In all my experiences with police over the years (and I've had more than a few) I've found if you're alright with them they'll be alright with you. Start giving it Billy Big Bollocks calling them 'fam' or 'bruv' and start getting physical or resisting arrest and they'll hammer you. And that's speaking from experience.
Everything he’s saying is spot on, imagine getting rear ended and the car behind was modified to a point where their insurance was invalid or if some one knocked you over and had their number plate hidden. Imagine the stress and added cost to you. It’s good to see empathy from the police and that the legislations do allow movement.
As an MOT tester, custom car builder, drifter and hot rodder my pet hates are, 1. Aftermarket Hid headlamp bulb conversions. I have never seen a single one of those that makes an acceptable beam pattern. Not even so called "legal" kits. There should be a straight flat line at the top of the projected light with a slight kick up to the left hand side. Hid bulbs always just blast out a big random splodge of usually nasty blue light. Ideal for dazzling oncoming Road users and causing head on crashes. 2. Decat pipes. If the mot gas analyser detects excessive carbon monoxide the computer system locks me into a 15 minute ballache of test again, take oil temp, test again, hold revs up three minutes, test again before it will print out a fail. Even if I already know there's no cat and it's a certain fail there's no way around it. Huge waste of time. As opposed to a standard car which takes 2 minutes to pass. Slows down an already busy day. If you want to annoy the hell out of your mot tester then that's a great way to do it. 3. Blowing exhaust. As above. Screws up the lambda readings on the gas analyser. If you are going to fit an exhaust, do it nicely or if you can't, get someone else to do it. 4. Cheap nasty coil overs with the brake flexi hoses not attached to the strut, rubbing on the wheels or both. Please everyone, make some metal brackets to hold them secure If needs be then check thoroughly all the way lock to lock with the car at ride height. No unsupported hard pipe to flexi connections, No twisting, stretching or rubbing of the hoses. It's no good just checking with it jacked up it needs to be on its wheels. 5. Goodridge brake hoses that have been squashed with vise grips. They are not like rubber hoses. You cannot do this. I failed a blokes Evo 8 a couple of months ago. Mint shiny bufty detailed car, handed the bloke the fail for his mutilated front brake hoses and he got really arsey that I dared fail his "perfect" car. So arsey in fact he never came back for a free retest.... 6. Steering wheel covers. Sometimes fluffy, always hideous. The ones that slip around on the steering wheel. I wish it was in the MOT rules to say I could burn every one of them I see. If you get to full lock and the cover just keeps turning while the steering wheel is stationary, you have just created yourself a major problem when you swerve to avoid something and the car doesn't. If you think I'm some sort of mot nazi you couldn't be more wrong. I love a modified car as long as its built properly and well thought out. I don't want to see a load of late night drunk ebay purchases held on with luck and zip ties. But turn up with a set of high tensile home drilled lock wired bolts holding your brembo caliper brackets onto your home built V8 twin turbo micra and I'll be full of admiration.
Well said, and totally agree. I'm in the motor trade and have seen my fair share of bodged up and rediculos mods. I love modified cars but the way I see it is if it makes me cringe then the police are definitely going to hate it. If I had a pound for every time I've told somone they would get a tug for something on there car and they been pulled over, I'd be able to retire now haha 😂 I'm not an mot tester but I hate shoddy work, and as far as brakes go, not securing brake lines or letting them rub, I'm sorry but anyone with an ounce of common sense would know that's not good, just wish they would keep that shit off the road and let us professionals handel it and keep everyone safe, end of the day we aint just mechanics and mot testers, we keep people safe and save lives in many cases. But yeah I'm with what you said 100%
Lost count of the amount of headlamp kits I've sent back due to not giving a crisp line or being set up for EU road instead of UK ones. Gas Analysers, bloody hate the things 2000 VW T4 tests cleaner than my 2010 VW Caddy yet gets taxed more. Completely agree with you on the rest though seen so many mates crimp their brake hoses, cut the cable ties holding them up out the way to DIY their brakes and not put them back or renew the hoses. Even had one friend do it on his bike which then failed the following day because of it, thankfully he had the sense to let them change it before he rode it home.
Hid bulbs are great on a car that's got the proper hid lights from factory, what's really annoying is putting led or hid bulbs into a setup designed for normal bulbs, just blinds the oncoming driver, also vans or cars that have a lot of weight in the back or towing making the light beam higher blinding oncoming driver
That was great, Owen seems like a top bloke! I feel you need to go out in the police car on a cruise night George, police camera action vlog style catching some decat ST's! 😂 This will be a really cool series, we might all end up giving the police a friendly wave and behaving rather than trying to pop a cheeky flame out around the corner at this rate! 🔥😂
Nice and informative videos, just what we needed as a a lot of these I always wondered myself! This officer actually restores my faith that there are still good, knowledgeable people out there.
