I'm in the military. I currently live in Florida, where "anything goes" with respect to exhaust mods. I'm gonna have to move to California in the next year. I plan on keeping my car registered and tagged in florida.

Am I going to be subject to the same **** modification laws as people with cars registered in cali? I plan on doing headers and moving my cats around. I'm keeping them though.

Could I get my car ticketed/impounded/crushed for having illegal exhaust even though I'm a florida resident with florida tags?

 

You should be fine since the car is not registered in Cali. I has friend years back though, who had moved here from Nevada and was flagged by DMV after he got a ticket on his Nevada reg'd car. Since his license was Ca, and showed his residence in Ca, he was issued a ticket by DMV for not registering his vehicle in the state.

 

No, you shouldn't... although since I'm imagining you'll be moving to MCAS Miramar, you should be aware that San Diego PD is very ****-ish when it comes to what they consider illegal mods (sometimes as silly as an intake for example). Although from what I hear they mainly attack rice boys and leave domestic owners alone.

Window tint and no front plate are things I've heard everyone needs to watch out for though... even though I cruised my Z28 through SD plenty of times in violation and never was pulled over for it.

Then again... you could be going to NAS Lemoore, and in which case, disregard all. Generally speaking, in California you will be fine since you're registered in Florida and are not a permanent resident. Most people that move here have 30 days to register their car in California... luckily that doesn't apply to military AFAIK.

 

I also have really dark window tint, and no front plates. I'm keeping my FL liscense and plates though.

I really really want NAS lemoore. If I get MCAS miramar, I'll probably live on base and be a base hermit. I'll never leave unless I have too. Or I'll only leave the base in my wifes stock trans am.

 

I don't know about San Diego. Lemore is kind of in the middle of nowhere. I used to live in the Central Valley, and unless there is something I missed, there is not much to do around Lemore.
Anyway, it will depend alot on what any given cop or highway patrol wants to do. If they want to pull you over, they will find a reason. The front plate is an easy fix, just place it on the dash. The tint might be a different story. Now with Florida plates and licence, it may not be any issue.
And as Nate said, military is a different issue altogether.

 

You will be fine with highway patrol if they see out of state tags just dont be a jackass and rev it up and speed which will give them a chance to mess with you on other stuff.

Now as for the base you might be screwed since you need new DOD sticker to reg the car on base. They will want you to smog the car even if it out of state. Also if you get a ticket on base now it's no longer handle by the base police instead it is handle like a real ticket downtown.

 

WAT!!!?

Are you sure? Are you in the military?

If that is really the case, then I'm gonna do everything I can to go east coast!!!!

 

Yes, I'm in the US Navy (19 years) Station at 32nd St. I got pulled over about a year ago for mod exhaust nosie. I had to go to court and show the judge that everything on my car had CARB numbers and have a smog ref do a nosie level test and take that to court with me as well. It was drop cause I had proff but there are caughting other without proper paperwork for mods (CARB #)

 

Navy eh???


2001SS4Doc just so happens to be a Bad *** Navy Corpsman with a father-in-law that is a SMOG Test-only station OWNER

When you register your car on base you will need a CA SMOG Test. If you go to another SMOG place...they may/may not fail you based on visual test....

PM me what all your mods are... you know... catalytic converters, Long tubes, heads, cam, nitrous, o2 sensors, PCM mods, check engine lights... you gonna get my email in your PM box


Cameron

 

He's a Marine but I'm sure you guys will get along fine