Lynchburg, VA Noise Ordinances: Vehicle Noise (2026)

Section 25-337 requires every vehicle operated on a Lynchburg highway to carry an exhaust system in good working order and constant operation that prevents excessive or unusual noise. For ordinary motor vehicles, that system must be standard factory equipment, a comparable substitute designed for that vehicle, or equipment the superintendent has approved or that meets Society of Automotive Engineers, American National Standards Institute, or federal Department of Transportation specifications. Subsection (c) singles out chambered pipes by name: they are automatically deemed ineffective mufflers, so any vehicle equipped with them is in violation regardless of how quiet it actually sounds.

Antique vehicles licensed under state law and converted electric vehicles are exempt. Section 25-338 adds a second, older prohibition: it is unlawful to sell or offer to sell a muffler lacking interior baffle plates or another effective muffling device, and it is unlawful to operate a vehicle equipped with a gutted muffler, muffler cutout, or straight exhaust, the classic aftermarket modifications that route exhaust around the muffler entirely. 2-1047. Section 25-337(e), added by Ordinance O-21-051 in 2021, limits how police can use the exhaust rule: an officer cannot stop a vehicle for a Section 25-337 violation alone, and any evidence found during a stop that violates that limit, even evidence given with the driver's consent, is inadmissible in any hearing or trial.