This is going to be a excellent series, there where so many rumours abouts what's right and what's wrong. Glad to see someone is making videos like these
whilst building my Corvette (off the road) I had 6 police officers turn up to ask me about it, they all confirmed that I most certainly will get pulled over just so officers can see the car lol
I've been pulled in my car, I'd only recently changed insurers, so I immediately thought oh F**k the insurance is invalid. He just hadn't seen that type of car and wanted a look 😂. Was a nice chap actually
Fantastic. Great to see a petrolhead pc. Surely makes them a better pc (like a football ref who never played the game so doesn't understand their mindset, etc). Thanks for this
I’d love to know the legislation around neons and led underglow kits, Especially if they are in a colour not already associated with the services, ie purple.
Subscribed purely on the basis of these two themed vids, really interesting. Hopefully more to come. I think if one spends most of their day job driving cars (and high powered ones at that) then they probably have a passion for cars and can empathise with those that have that same passion, so aren’t going to ruin somebody’s day just for the sake of it. We like Owen. 👍
Question as reguarding lights. How come truckers can have what ever colours they like on the front of their trucks. I've seen blue,green,red and other colours and lots of them
@Christopher White with regards to tinting.. I’m pretty sure as long as the reflector isn’t significantly impaired you can tint your lights.. same as brake lights.. so a light smoke to medium should be fine! Plus fully black looks chavy imo
Hgv mot manual only covers all mandatory lights, i.e factory fitted. Aftermarket is not covered. The tester can put an advisory on for different colours but not a fail. Blue lights are the same but must not flash.
I’m pretty sure it’s legal to have blue and green lights on the front as long as they’re static and not flashing etc but someone please correct me if I’m wrong
@@isaacbroughton9138 no anything think that used by emergency services is illegal. Because not in every event that they have the emergency lights on they are flashing. If it's not on a major road and other reasons they can be static. Best way stay away from everything that used by the services.
The funny thing is, that things like this that make police and other authorities more relatable and and less separated from the general public, go a long way in helping to breakdown stereotypes and educate people on how to do things right. It doesn't take much it also stops people from making their own incorrect assumptions from legislation. They should do these sort of info videos on all police pages for lots of things 👍 great job subscribed
Hmm, if I hypothetically had a decatted car which measures 106db I'd be grateful that there are so few traffic police on the roads or I could get in a bit of trouble.
It's great vid and for the modified vehicle owner's with a cool community relationship with the police with sound advice in modifying their vehicles correctly as watching Adam c vid once was a respectively good atmosphere with the police presence at a car meet, talking with owner's and receiving advice in making any changes to the vehicle that can be illegal to a fix replace urgently required.. some insurances do state in the terms a decat for off road use only as a track day insurance they can provide but not covered on the public highways roads, also aftermarket tuning companies do now put in their description of sale of decats for off road use only and will not pass a MOT emissions test also
Considering We live in a Police State where most of them power trip. Its great to see a decent police officer. To be honest he is a credit to the police force. I think he is what all should be.. Firstly intrested in safety. Not prosecutions.. He doesn't want to arrest, bully anyone. He believes, operates with doing what is right..Mainly common sense. This officer would rather educate you. Help you. Than arrest you. I personally think he is well undervalued in the Police force. They should take him as an example of how a police officer should be. Lucky Devon, Cornwall, Dorset for having a decent one. 👍
This is very kind of you to say. Yes. Owen is lovely and Genuinly friendly as hell. He’ll be very pleased when his team read this comment so thanks again Pete!
Technically it should have failed just on the visual inspection since no cat is illegal on anything built since 1992. Obviously they were willing to turn a blind eye to it.
The number of lorries with blue logo lights in the cab drives me bloody mad.... surely they should be getting a tug all the time? Love you ask about this, and if plod secretly approve?
Having had the same conversation with police recently, anything in the windscreen is seen as a distraction. If you wanted to put coloured lights in your front grille, however, then as long as they are not flashing, do not dazzle other road users, and do not replace your standard headlamps, marker lamps (sidelights) or indicators, they're fair game.
In regards to noise testing, earlier cars are allowed to be louder they're not expected to keep up with the latest legislation 👌. If there's no noise data on the V5 then it reverts to the allowed noise level which was in place at the time of manufacturing
If more Police Officers had this chaps articulation and knowledge the road would be a nicer place. I've never had a problem with the Police and I respect the work they do. This chap is really great and great to listen to.
