Omg...chp Impound My Car....need Advice

[lovensx]

I went for a drive in my NSX on Friday afternoon, there was a construction road work and everyone stopped. A CHP officer approach my car and told me that I don't have a front license plate on and then he look through my engine compartment and saw the 2 NOS solenoid, told me to show him where the NOS bottle, told me my KN Filter doesn't have a official sticker on.

He then called a towing truck and pound my car and gave me a ticket, told me that I have to go for State Referee.

Please help with suggestions.........:frown:

 

[scorp965]

Sounds like an unfortunate situation, if you need to see a State Referee, you will need to return the car to stock.

Judging by your avatar, perhaps an unfortunate side effect of the 'big wing' syndrome ;(

 

[manh3]

wow, does a cop have the right to impound your car for minor mods. You weren't even speeding, hopefully ever thing works out though. Good luck and fill us in on the updates.

 

[scorp965]

wow, does a cop have the right to impound your car for minor mods. You weren't even speeding, hopefully ever thing works out though. Good luck and fill us in on the updates.

The Nitrous system is not CARB legal, the intake element was also not CARB legal, and there could be other concerns, perhaps no catalytic converters, etc.

If a car does not meet all CARB standards, it cannot be operated on California roads, if the car cannot be driven, the officer has a bit of descretion, and apparently decided to impound it. You could have perhaps asked if you could have the autoclub tow it to a repair station, so you could return it to stock, but if the cop were annoyed at something, they would likely impound it anyway.

It sounds like he was annoyed about something, which explains why he went from a front plate, to an engine inspection, to the opening of your airbox, etc. - he went over your car looking for stuff. Perhaps he was having a bad day, perhaps he scraped a street racer off of the road last week, and noticed your wing, and made an assumption, perhaps you were a dick to him, and he went through your car, perhaps he just watched an instructional video on spotting modified cars at the police office.

There are any number of reasons why this happened, but going off of the story, as written, it seems like the cop didn't do anything untoward, its just an unfortunate situation.

Good luck in fixing this situation, out of curiosity, where did this occur?

 

[Tony Montoya]

How did he inspect your engine without your permission? Never give the police permission to search.

 

[JeffShoots]

Hide your control boxes.

I've been pulled over for my turbo timer mounted on the side of my dash. After explaining what it was I was told the (CHP) had been trained to look for any control switches, knobs, or boxes for boost control, ect. :redface:

 

[KooLaid]

Dont let them search if they have no reason. Constitutional 4th amendment right. No illegal search and seizure.


You failed to mention, did you have a bottle hooked up? Was it on? I don't know the california law on nitrous, look into that.

Also, look into whether or not he had any reason to look into your engine compartment. That's why you should not consent without a court approved search warrant. If you did not authorize the search, then your 4th amendment rights were violated. Doubtful they can produce that.

Find out your rights. It's why i always record all my traffic stops.

 

[RON98]

How did he inspect your engine without your permission? Never give the police permission to search.

i did that once, they still found some bs excuse to search my car.

by NOT giving permission to seach your car, that IS reasonable cause to search your car. US system is screwed up system, from what i see of the Canadian cops as of late, they are not far behind, but yes, they have it both ways.

 

[KooLaid]

i did that once, they still found some bs excuse to search my car.

by NOT giving permission to seach your car, that IS reasonable cause to search your car. US system is screwed up system, from what i see of the Canadian cops as of late, they are not far behind, but yes, they have it both ways.

Then that is when you hire a lawyer. I thought the same thing but my political science professor is a huge supporter of people not giving in on their constitutional rights. I also felt that by not giving permission was grounds for reasonable cause on their part.

 

[Mugen-R]

there are people running around with drugs and illegal firearms in their car...and they impounded you for that sh*t? what a waste of time and tax payer money. i understand if you were recklessly driving or gave him attitude...

i respect law enforcement because no matter how much you bitch about them, they are the first YOU call when YOU are in trouble. BUT, i hate an apparent ego trip and abuse of power, which in this case to me is true. crap like that makes the good honest ones look bad.

