Tint and exhaust legalities

P

PatrickBuzzin

Well-known member
ISDC Club Member
Whats the story with window tints and an after market exhaust with regards Guards and the law? My brother was stopped and made peel the tint off the front windows and was told to have the exhaust off the car in 10 days. The guard never took readings in regards how much light the tints let in or on how many decibles the exhaust made. (If thats phrased correctly) Now im not sure about the tints but our Dads car is done in the exact same and he has never even been questioned about them. They were not totally black he went for a a middle of the road tint. And the exhaust I had made for him by GT Exhausts in Enniskillen. Just wondering if anyone knows what the legal limits are for both or where I would find out how to get them measured. Am ragin here after getting the phone call form the brother. Gonna contact GT Exhausts to see if they have any readings for the exhaust type.

Cheers in advance of any replies.
Here is a pic of the car before
 
Cant have tints on the front at all.AFAIK.

Exhaust still up in the air at the moment i think. :dontknow:

Mines fairly loud and dont get stopped that much.Dont usually drive around town too much in it though.

CARLO
 
Ok so found this on the RSA website
Main Changes to the NCT with effect from January 4th 2010:
20. Vehicle exhaust noise
The nuisance caused by excessive noise from vehicle exhausts is regularly the subject of comments and complaints. Examination of a cars exhaust silencer, and its effectiveness at reducing noise is part of the current NCT. It is proposed to implement a noise check of vehicles that the vehicle inspector deems to be excessively noisy. The vehicle will be required to have a level of noise no greater than 99db in order to pass the test

14. Clarity of windscreen and front side windows
Excessively tinted windscreens or front side windows present a significant safety hazard for drivers and their occupants. The glass in the windscreen and front side windows will be required to have a light transmission level of not less than 65% in order to pass the test

Anyone know how I can test the noise levels
 
99db is f'in loud.

The FIM (world motocross commitee) have brought in a 96db limit for motocross bikes. That started in 2008 i think.
Now i don't know if you've ever been to a motocross race, but a 450cc mx'er is really really loud when on the pipe.
They are tested stationary at something like 2/3 the engines total rev limit (not sure exactly) and would come in around the 93-96db, so might be 99-103db when being ridden hard.
 
Ok so got onto the RSA and they are getting an engineer to go through things. Meanwhile when I conacted the guards I was told that if the exhaust is not changed back to the original he would be summoned for excessive noise pollution and fittment of a non standard exhaust to a vehicle thus rendering it deffective.So as he only has 10 days to produce the car at the station he rang GT exhausts and they are making up an original and fitting it free of charge. Cant argue with that for service. Still gonna refit it for the RSA engineer to get his report. Are all Guards dciks or what. Was not Speeding or acting the maggot was just goin back to work in the Curragh. Also my Impreza is prob a bit louder. Anyway will let ye know what the RSA say. :angry1:
 
it is not yet illegal to have tinted winfows
only on the front windscreen
it has not yet been passed as legislation and i dont think it ever will be it will just be a fail on the nct
as for the exhaust not sure but i dont see what the gards can do
let them take him to court id say the judge would throw it out for wasting the courts time
unless they have him for dangerous driving or something aswell
doesent add up to me
youd sware they had nothing else to do
:cuckoo:
 
No have him for nothing else at all. It seems to me that he got a Guard in a bad mood as it makes no sense to me either. Changed the exhaust today and presented it to the Guards and they didnt even check it out. Just said fine and that was it. Will be interesting to see what the RSA say about it.
 
[quote author=PatrickBuzzin link=topic=21898.msg264849#msg264849 date=1268005802]

14. Clarity of windscreen and front side windows
Excessively tinted windscreens or front side windows present a significant safety hazard for drivers and their occupants. The glass in the windscreen and front side windows will be required to have a light transmission level of not less than 65% in order to pass the test

[/quote]
This contradicts what I was told recently by Vision Tints in Walkinstown. They said the tint cannot be greater than 65% which is equal to 35% Visible Light Transmission. However this extract says no less than 65% tint. Most cars come from a factory with about 80% VLT so it doesn't seem worth it to get a tint on the front if it has to be greater than 65% VLT.

I'm considering getting tints but not if I have to have a darker tint on the rear than front....I think it just looks crap.

Did the garda in question who stopped your brother actuallt take a reading of the window?

scoobycolm, if its a fail on the NCT its going to deter a lot of people getting them done. I know a lot of people who have tints, nothing excessive but on the grounds it has to be greater than 65% VLT, they will all fail the nct. Looking forward to hearing about the first person who actually does fail nct for tints...anyone know anybody?
 
No Tom this is what p1ssed me off so much is he took no reading for the tints or exhaust. I know what you mean I was waiting to see what the story with the nct is before I got mine done because to be honest his car looks totally sh1t now with the front clear and the back tinted. Rang the local NCT centre and asked them about doing some readings on the car to see if they would fail but the lad there told me they are only going for training on both issues on the 25th of this month and have not got the equipment for it yet as its only coming into effect on the 4th of April. Said to ring then and they would do it no problem.
 
i work for the crowd that sends out the confirmation letters for the NCT and last week we started putting a flyer in saying that their bringing in testing for noise levels above 99db from exhaust, front tint must let through 65% of light no test on rear tint, they will now also test rear fog light where fitted, and rear number plate light however a fail on this will not mean an nct fail it will just be an advisiory. they are also bringing in that tyres must have an E on them to say they comply with international standards tyres without these will fail regardless of tread depth, and any airbag or abs lights up on the dash will result in a fail as well. this is all coming in on April 4th
 
just came across this

http://www.ncts.ie/NewInspectionItems.aspx

In that case I don't think it's worth it paying the money reducing my factory tint of about 80% down to 65%. I still might go ahead and get my wifes car done for the rear windows for the kids but it still looks crap.

What about all the cars out there with tints on them now? Do they all have to get them removed? Professionally fitted tints are not the easist to take off and I'd imagine it would nearly cost as much to get them removed properly as they cost to have put on.
 
Got my tint in shades and they told me the front are legal but that was over a year ago now,
must look into it and see what the craic is, when choosing the tint i did'nt want it too dark
on the front but dark enough on the back, the 3 rear windows are one step down from
limo black and the front are a step down from the rear, even at night ive no problem
seeing out so im happy with that, here's a pic :thumbsup:

garyssubaru018.jpg
 
just looking at your car there scooby1, the front looks about 35-40% VLT and the rears are about 10% from what I seen.

Limo is usually 5% VLT.

I dont imagine aswell its easy to remove tints if the NCT fails you on it.
 
i have tints all round and passed nct last week! there not testing tints till mid april they said, + i have no back box on my car (06 WRX) so there is a big sound there lol it passed on emission "just" they said tats all there testing for, emission!!!
 
[quote author=MurphWRX link=topic=21898.msg267048#msg267048 date=1268777127]
i have tints all round and passed nct last week! there not testing tints till mid april they said, + i have no back box on my car (06 WRX) so there is a big sound there lol it passed on emission "just" they said tats all there testing for, emission!!!
[/quote]
did they mention anything about whether your tints would pass? I imagine the centres will be busy in the next 4 weeks with lots of cars trying to get booked in that might have the possibility of failing after next month
 
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