With all of the negativity surrounding the Police at the moment, its very refreshing to actually see an officer who appears to be a decent and genuine chap. Good video.
Where you at? I'm in glasgow drove around for 12 months with my Reg on windscreen for over 12 months and never had any bother was seen multiple times by traffic police and never pulled.
Liked this video too! Can you do an episode with a 90s Japanese import. See if there is any difference between and older import and modern uk car in the law and in eyes of the officers
Question for Owen: what's the legal situation with car body artwork and vinyls? Are any illegal? Specifically; if, hypothetically, one wanted to decal something up to look like a cyberpunk police vehicle (likely wouldn't say police but rather 'heavy armour control' or some such) is that legal? What about if it's ex-emergency services and is plastered with yellow already? What about if it was in another language? Thanks for this video. Straight up honesty and solid advice.
See the problem I have as a car enthusiast is the fact not all "traffic police" have the level of knowledge this officer has regarding "modified" vehicles. I think if you are going to be part of the road traffic units, one should HAVE to learn about ALL vehicles that may be on our roads 👍 I'm impressed this guy knew the differences in exhaust brands.
@Kris Nicholsonsome of them definitely are modded. explain why the local police smart car had large wide profile tyres and brake discs that filled the rims🤔
@@allothernamesbutthis at least here in Portugal when the police impound a car from a drug dealer or something they can use them for example they have a audi r8 as a PSP car iirc
The vosa SVA and IVA sound test! 99db.... if you have a modified exhaust listed on your insurance with 1 silencer and appropriate cat, then some one just saying "that's too loud" doesn't stand up in court. The limit is set at 99db and must do carried out in the correct testing method. If it's a public order offence then that is different. Using sound level meter to the manufacturer’s instructions, carry out a stationary noise check. Which must not exceed 99dbA (it used to be 101 for the SVA) Position the vehicle within the authorised test area. With the sound meter horizontal, set the microphone height so that it is at the height of the exhaust outlet or 200mm from the ground, whichever is higher. a. At an angle of 45 degrees to the exhaust outlet in the direction which gives the greatest distance between it and the vehicle contour b. At a distance of 500mm from the exhaust outlet. With the vehicle at normal operating temperature, run the engine at 3/4 of its ‘maximum power’ speed, and note the sound level reading obtained. Note 1: Manufacturers drain holes are permitted in silencers Note 2: The exhaust may have several outlets up to 300mm apart connected to the same silencer. In this instance the microphone must face the outlet closest to the vehicle contour or highest from the ground. In all other cases, separate measurements must be taken for each exhaust outlet; the highest value obtained is the test value. Note 3: Where the engine maximum power speed is not available, the test may be carried out at 2/3 of engine maximum design speed.
Many thanks to Owen ! Nice to hear copper side explained in nut shell. P.S. I actually cut open focus ST back box, and it’s fake can with just ‘Y’ pipe inside , hence noisy focuses ;)
I love the fact this guy is so relaxed and is actually interested in putting people in the picture to watch the police will thrown upon but asking if its illegal, then getting the answer, 'the legislation' means no, its not illegal, its not a law.
Ikr and the tax price for these cars arent cheap. Not that i own one but imagine having to pay 50 a month for road tax wouldn't you be pissed off and say might as well straight pipe
Be good to ask a few questions on what the penalties are for having certain illegal mods, e.g fines, impoundment, warnings, notices to get the problems rectified, etc
I have some questions for your tame copper: All the comments here are talking about how refreshing it is to see a decent copper, implying that the average copper (to these commenters) are not decent. Considering the general publics feelings towards coppers, since this guy is decent (and therefore different) how do these comments make him feel? And how does the idea that most of his colleagues are less than decent make him feel? We all know that there's some bad coppers around (insane considering the consequences) and this guy presumably works with them and cant stop the bad happening, does that knowledge and seeing it everyday take its toll? Or is he desensitised to it all now?