 

[RON98]

hide your nos install.

personally i spary paint all the aftermarket stuff in my car black.

why would you want people to know you have nos?

the point of nos is to have an edge

anywyas, nos is very illegal, you can have it in your car, as long as its not connected. if it is armable then from what i hear they will definitly tow your car.

you pay to play. you just got caught, thats it. if you cant handle the heat.... take off all your non carb legal parts.

 

[RON98]

Then that is when you hire a lawyer. I thought the same thing but my political science professor is a huge supporter of people not giving in on their constitutional rights. I also felt that by not giving permission was grounds for reasonable cause on their part.

when your standing in utah with 6 crusiers and 1 k-9, 5 donut dipper, 1 narcotics detective, 1 supervisor a crazy time scheduel to make it across country to pick up your dyno.... lawyer is out of the option.

 

[SilverStone05]

Ugh...that is horrendous...cops stopping you for modifying your car. One of the great American Past Times. Unbelievable.

 

[Swift]

I want some things clarified since i am a little confused since i am a ASE mechanic...and performance enthusiast.

1) on a stock engine..putting in a higher air flow filter SHOULD make the car run a little leaner? How is that bad for the enviroment?
2) Nitrous should be able to be hooked up but there a some measurement requirements or how it is turned on..just because you have it does not mean you are USING it??
3)If cops are trained in this stuff...how come they still don't have a clue?

Does someone have the laws/statues pertaining to these issues from Cali?

 

[JeffShoots]

Dont let them search if they have no reason. Constitutional 4th amendment right. No illegal search and seizure.

Also, look into whether or not he had any reason to look into your engine compartment. That's why you should not consent without a court approved search warrant. If you did not authorize the search, then your 4th amendment rights were violated.......

Wrong, as the OP stated:

.....A CHP officer approach my car and told me that I don't have a front license plate on and then he look through my engine compartment and saw the 2 NOS solenoid......

Right to stop with "NO FRONT PLATE". Than he sees a NOS solenoid = probable cause. We do have a LARGE window over our engines. He's done and the cop does not need a warrant.

Sorry but a cop thats been trained can stop ANY car on muddy Lic plate, or flaps, or check your tire tread......

 

[BD]

You need to either talk to a lawyer regarding this so called "Rights violation," or put every thing back to OEM. You may be able to get off the hook base on technicality, but its up to a attorney/judge to decide.

State of California is not stupid, they will get you one way or another. They have a system where every one is already screwed!!!

 

[oscar_driver]

Amazing, good luck getting your car back .....
OScar

 

[Dtrigg]

Please help me understand what I am missing here. The OP was driving a vehicle that was not street legal in California (CARB) and the CHP impounded his car as I understand it. OK. Perhaps the CHIP was having a bad day for what ever reason. I've asked a number of CHIP officers if they would stop me without a front license plate and 100% of them have said no because of the car, and many have mentioned that it would mess with the lines of the car. I have to say I've never had a problem with CHIPs. I've met them at gas stations, etc. and we've had conversations about my car, etc.

I don't know, perhaps the CHIP was going to give the OP a warning, fix it ticket, etc. Then he looks through the LARGE REAR HATCH and sees a NOS hookup, and that's illegal in California, and then the intake... That's not an ilegal search, it's an observation.

That's illegal vehical in California as I understand it. Consequently, as I understand, the OP's car was not street leagal. What was the CHIP suppost to do?

The OP broke the law and the CHIP enforced the law?

Now we've gone to Constitutal rights?

 

[KSXNSX]

Wrong, as the OP stated:



Right to stop with "NO FRONT PLATE". Than he sees a NOS solenoid = probable cause. We do have a LARGE window over our engines. He's done and the cop does not need a warrant.

