Car too low...?

[truWarier02]

All my cars are stock height and I still drive 5mph over every bump/dip

iknorite. Stupid reasoning but whatever.

I just got one of these tickets not too long ago. According to California Vehicle Code, the center of your headlights has to be between 22" and 54".

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d12/vc24400.htm

My car is like right on the border, so I might be able to just roll in and have them sign it off lol. It's a pain in the butt to deal with this petty stuff though.

Pain in the a$$ indeed. Did you get written up with the same citation for "unsafe vehicle: modified suspension?" I've been wondering, do I actually have to swap back to stock or do I just need to raise it to a "safe to drive" height as mentioned in vc24400... hmm. I hope it's the latter.

Here's the vague description of my citation.

So they're just generalizing that anything other than stock deems the car unsafe to drive? But I'm guessing if my ground-to-center headlight height is 22"+, I'll be good to go.

edit: Just measured, and 22" lands right at the top of the lightbulb reflector cup. Errrr.

 

[Sleeper Cell]

Mine was specifically the headlight height infraction. You should just research the violation, and figure out exactly what they're looking for you to fix. That's such a blanket violation lol. You could probably get the same infraction for having blown shocks or something.

 

[Momentum]

This has never happened to me. The cops are usually pretty cool here and I pass a lot of them. I feel like I go through every major cop spot. In Fact, When a tire died on me and I was low, Two cops sneaked by and actually helped me get the car high enough to get the jack under the car. They complimented my headlights too. Anyways, You did good handling it the way you did. No problems. I'll never argue with a cop. Even if I'm right.

 

[Dat99accord]

Worst I got was being pulled over for tint in East Los Angeles. Even though the officer asked me if I had any dead bodies inside my car/trunk he was nice enough to let me go. MPK cops are asses!

 

[truWarier02]

Went to take my tint off in the morning. Will be fish-bowl'ing it for a while. I kinda like it change actually. Then went home and took the front lip off, raised the car about 1/2 inch. Right after that, I went to CHP to get it checked off. Went in, the officer took a peek out the window at my car and said "You didn't raise it up" but I told him "Oh, yeah I did raise it up actually." And he just sorta grinned haha, stamped the citation and that was that. I guess it was no big deal, which makes the officer who cited me seem more douchey for giving me this stupid citation. But I'm gonna lower it back down right now... BRB.

But I'll have to go back to court tomorrow to pay off the citations ($25 each citation).

 

[Styles93]

You can definitely get that ticket dismissed. That cop seriously had nothing better to do then to just give someone a ticket that night instead of making sure the streets are safe. Exotic cars like a Lamborghini or Ferrari's at a stock height are super low and they're legal and cops don't say anything to them. So if vehicles like that are legal to be lowered, then there is no problem with anyone having a lowered vehicle.

 

[Olddohc]

Cops dont like tint because if its dark enough the driver could be pointing a gun at the cop and the cop would never know it. Where in Orange County was it? I had one cop pop my hood when I had a turbo b16 and he said to, "change my aftermarket intake or next time he will ticket me." So he didnt know anything. Another time I had a stock ek with stock obd1 ex manifold and the cop noticed. So they have guys who really know and those who dont. As long as you arent drunk, dont have drugs in the car, no warrants and you arent racing he cannot impound your car. As for the 30 minutes of wasting your time....they clearly had nothing better to do and unfortunately they use small things like no front plate, lowered, tint, etc as a reason to pull you over and hope to find a bigger violation. Leave your car modded and risk wasting some time or raise it up and flip them the bird when you are 100% legal lol.

 

[truWarier02]

You can definitely get that ticket dismissed. That cop seriously had nothing better to do then to just give someone a ticket that night instead of making sure the streets are safe. Exotic cars like a Lamborghini or Ferrari's at a stock height are super low and they're legal and cops don't say anything to them. So if vehicles like that are legal to be lowered, then there is no problem with anyone having a lowered vehicle.

So I went to court to pay off the citations today. The clerk told me, "It looks like the officer who cited you has not yet filed the ticket..." dafuk? It has almost been 2 months and the deadline on the ticket is 4 days from today. How am I supposed to know if he filed it yet or not unless I appear at the court. At the same time, I'm hoping I don't have to pay and that he dismisses/dismissed it. Total waste of time as the court I was appointed to is several cities over (for those who know, it's in downtown Pasadena).

In short, I can't even pay off the citations if I wanted to

 

[Brad2274]

dang, i thought cops in melbourne were ****s, i just cant believe he got you out of the car and searched you! hope it's not a weird question but was the cop black/hisp/white and are you black/hisp/white? i dont know what it's like in LA but in my part of florida they rarely search guys unless they're black lol

 

[accord786]

That is the stupidest excuse they can pull you over for !! these guys have no life wow lol

and they shouldn't have treated you like that your not a suspect