you know a cop, ask him for me because thats the only way we could get the facts. It has to be a cop from California.

It took me 2 seconds to find the vehicle code for california.

"2804. A member of the California Highway Patrol upon reasonable belief that any vehicle is being operated in violation of any provisions of this code or is in such unsafe condition as to endanger any person, may require the driver of the vehicle to stop and submit to an inspection of the vehicle, and its equipment, license plates, and registration card."

This means that it is under the discretion of the officer as to weather your car has probable cause for inspection or not. So yes, they have legal right under the California vehicle code to search your vehicle if they think it is worthy.

With California's strict CARB laws, they can search if they think you are in violation of that, which you are.
 

31dev31

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I've been pulled over twice (one time for 100 km/h in 80 km/h keeping up with traffic, and other for being lowered), and no tickets both times due to my clean record.

Rule of thumb: Be nice and polite, keep your mouth shut and don't drive like a ricer who just saw FnF.
 


Wax Hands

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i like how 90% of the people on this forum are anti cops. :roll: If your not a douche canoe to the cops, they wont hassle you.


and to the op, dont b***h when you get caught with an 'illegal' header. You know damn well that its illegal, so how can you complain that the cop is poping your hood for no reason. its obvious your hiding it.
Its not so much being anti-cop but more being informed of your rights. Not to mention you really have to stand up for yourself more and more now a days with the amount of abusive cops out there overreacting and abusing their power.
 


CIVIC_VTEC

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Just like if the police wanted to search your house, just an example, they have to have a warrant, or see something going on in the house.they cant just check. us being tuner drivers, they see a fat pipe out the back they will follow you till they can be dickish enough and stop you for the dumbest thing. me saying you have no cause to search more then likely they will do anything they can to give you even the dumbest ticket. wanna hear something that blew my mind?... well in october 2 of 2009 i got a (noise ordnance violation). (NOV) $15 dollars becuase i was over by 1 decibel... it made me the most pissed of person in the world.
 

00CivicSiblue

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Yeah cops are being xtremely huge a-holes now a days bcuz of all the cutbacks in our shitty state that they will do whatever it is to meet there quota especially at the end ofthe month, Not sure how they are in other states but i know in cali tghey r crackin down very hard. like whe i got pulled over for that stupid L plate light being out an a-hole in a 70 Chevelle cruised by as im sittin there and hes reving his motor as the cop is talkin to me. how embarrassing right!? did the co do anything No! just smiled told me to get home. WTF. i respect muscle cars but when they see an import gettin pulled over they think its funny and cops wont do s**t to them
 

93Civicspeed

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My buddy walked a 70 chevelle and the Chevelle got pulled for loud exhaust and my buddy sailed away at like 125mph lol
 

K20_EM1

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Paint the header with Black duplicolor header paint. A dumbass officer wont know its illegal. Trust me.

Officers only think shiny/flashy/painted/anodized/polished parts are illegal
 

oc_civic

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aftermarket louder than stock exhaust equals cause to pop the hood...

If you live in a strict state and want to modify the car you ARE going to pay to play one way or another.. either by buying quality parts that conform to CA laws.. OR by paying ticket after ticket after ticket.. think about it.. you could go months.. years.. with NO tickets.. and then catch a bad month and get several in a row..

if i lived there I would just by s**t that conforms to the law.. its a nice feeling knowing that IF you get pulled over there is NO stress.. you are legal.. so who gives a f**k..

[/thread]
 

evilrilla2

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There is an Ontario in Southern Cali. Cops are dicks down there just waiting to pull over any import. I live just north of there where i was followed from one city to another by some d**k cop. only mod i have is cold air so i wasnt trippin cuz my car isnt that much louder with it on there. he was reading my plates never pulled me over but he followed me till i got to my moms place. another night on my way home this chick cop decides to pull me over cuz apparently my light bulb is out on my license plate or some b.s. i was nice to her so she let me go. but in so cal cops see an import and they just pull ya over for stupid s**t even if your not driving like most dip shits do that try to instigate races up here. those r the ones that give imports a bad name and the eye for cops
Correct! You know why?