Sorry but a cop thats been trained can stop ANY car on muddy Lic plate, or flaps, or check your tire tread......

That sounds about right to me. If he just looked through the hatch and saw something indicating a NOS bottle, that is probable cause to search for a NOS bottle.

I am sorry to hear about what happened, and I think that having your car impounded was extreme--but if that is the law then there is not much you can do about it except paying the fines and complying with the law.

Cops can look through your windows all they want. If I leave bullets on my seat, and they see it through the window, they get to search my car for a gun.

 

[JeffShoots]

Please help me understand what I am missing here. The OP was driving a vehicle that was not street legal in California (CARB) and the CHP impounded his car as I understand it. OK. Perhaps the CHIP was having a bad day for what ever reason. I've asked a number of CHIP officers if they would stop me without a front license plate and 100% of them have said no because of the car, and many have mentioned that it would mess with the lines of the car........

Your right :smile:

The CHP CAN stop for a front plate but for some unknown reason I've noticed local PDs that have stop light cameras run stings at intersections for front plates :tongue:

 

[john@johnhudakracing]

A CHP officer approach my car and told me that I don't have a front license plate on and then he look through my engine compartment and saw the 2 NOS solenoid, told me to show him where the NOS bottle, told me my KN Filter doesn't have a official sticker on.

He then called a towing truck and pound my car and gave me a ticket, told me that I have to go for State Referee.

Please help with suggestions.........:frown:

 

[KooLaid]

Wrong, as the OP stated:



Right to stop with "NO FRONT PLATE". Than he sees a NOS solenoid = probable cause. We do have a LARGE window over our engines. He's done and the cop does not need a warrant.

Sorry but a cop thats been trained can stop ANY car on muddy Lic plate, or flaps, or check your tire tread......

You sure I'm wrong? Doubtful since the original poster never said anything about whether or not he runs a cover. And as I'm sure you can see, yes we have a LARGE glass hatch over our engine, but there "generally" is a LARGE cover over the engine too. Unless he's superman, he's had to have gotten in there some how to search the vehicles. Also NOS solenoids "probably" isn't illegal, not sure, but he might of had it hooked up.

The OP did NOT state how the cop discovered the solenoids or if he was even hooked up or even had the bottles in the car. He also didn't mention if he had a cover or not. A missing front license plate isn't probably cause for searching his car or opening up the hatch and lifting the engine cover to search his engine compartment. That would be like getting pulled over for a missing light bulb having that be probably cause to search his trunk.

Then again, majority of cops will take advantage of people's ignorance (in terms of not understanding or know, NOT being dumb or stupid) of their rights and the laws. What cops do best is manipulating people into believing that yes they did commit a horrible crime, such as "I had to do 55 mph to catch up to you", when you were only 5 mph over and he was 1/4 mile behind. They WILL bank on the common ignorance of the comman man/woman to take advantage of people.

 

[cyberdog]

Dont let them search if they have no reason. Constitutional 4th amendment right. No illegal search and seizure.

+1

They will always want to enter your premises or car if anything makes them want to. This does not mean you need to allow them, they are simply asking, just say no--that's why they ask to begin with. That and it being our right .

I'm courteous to law enforcement, very courteous mind you, I just don't allow bounds to be broken.

 

[cyberdog]

One last comment:

I'm sorry for this hassle, it sounds like the genral consensus is make it stock and be more careful next time.

Since the car's modded and the cop noticed easily the non-cover theory is pretty easy to believe...regardless the plate is probable cause, you can fight it all you want in court, cops often win.

On the bright side your car is running great (1 piece) and you're in good health (I hope) .

 

[troca]

This incident and the discussion make me wonder how the car mags, especially those dealing primarily with imports, can continue to feature all these highly modified "street" cars. Are all these things technically illegal in Cal.? Around here we notice a definite difference in treatment by the cops of younger guys in imports and older guys in their Detroit muscle cars.