Loud exhausts

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Mon 16 Sep 2019 02:01
Loud exhausts - romford4

Bothered by a local idiot in a whamed-up chav-mobile who thinks it's clever to wake your kids at 2am every night by doing 60mph up a residential street in 2nd gear with a cheap bean-can silencer?

Simple solution if you live in the UK and know the registration of the offending vehicle...… Go to askMID.com (the Motor Insurance Database), pay £4.50 to run a search on that reg number, and you'll receive the details of the insurance company and the policy number related to that vehicle.

Now one thing to note is that askMID states that you SHOULD be enquiring about that registration number as the result of an ACCIDENT, and that you may otherwise be committing an offence by obtaining said information contrary to Section 170 of the Data Protection Act. HOWEVER, what it doesn't state is that a motorist who regularly disturbs your right to a peaceful life is therefore causing you loss. If you subsequently make an askMID enquiry in order to pursue some recompense for this, or to report a offence to the driver's insurance company then you DO have the right to make this enquiry and are NOT committing an offence under the Data Protection Act.

But why would you want the insurance details of a vehicle owner who has a noisy exhaust?... Simple, the legal limit in the EU is 74db and anything above 90db is considered a nuisance. Furthermore, it is also an offence for a vehicle owner to modify their exhaust system to make it exceed the db level stated by the manufacturer when that vehicle was given its type approval. This essentially covers all (or very close to all) after-market 'performance' systems.

So to get to the point.... If you have a local boy-racer who regularly disturbs your right to a peaceful life through an excessively loud exhaust system, you can pay £4.50 to askMID, get the details of his/her insurance policy, then write a letter to that insurer pointing out that the owner is driving an illegally modified vehicle and committing an offence by doing so, and that you're surprised that the company is insuring an illegal vehicle. The insurance company then have no choice but to contact their insured to (a) cancel their policy; (b) order their insured to make the vehicle compliant with the law or their policy will be revoked.

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Mon 16 Sep 2019 06:34
Loud exhausts - Wee Willie Winkie

Blimey.

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Mon 16 Sep 2019 13:44
Loud exhausts - ExA35Owner

Of course if the car is modified and the owner hasn't told the insurance company, then the owner has probably broken the Ts&Cs of the policy and just might therefore be uninsured....

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Mon 16 Sep 2019 14:44
Loud exhausts - gordonbennet

I could envisage some repercussions down the line, if the chap with the louder than you might like (but unless you test it with a dB meter i'm not sure how you'd measure it) exhaust denies any such wrongdoing to his insurer...assuming they take a blind bit of notice, something i doubt...you may have to sign a form or be prepared to make a formal statement in order for the insurer to send an engineer out to check the car, or insist you inform the police and get a reference or crime number, and once your details are out there.

I'm none too sure about the legalities either, some legal minds hang about the backroom i'd be interested to hear what they think about such amateur shopping.

Are these exhausts a nuisance, well yes they can be but not anywhere near as bad as motorcycles ridden like they're at the TT which can be heard approaching from half a mile away.

All part and parcel of living in an overcrowded country, only going to get worse, i'd invest in ear plugs and try to ignore it, Darwin's law has a way of easing these issues anyway given time.

Driving at reckless speed in a residential area is another thing altogether, that's more the domain of the police, again i doubt they would be remotely interested unless someone with some clout makes complaints (not saying you don't have clout, but you know what i'm getting at), might be worth pursuing that line if you know anyone with the ear of senior plod types.

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Mon 16 Sep 2019 21:16
Loud exhausts - romford4

I live in a modern housing estate where a lot of the young kids play out on the street on their bikes and scooters, but there's one wee tube in a whammed-up Fiesta ST lookalike that drives up and down the streets multiple times a day flooring it in 2nd gear. Zero regard for the kids out playing and to add insult, it's got a cheap bean-can silencer which makes a hell of a racket.

I've said to him a couple of times about his speed and anti-social driving and a few of my neighbours have also asked him to calm it down. The response is usually a F-off, I'll do what I like. My neighbour had a word with his lame excuse for a father - who didn't want to know. The Police have said they lack the resources but if someone catches him on film, they'll likely prosecute.

The advising the insurance of an illegal mod came up in conversation the other night with one of my neighbours so I posted about it on here to see what sort of responses I'd get. A couple of my neighbours are pretty mad about his driving and are up for some direct action and actually causing some damage to his car to make it undriveable, but that's a bit Charles Bronson for me. Maybe he'll win a Darwin, but hopefully he only hurts himself. There's a time and place for a bit of fun, but silly speeds near young kids isn't on.

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Mon 16 Sep 2019 14:29
Loud exhausts - Leif

This reads like spam.

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Mon 16 Sep 2019 15:32
Loud exhausts - Andrew-T

This reads like spam.

Maybe it does, but to what advantage?

I guess any vehicle which draws such attention to itself is likely to be insured, but perhaps not?

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Tue 17 Sep 2019 00:30
Loud exhausts - drd63
Not entirely sure the OP has his facts right. I have a loud exhaust on my car, my insurers are aware of this and there is no issue.
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Tue 17 Sep 2019 14:25
Loud exhausts - madf

Potato in exhaust pipe.Rammed hard up with piece of wood.

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Tue 17 Sep 2019 17:09
Loud exhausts - romford4

^^ When you purchased your system, did it come with an EU Type Approval Certificate? I'd bet not, so if it's louder than stock it's illegal. Your insurer is conflicted... they have accepted your risk and presumably taken a little more money from you in terms of increased premium, but they are also insuring you on the basis that your vehicle is in roadworthy condition... which it isn't if your exhaust doesn't meet the legal standards.

For something as simple as an exhaust system, which is extremely unlikely to cause an accident, most insurers will take your premium and think nothing more of it, but if specifically notified in writing that they are currently insuring what is essentially an illegal & unroadworthy vehicle, do you think they'll (a) ignore it; (b) contact their insured to request the vehicle be made legal; (c) cancel your policy?

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Tue 17 Sep 2019 17:20
Loud exhausts - romford4

Serious post BTW, no trolling. I'm throwing this out there as a legit question. A used bike I bought years ago had an undersized number-plate fitted. 100% safe, but when insuring it, I declared it as a mod and was refused insurance on the basis that it didn't meet legal standards. Was told that for it to be properly insured, the bike must comply with the law otherwise I may be at risk of them refusing a payout / having my policy cancelled.

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