Pulled over by Highway Patrol.

[arden]

Well after 3 years with aftermarket zorst, i finally get pulled over by highway patrol copper.
I was asked about my zorst and he queried if i ever had it tested to see if it fell within limits.
showed him recent papers which confirmed it was. He seem satisfied.

Then got asked to pop me bonnet up. First thing he notices is the CAI.
asked where the pod filter was, and i told him its behind the wheel wall.
He then asked me if its enclosed in a box, i told him no. Said it was illegal, i asked him why
and he said something along the lines of being more susceptible to engine spark causing fire or something.

in the end he was like well you made an effort to enclose the filter so i wont do anything and lets me go!

[mill_mobile]

Lucky, lucky ;)
Wasnt it you that had your muffy checked a while ago and changed it for the test so it was within limits?
Sorry to go a bit off-topic but why is it needed that the pod be enclosed?

[arden]

yeh man thats me..
got it fixed up and sent results back to EPA.

[CHiMPY]

should have told him that since the pod was NOT in the engine bay there was no problem..

[chicaboo]

The area infront of the wheel well is an enclosure... He sounded pretty decent about it though.

[MAztinA 323]

phew!! haha, thats so lucky mate with the pod! and good thing u had the papers on u for zorst~

[89sp1.8]

sounds like u got a decent police man, nice work.

[zappy65]

nice police man pitty he could'nt give you a credible excuse.....not many can...

[Dingo_hunter]

my mate found a way to "scare" a police when they are checking for defects...
First i shall tell the story,..
A long long time ago (last year) on a highway not so far away, my mate got pulled over by a regualar cop (non patrol) in his new STI. Everything on his car was new, and COMPLETELY legal.. and he knew this... Then the cop looked under the hood, saw some shiny stuff and called it to be defected. My mate said no this is BS.. took his badge number and name..
The cop still wrote him the ticket.. the next day my mate went to 3 mechanics, got their "ok's" then went to the same precinct and asked to see the head of the highway patrol that was there... He showed him the papers, then he looked at the car, he came back and said to the policeman who wrote him the ticket "Mate u are a ****ing idiot. This gentleman has gone out of his way completely to prove that u are. His car is FINE! *at which point he tore up the ticket*
The High patrol cop apologised for the inconvience, and at which point told him, "Alot of regular cops look under the hoods of "done up" car's, and if it looks shiny and COULD be defected they will.. but you can ask to drive your car to the precinct, to get a highway patrol officer to look at it,.. usually this will scare the crap out of them, and they will usually tare up the ticket.., but be careful if u car was really defected as then u will have a highway patrol looking for any other defects that the regular officer might of missed."

I think that was it..

[Mazda_Brian]

Arden,

Good to see you got a decent cop, they are few and far between, but there are some out there.....

I was pulled over on the way back from Kitty's Wedding a few months back, apparently doing 128 in a 110 zone at 11:30pm.

Anyway, we went around the car, asked about the exhaust and what engine I had because the exhaust seemed to be overly (sounded like a 6 cylinder, and not a 4 cylinder like was standard in my car), asked about the wheels, and the tinting.

I told him the exuast used to be a VERY noisey cannon exhaust, but the only thing I could get to replace it was a straight through sports muffler, and it was also missing the resonator, which gave it the rumble, I told him the tint and wheels where on the car when it arrived in Aus, and has been like that since I have owned it (first australian owner).

He then appologised and told me because the equipment has recorded the offense, he has to process a ticket, but he would process the ticket as a low-range offence, and not a medium range offence.

At the end of the day, I was speeding (due to diff ratio, I did not realise my actual speed was almost 12% higher than the reading on my dash), so I wore the fine, wrote a letter to the fine processing place to appologise for my offence, and paid it.

Basically, what I am trying to say is there are some police that dont just go out with the intension to screw the car lovers over, they actually do their job, and do it properly, rather than just guess that something might be defectable and hit your arse for it.

B.

[blacksp20]

I agree with mazda_brian, nice work. Good way to handle a situation mate.

Arden, good to hear you found one of the nicer cops in NSW.

I don't agree with any of what dingo_hunter has to say, sorry mate. I don't like the idea of "scaring" Police into not taking action toward you. What your mate did with the machanics was fine and seems fair and legitimate, but scaring Police....you are just asking for trouble.

Not all cops are A holes. If you are courteous and not driving like a dick, you will probably find that most of the time you will either be let go with a warning or nothing at all. And if you do have illegal mods and you get punished for it by way of a ticket or defect, you have nothing to complain about do you?

p.s. There may even be some cops within our beloved Mazda club so keep the cop bashing to a minimum.