Springfield, OH Noise Ordinances: Vehicle Noise (2026)

Springfield Codified Ordinances § 337.20 governs vehicle exhaust noise citywide. Subsection (a) requires every motor vehicle and motorcycle with an internal combustion engine to be equipped at all times with a muffler in good working order and constant operation, specifically to prevent excessive or unusual noise, and bars any person from using a muffler cutout, by-pass or similar device on a highway; motorcycle mufflers must additionally carry baffle plates. Subsection (b) separately bans owning, operating or possessing a vehicle rigged to produce excessive smoke or gas, or modified so oil or another chemical flows into the exhaust pipe or muffler, or otherwise altered to emit smoke or dangerous or annoying gases beyond the ordinary exhaust of normal operation.

The Springfield Police Division enforces both provisions on any street in the city; the section mirrors Ohio R.C. 4513.22 but is enacted as a local Traffic Code offense, so a citation issues under the city's own numbering. Because this sits in Title Three (Equipment) of the Traffic Code rather than the noise-and-nuisance chapter, it applies to the vehicle's mechanical condition regardless of time of day, unlike the disorderly-conduct noise provisions that hinge on the hour and the neighbors.