Q: Who enforces Maryland's vehicle exhaust modification law?
A: The police enforce violations of the vehicle code by way of issuing citations, warnings, and repair notices. Thereafter, depending on the nature of the citation, the court gets involved if you request a trial or hearing, or the MVA takes action based on imposing points, or suspension of vehicle registration due to failure to comply with a vehicle equipment repair citation. Once flagged for not complying with a repair or equipment violation (which requires that you file something with the MVA to confirm compliance), your vehicle registration is suspended and the police will pull you over and charge you again with the equipment violation and driving on suspended registration. You vehicle at that point is not legal on the street, so it will be impounded and towed. You will incur tow and storage fees and fines on the citations. You will not be able to reinstate your registration until you fix the illegal exhaust modification and provide satisfactory proof to the MVA of that fact, and then pay the cost to reinstate the registration. The more you resist or delay resolution of the issue, the more the consequences snowball. The cheapest solution is to remove the illegal modifications as soon as possible.
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