Greenwood County, SC Noise Ordinances: Vehicle Noise (2026)

Greenwood County Code Section 11-3-2(a), enacted by Ordinance No. 30-96 on November 19, 1996, treats three categories of vehicle noise as unlawful within the unincorporated area. Subsection (a)(1) bars sounding or blowing a horn or signal device on any automobile, motorcycle or motor bus except as a genuine danger signal, and bans creating a loud or harsh noise with a signal device or sounding one for an unnecessary period. Subsection (a)(6) requires that exhaust from any motor vehicle, motor boat engine or stationary internal combustion engine be discharged through a muffler or other device that effectively prevents loud or explosive noise, which reaches straight-pipe exhausts and cut-out mufflers.

Subsection (a)(4) separately targets vehicles that are so out of repair, overloaded, or poorly repaired that they create loud or unnecessary noises, specifically naming grating, grinding, rattling and riveting sounds. All three provisions are measured against the countywide 'plainly audible at a distance of 50 feet from its source' test in subsection (b). Under subsection (d), the complaints of three or more residents, or one resident combined with the sheriff's own complaint, are treated as prima facie evidence that a vehicle's noise violates the section, and the Sheriff's Office, the enforcing agency, may abate the noise on public streets as a nuisance under subsection (e). A sheriff's permit can authorize noise-making equipment that would otherwise violate the section.