We received a question recently from one of our customers and asked if it was ok to post the question on our blog:

Hi American Muffler, I have a quick question I wanted to run by you guys. Recently I got pulled over by a Broward County Sherriff for a “Muffler Violation Noise” on my way home from work.

Sure my car is a little loud, but it has no modifications or anything crazy like that. The cop never even looked under the car to see if there was a problem. Is there any way I can fight this? How can I prevent this from happening in the future?

All the best,

Nico

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Hi Nico,

Thanks for writing in! Sorry to hear about your problems, it is never fun getting pulled over by the police.

Most of the time you will get pulled over for these violations in “nicer” parts of the county. If you are out on the highway they don’t care, but if your car is loud enough that it is disturbing people while they are eating dinner you might have some problems.

Here is a small except from the Florida statute on muffler laws:

(4)?APPLICABILITY.—This section applies to the total noise from a vehicle and shall not be construed as limiting or precluding the enforcement of any other provisions of this chapter relating to motor vehicle mufflers for noise control.

Basically if it sounds like it is louder than it should be, they can pull you over for it. The great thing about this is that you can usually fight these in court, if it is your first offense that is. If you keep going back time after time you might run into some issues.

Mufflers can take a beating over time. Since the majority of the muffler is under your car, it gets all sort of dings, scratches and bumps throughout the lifecycle of your car. Over time this type of muffler damage can create different sounds in the acoustics of the muffler and make lots of noise.

The best thing we can tell you is to bring your car in. There are a lot of easy modifications or fixes / repairs we can make to a muffler to get it where it needs to be that won’t break the bank.

Stop in anytime and we can usually at least give you a quick diagnosis.

Thanks again!