saz468
Senior Member
- First Name
- Stan
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2018
- Threads
- 71
- Messages
- 2,488
- Reaction score
- 2,382
- Location
- Florida
- Vehicle(s)
- 2023 civic EX Aegean blue metallic
Very nice Honda should have put the exhaust tips on the 1.5 turbos sedan/coupe like yours in the first place yours looks like a factory piece one good thing about Florida no state inspection ( I used to live in NY )I live in Massachusetts and we have very strict yearly car inspections. Based on the law, I can't modify my exhaust in any way or else I risk not passing my yearly inspection. While I think the intended effect is to make sure all emissions systems are in place, it also specifically mentions that all cars must have their mufflers and cannot have any modifications that would cause the car to sound louder than stock.
I have been rocking the fake exhaust tips that came with my aftermarket rear diffuser. I always had intended to replace them with real pipes but I've been scared to make any changes due to the tough yearly car inspections. As a happy medium, I decided that I wanted to have the pipe after the muffler extended to the new outlets with new exhaust tips. This would retain the OEM exhaust system in place, including the mufflers, but would give me the look without it sounding any different.
I did some research online and decided to go with a shop that had many great reviews online and specialized in custom muffler and exhaust systems. This is where my plan sort of fell apart.
The shop took me out to my car on the lift and told me they wouldn't be able to do what I wanted. In order to get the pipes in place, I would need to straight up delete my mufflers. They wouldn't be able to custom fabricate the pipes in the way I wanted. I asked if this would cause me to fail the yearly inspection, they mentioned that they couldn't guarantee anything but that it wouldn't be too much louder than stock and it would probably pass the inspection just fine.
I called the inspection station I normally go to in order to ask if I would immediately fail my inspection due to the modified exhaust. They told me to bring it in so they could look before I had them actually do the inspection. I decided to take a gamble and had the exhaust shop delete my mufflers.
Today, I went in for my inspection and the inspectors told me they didn't have any problems with my new setup. It really would come down to the noise. Luckily for me, it doesn't sound much louder than stock - it just sounds deeper/richer/more "throaty" - and I passed with flying colors!
Now my car looks much better, sounds way better, is lighter (I think I read each muffler is ~40 pounds), and is no longer using those fake exhaust tips!
Why did I write all this up? I was obsessively looking all over Google for people with aftermarket exhausts (specifically with muffler deletes since the law explicitly states that they must be on the car still) recounting their stories with the new Massachusetts year car inspection process. I didn't find anything so I wanted to do my part of leaving my story here in case anyone else is wondering if you can delete your mufflers and still pass the Massachusetts state inspection. The answer is MAYBE. You can have the mufflers deleted but it still can't be obnoxiously loud. YMMV, this will always be up to whoever is doing the inspections.
And, of course,
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