Because a few years back Ontario was swarming with ricers. They would meet by an area by the ontario airport every Friday and Saturday. there were hundreds of cars imports and all. Cars will race, there were hot babes, and people just had a good time. Then Ontario started coming down on everyone, tickets left and right, people had there cars towed, and then they placed speed bumps all over the place! Eventually it all died away :(
 

evilrilla2

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It took me 2 seconds to find the vehicle code for california.

"2804. A member of the California Highway Patrol upon reasonable belief that any vehicle is being operated in violation of any provisions of this code or is in such unsafe condition as to endanger any person, may require the driver of the vehicle to stop and submit to an inspection of the vehicle, and its equipment, license plates, and registration card."

This means that it is under the discretion of the officer as to weather your car has probable cause for inspection or not. So yes, they have legal right under the California vehicle code to search your vehicle if they think it is worthy.

With California's strict CARB laws, they can search if they think you are in violation of that, which you are.
So you are saying if my car looks like its modified that is enough probable cause? If its drop and looks fast, it must be modified?
 

evilrilla2

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Paint the header with Black duplicolor header paint. A dumbass officer wont know its illegal. Trust me.

Officers only think shiny/flashy/painted/anodized/polished parts are illegal
good point! Im going to have to rust my header. haha. Sometimes cop dont know anything. A cop once actually thought my engine was swapped with a cheap del sol engine. The cop busted out his cheat sheet paper and looked at the engine numbers. Haha, no joke. I am thinking they just want to see CARB numbers. Im just going to add some numbers and fool them, haha.

The cop stereotyped me and assumed I was a racer and asked several questions in order to get more info out of me. He asked me when I bought the car did if I knew it was modified? Even after I told him I bought it 8 years ago stock and the engine is stock.
 

00CivicSiblue

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Correct! You know why?

Because a few years back Ontario was swarming with ricers. They would meet by an area by the ontario airport every Friday and Saturday. there were hundreds of cars imports and all. Cars will race, there were hot babes, and people just had a good time. Then Ontario started coming down on everyone, tickets left and right, people had there cars towed, and then they placed speed bumps all over the place! Eventually it all died away :(
Yep same for up here. there is still "cruise nights" or whatever but ppl used to go racing and s**t up here or try to race from light to light it got stupid once FnF came out lol. so ever since then cops are import hunting:roll: this is my first import and ive seen the stereo typing from cops but i dont care im doing nothin wrong :P
 

lethal6

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So you are saying if my car looks like its modified that is enough probable cause?
That is what the law code for your state is saying. You don't read well, do you?

It is at the discretion of the officer. If he/she thinks there is probable cause, they can make you pop the hood.

For the record, if you are dropped, your car IS modified. Yes that would give an officer enough to look and see what else you have done to the car. Odds are if a car is lowered, there is more done to it than just that.
 

evilrilla2

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That is what the law code for your state is saying. You don't read well, do you?

It is at the discretion of the officer. If he/she thinks there is probable cause, they can make you pop the hood.

For the record, if you are dropped, your car IS modified. Yes that would give an officer enough to look and see what else you have done to the car. Odds are if a car is lowered, there is more done to it than just that.
I read and understand, but i still question it. It was my understanding that it had to be an illegal modification, like side tinted windows, exhaust. Lowering the vehicle is a legal modification.

But i get your point, one modification leads to another and the cop will suspect further illegal modifications. That is true. Either way, I never deny access to look inside the hood, I know what I have and accept any consequences.
 

lethal6

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Someone correct me if I am wrong, but don't your headlights have to be a certain height above the ground, thus making lowering (or lifting) a vehicle an illegal mod? I think the height for trucks is like 23 inches but I don't know about cars.

Like said in the code, weather you think it NEEDS to be a certain modification or not, it is up to the officer to decide what they find to be a mod. It would be hard to fight your word against theirs in court.
 

EkcivicJDMstyle

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i live in VA. ive been searched 5 times for pretty much no reason other than driving a civic. im as polite as possible with them, no attitude what so ever and they still hassle the hell out of me. never had a good experience with the police and ive always been polite.
 

civicmand16y7

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you can lower you car but you cant go under the llegal hight....im really not sure eaither what it is...ive only been pulled over once in my civic and that was becouse i didnt have my tag on it and i got a ticket for no proof of insurance i even had it drop. even though i didnt have insurance.lol my insurance aggent is cool like that...and shes HOT!!!!!
 


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