Question: can a police officer actually do something if you are running a decat exhaust. What charges are there. Can they actually do anything or is it a warning?
iirc they can give you a Roadside prohibitions which 1 makes you sort the issue out and also make you do a MOT again, also to make sure the car is up to MOT standards and dont think getting a friendly MOT guy to pass your car again as its his head on the block if they do
@@tayloreist8278 normaly they put conditions on the form like i had to drive home no faster than 30mph and had 2 hours to get there after that i was only able to go to the MOT tester then i had to take the new MOT to police station to lift the mark agianst my motorbike so they really can be little dickish about it
My excuse for my 95 4.2 A8 Audi with a complete exhaust removal and straight pipe installation was....''Ahh officer. It sounds faster than it is.''...You can get away with that sort of carry on in New Zealand. I put the original stainless twin system back on and it was so much better, so quiet, didn't over heat and was probably quicker, certainly more fuel efficient. I still have the car....and the straight pipe......
Great informative video George. I’ve removed the mid section resonator off my mk2 focus st. Best £30 I spent on a bit of pipe lol. So after what was spoken about at the start of the video am I right in thinking this isn’t illegal then as it’s not classed as a silencer? The cat and the back box is still on and it’s the standard system other then that. 👍
great refreshing video new sub for sure being into modding cars myself get asked alot of questions like this . its a great way of getting the police to get there message across to be safe and what is and isnt aloud. great work
This is really nice to see such positive engagement. At the end of the day 99% of police are just there to do their jobs. If police are in traffic then chances are they like cars since they spend most of their work time in one! Keep up the good videos!
I remember many years ago back when I first leased my Company car (on the advice of my accountant) I leased a very new to the market it was a BMW 325i with all the M technics equipment, in Dolphin grey, it had everything front spoiler side skirts and rear spoiler the full package. I was on my way home and just as was about to join the M18 J1 / A631 I was just going down the slip road I was pulled over by a traffic car. I was amazed because hadn't been speeding or talking my phone i even had my seat belt on. So I pulled over on the hard shoulder of the slip road and got out of the car driving licence in hand and one of the traffic Officers "you can put your driving Licence away sir we just want a look at your car" Apparently during the conversation this was the first "BMW 325i with all the M technics equipment," that they had seen. They looked under the bonnet and I showed them how stiff the front suspension was. One of them said "how fast will it go" I said oh about 70 mph they both laughed and one of them said said "forget we are bobbies just like man to man" I looked at their Rover SD1 and said you would not catch me with that, they both laughed and wished me well. That weekend as I lived in Doncaster at the time in the early morning about 2 or 3 am I went from the A630 south to the A614 junction I managed to clock 135 mph PHEW that was my one and only time NEVER again. At the end of the lease the lease management company asked me did I want to pay a final payment and keep the car, I said no thanks, little did they know that I had already done a deal with another lease management company and the following week started with an Audi A6 2.0 Tdi in black, I kept that car for three years and the lease management company let me lease it for another three years. It went back in after that because I had to close my company down due to the UK recession in 2008
Can you do a video on kit cars? This is a huge grey area even more than modified cars. For example a very common question is insurance, the question they ask is - "has the car been modified from the original manufacturer spec?" well if you build a one off kit car... Your the original manufacturer... Cars go through IVA which WAS SVA and more easy to pass so you've got in reality 2 similar cars, ones legal and the other isn't using current laws... Could be a good topic. Another point I'd add, I worked for 12 years checking speedometer calibration at the manufacturer factory. The speedometer is checked on every car assuming the car could be wrong. The facility that checks the vehicle IS the calibrated part of the system the car is checked against. Every country has a specific different speed that their cars are checked to as an example [and this isn't the correct figure for obvious reasons] say the UK vehicles target speed was 70mph it was checked their is an allowed tolerance of deviation due to each test you won't get exact readings on every car the same, there maybe environmental conditions affecting tyre contact on the rollers etc that will give altering readings. Also there's ROLLING CIRCUMFERENCE, a new tyre may have say 10mm tread depth, if you mark a point on the tyre and roll it it'll give you a distance it can roll. Now with tyre tread depth worn down to say 1mm this then in effect is a tyre with a smaller diameter. It'll roll a shorter distance. Which in effect you got tyres that are in effect gears, just circles of different sizes. This does affect the distance a car moves and the accuracy of the speedometer. I'm sure there's video's of it somewhere. And finally speedometer gearing can be used to enhance manufacturers performance figures... All this adds up to inaccuracies in speedo readings.. This is what the police are not telling you or they didn't know... A vide about it would be great, just watched a number of yours and was impressed... Keep going... You should also do road signs, road markings, colours, design and meaning etc... For example how many people know what a white line at the kerb means, blah blah... You could colour it up a bit so it wasn't boring but give enough info to get the message across. Just my 10 penneth
This is really good getting knowledge from the old bill, but maybe bringing attention to things they may not have noticed too much, and now they can look into them more. Good little series though mate.
