Government goes undercover to clamp down on loud car exhausts, not just emissions
As the government explores new legislation to keep emissions in check, the DVSA has fined a firm for creating loud exhausts
The UK government has been exploring avenues to clamp down on loud car exhausts for some time now, having run a trial on noise detectors all the way back in 2022. A few years on in 2026, the internet has gone wild with news on the ongoing emissions clampdown consultation, but it seems that still hasn’t taken focus away from noise.
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, the same organisation behind the incoming, and controversial, emissions regulations, has recently gone undercover to expose firms illegally modifying exhaust systems to produce more sound than the law allows for. A hefty £1600 fine has been imposed on Maidenhead-based SVG Motorsport Ltd after the investigation revealed it offered illegal services, removing a catalytic converter and recalibrating an ECU to alter a car’s sound.
> Car emissions consultation ends soon, with UK's tuned and modified vehicles targeted
The report also found that it failed to notify the DVSA’s undercover team of the fact that these modifications would make the car illegal to drive on the road, and have its MOT certification invalidated. Not only do modifications such as this increase volume beyond factory specifications, but emissions too.
Chris Dormand, head of market surveillance for the DVSA, said: ‘[the agency] works tirelessly to stop pop-and-bang modifications – removing antisocial noise and excess pollution from our streets. There is no excuse for garages who make these illegal alterations. [The] DVSA will target any businesses who flout the law – as demonstrated by the success of this prosecution.'
There have been numerous instances of this over the years, with Wakefield-based tuner AET Motorsport hit with fines and costs totalling £7234 in 2023 after Kirklees Magistrates’ Court found the firm guilty of advertising and fitting exhaust components that rendered vehicles illegal to use on the road. The magistrates remarked that the case is ‘a lesson that any business owner has an obligation to know what the law is’.
Having found AET Motorsport to be openly advertising decat exhaust systems and ECU maps designed to generate more noise, the DVSA’s Market Surveillance Unit carried out an investigation to determine the legality of the services in question.
Investigators enlisted AET Motorsport to carry out the work on a Ford Fiesta ST, and upon inspecting the car, the DVSA found that the catalytic converter had been replaced by a link pipe – an immediate MOT failure and increase in emissions. A ‘pop and bang’ engine remap had also been installed; this retards the ignition and reduces fuel cut-off on the overrun, producing loud crackles and pushing exhaust noise beyond the legal limit. The DVSA said that AET Motorsport gave no forewarning of the illegality of the modifications, just like SVG Motorsport Ltd.
