Does a muffler delete cause a check engine like on a 2011 Lexus IS? Out of curiosity

 

not likely, but it does happen.

 

Careful, LEO is cracking down on muffler deletes/modified or loud exhausts in CA. They no longer just do a fix it ticket, but just send you to a "Referee" which is a lot worst. Happened to several people I know in SoCal and SF. Issued by CHP and local PDs.

This is a lot worst as the Referee (works for CA state smog) doesn't just do a visual inspection, but they go through everything, turn signals, any modifications, mufflers, cats, air intakes, window tints, taillight tints, HIDs in a non-HID equipped car, suspension ride height, etc. and they plug into the OBC. Anything they find, they they fine you for and you have to revert it and it's a several hour process.

EDIT: they are also cracking down on racing, etc. that started during Corona... so now in lots of SoCal neighborhoods, they will just park, listen for a loud exhaust, find the person, pull them over and if they're nice, just issue a ticket, but seems like 99% of the time, they just do a referee ticket and walk away (a lot less work for them, a lot more lost time and money for you). 2 neighbors got hit with one while driving home in Dec. One after he pulled off the freeway in a commercial zone and another one while accelerating from a stop sign 3 blocks away from his house in a VERY residential street.

 

I think he's from Canada, thus the lowercase "a". Although I understand Canada's emissions laws are probably much stronger than ours, the tree huggers over there are much worse

EDIT

Nevermind, I looked up the profile. Ca, USA

 

Yeah, the 909 sort of gives it away.

 

I didn't pay attention to his username, but that confirms it. That + plus muffler delete should have been the giveaway. I'm slipping in my old age...

 

In October 2019, they changed it so the officer has a choice and can make it a fix-it ticket or send you to the state referee
I live near Los Angeles and with the F-Sport exhaust and invidia midpipe, my car is loud. I had this setup for just over 2 months and I never been pulled over. But I am very weary whenever I am driving next to a police car.
But I wonder since the F-Sport exhaust is sold by Lexus, if I get a fix it ticket all I have to do is switch the invidia midpipe to the stock midpipe and I could keep the f sport exhaust on when I need to get the ticket signed off. Although it might be a little loud but it should be legal since it is sold by Lexus right?

 

F-Sport exhaust is fully legal. Mid-pipe should be legal unless there is a cat delete. Most CAT-back exhausts sold are legal *unless* they violate local sound ordinances. When selling and shipping to California residents, you would get a warning if it's not street legal.

So to sum it up, anything CAT back is legal as long as it doesn't violate local sound ordinances. Messing with the CAT'S or anything emissions related is a no no

 

Careful with the tune then as it *may or may not ignore certain o2 sensors. That said, I don't think it's detectable...

 

Yeah, that's correct. When I had my Honda, the popular tune was Two Step Performance's Stage 1 tune which they warned was for "off road" use. One guy passed emissions in PA, which is just as strict as California. Probably a good idea is to reflash a week before doing a smog check

 

Yep, that's what happened, up to the LEOs discretion. I think all the Covid street racing last year caused a sea change in how they approach it. I'd say starting around July here in CA, we saw them getting a lot more aggressive with referees.

It's interesting, it can pass CARB requirements, but apparently if it breaks local sound laws, that's where they can hit you as well. I think it's 95DB at X number of feet away. Which is actually NOT loud at all. Most modified exhausts are much louder than that. Which goes to the next point, if it's been modified and hasn't been CARB approved OR is louder than allowed.. it's a fine and a fix (or they impound the car). If you lay off the exhaust around residential areas and definitely next to cops, you might be OK. If you get hit, you might be able to replace the midpipe and be OK. The Fsport isn't THAT loud in of itself.

Case in point, Seal Beach, CA is cracking down hard, so is 90210 and at least 15 other cities (San Jose, Oakland, Santa Clara, Laguna, LB) based on what I'm seeing on my other boards.

 

The referees aren't your older "carburetor crowd" anymore. These are now guys that grew up in the tune era so they know a lot more with that and with technology in general. They never used to plug into OBD like this, it was a lot more visual. When they plug it in, they do a lot of stuff to confirm if there's a O2 simulator in place (they have pretty easy ways to check) among a slew of other things, for instance. They can spent several hours on 1 car.

Oh did you know that the front bumper and headlights has to be X inches above the ground... so if it's been lowered, they hit you for that too.

I think what happened is they couldn't catch "racers" in time, actually doing street racing and doing donuts. So, they realized all of them had mods, so they go after the ones leaving a scene, even if just around they neighborhood and use this to get their cars off the road.

 

They say they are cracking down here in San Jose, but I see no sign of it. I see cars driving all over here with fart cans you can hear a mile away. Also street racing and sideshows at 3am are a nightly event. When I head for work I can always see the fresh tire marks in the roads

 

I have a couple of other boards where Nov-Dec was baaaad. I'd say at least 10 people I know in SC county that got hit with refs... then maybe 5 with fix-it. Unfortunately, for every 1 they get, there are probably 500 that get away. Compared to early 2020, when there were no referee tickets at all. Not all race cars, some pick up trucks with modified exhausts too.

 

It depends who's looking and for what. Several of the tunes out there will set the emission ready flag just as it would upon reaching

I could be mistaken here, but I'm pretty sure all O2 sensors have data into the ECM just as before,, it's more so setting a flag that the data always passes so I suspect they opened the limits -/+ but I don't know. If it is based on changing downstream o2 limits, this would not be detectable without bit count and checksum verification of the ECM data.