Speedometer accuracy... I work at a factory where I've tested for speedometer calibration for years. There is an allowance of discrepancy in testing as the car is tested on a rolling road where there is a margin for wheel slip on the rollers. The facility is officially calibrated so it's pretty accurate. Manufacturers also set their "target" high to make figures look better imo.. You'll never find that written down tho.. There's also allowance for tyres. A new tyre with say 10mm tread has a diameter of "x" if that tyre wears down the diameter is less... Which effects the speedometer accuracy
bike i know but im sure the speedo on my honda is progressively out!! i prefer to use gps speedo and when thats showing 20 mph my bike speedo is doing about 16 mph, but when im doing 60-65 on gps my bike is showing 80-85!!!!!
You know right as I'm driving down the right filter lane jumping the queue of 50 cars because no one else is using it they just give you dirty looks and shout abuse and once you get to the end just for some idiot to then sit in the middle of the road or try cut you off as your merging. What they don't get is that its the mergers right of way.
What I never understood about noise levels, is that a modified car drives past me on the street is yeah pretty loud but doesn't bother me much, its a second or 2 of low-end burble noises (not talking about pops and bangs) and this will get pulled by the police. But some motorbikes or especially quad bikes drive past me and they are extremely loud to the point of my head and ears ringing are legal...
Understanding that legally, exhaust gasses have to pass through a silencer, where do the police stand on vehicles that come from the factory with exhaust valves that bypass the silencer for extra noise.
If it’s illegal to display green blue or red on the front of a vehicle, why do I see so many lorry’s lit up like Christmas trees on the roads at night?
He’s right about the Cupra R seen on M6 north Birmingham going towards Wednesbury and Wolverhampton and the police LEDs flash wasn’t on the front and the rear in fact then were flashing from the actual led front and rear light of the car
The speed limit + 10% guideline is not written into law at all. What is written into law is that speedometers can over-read by up to 10%, but they must never under-read. So, whilst allowing up to 66mph in a 60 mph zone might be considered reasonable, it's absolutely nothing to do with legislation, as the speedometer could be showing anything between 66 and 72 mph when travelling at 66 mph. The +10% guideline on over-speed is nothing to do with the law on speedometers, and applying it that way is entirely illogical. It's just there because the police don't want all the bad publicity that would come from minor infractions, such as prosecuting people doing 32 mph in a 30 mph zone.
Let's just add to the led bulb thing. The legislation states there is no such thing as led bulbs. Led headlights are factory sealed units, aftermarket bulbs do not meet mot standards, EVER, in ANY format, marked or not.
I would probably ask him about underglow when your car is static(engine switched off) i.e for car meets as ive seen a few being fined for it being switched on even though the engine isnt physically running Secondly tinting either rear or front lights is it illegal or legal and whet limits are applicable to it
Under glow might come down to where the meet is. If it’s in Asda car park then it’s a publicly accessible place and therefore all laws apply. If it’s in a ‘sealed’ environment such as a convention centre or racetrack for example then it’s fine
Have two question's, I replace my exhaust system with a stainless steel system (life time guarantee), its not a sports system!, it was not advertised as a sports system, nor did the company claim any power improvements, it is just stainless, not mild steel. This is a very common upgrade for motorists trying to keep running costs down. My question is when does a better part become a modified part? Next question much easer, speed, speedo or satnav, which is more accurate?
Can you please get Owen to do a reaction to the Critical videos where they get away from the police in cars, would love to get a traffic officers opinion of that. Great vid
It's nice to see some RU-vidrs actually doing useful content I can use on a daily basis cheers man now I know it is illegal to put number plate in the front window and the 10% rule 😉
Question for a future video, screamer pipes? I assume they're not legal to vent to atmosphere. But in the same way flame kits dont have to be used on the street, if the waste gate doesnt open till high up in the RPM arguably you could have that fitted without ever using it on the street? (This is obviously is based on the assumption the rest of the exhaust goes through a cat and silencer). Cheers
I'm a chronic pain sufferer and I have prescription opiate based pain killers. Can that cause me problems if I am stopped and cause me to be taken to the station for bloods?
When a car comes out of the factory the tyres are unworn and will normaly be 60%, the speedo is set to record the correct speed, as the tyres wear the diameter reduces and the speedo reads higher than your actual speed, use 40% and 25% low profiles it gets worse. Use a GPS speedo and you'll know your correct speed all the time. That was the reason for the 10%.
My pet hate and surely illegal is holiday traffic on the A30 & A38 with bike racks obscuring the rear registration plate, and yet police vehicles passing them without any enforcement!
