So yesterday was a relatively nice day out in the Chicago-land area. After watching the local Memorial day parade I decide to get the Evo up on jack stands to see if I can figure out why my front coil-overs are making a really bad sound when I turn the steering wheel.

The last thing I need now is to shell out a boat load of $$ for new suspension.

Well to cut a long story short, It turns out that the bearing / ball at the top of pillow mount just needed some grease.

So with the problem sorted it's time to take her out for a test drive to ensure that everything is sorted and that all nuts n bolts are tight. Me and my neighbor get onto 83 after taking a few slow turns through the local neighborhood to check for the sound of springs binding (no sounds...great!!!). I do a few WOT pulls through 1, 2, 3 and 4 and just about soil myself.

The car felt great, pulls like a mule chasing a carrot, oil temp, oil psi, AFR, boost are all sitting exactly where they should be.

We turn off of 83 back into suburbia taking it really slow, driving just under the 30 mph speed limit.

I see a police cruizer parked in one of the side streets and I'm thinking to myself, good thing he didn't see me about 60 seconds ago when I had the gas pedal stuffed into the floorboard.

We drive past the cop and I look in my rear-view mirror and see him pull out behind the car behind me.
He then overtakes the car behind me and proceeds to run my plates and such.
After about 5 minutes and a few turns later he throws on his lights and I pull into a vacant lot.

After taking my license and insurance he issues me a warning ticket for no front plate and not having a city sticker on my car.

City stickers....just another way for them to bleed you a bit more.

The cop was pretty kewl about it. Even called his buddy and they were both admiring my car. Either that or he wanted backup in case I did a runner.

At the end of the day I got the warning / fix it ticket sorted out. I zip tied my front plate to the grill in front of the intercooler, went to the police station and they were happy with it. Took the car home and promptly removed the front plate again. don't want to mess with the efficiency of me turbo.

All that is still remaining is for me to get the city sticker.

All in all I'm quite impressed that I have been driving my car around for over a year with out a front plate and this is the first time I've been pulled over. Not bad.

I saw a while back that some one on the forums used magnets inside the front bumper to hold the plate on with great success. (even at high speed)
I was wondering if anyone else had tried it and what strength magnet you'd need and how you attach them to the inside of the bumper. (epoxy etc)

I'm not a big fan of having a front plate nor drilling into my front bumper so I figure the magnet idea would be a great compromise.
If I'm driving around town I could mag the front plate onto the car and all other times I just "pull" it off and throw it in the trunk.

What do you guys and gals think?

 

If you could get the magnet to hold it I think it would be a good idea. My concern is will the plate slide whenever you turn a corner sharply due to centrifical (or centripetal I forgot which one is which) force?

 

Good point.
I reckon if you get a magnet that is strong enough to hold the plate on even at high speeds you should be good going round a corner.

 

Rare Earth Magnets will hold it in place. Sandwich the placebetween a couple and your'e golden.

There's an episode of Mythbusters where they try to sneak into a building through a ventilation shaft. Jamie uses Magnets and makes a rig with two hockeypuck-sized RE magnets. When he and Adam are building the rig one of them says "I think we're the only two people in here that understand how dangerous this is." The reason being that if one magnet had flipped onto the other it would have either A. *crushed* any fingers in the way, or if there were no fingers in the way B. *shattered* the magnets sending shrapnel into their bodies.

But yeah, if you can get a good spot on the bumper for RE magnets to stick, your plate isn't going anywhere. Just remember that it can be stolen though.

 

I saw that episode too. Jamie and Adam are a riot. If a person wants your plates bad enough he/she will take it no matter what is holding your license plate in place.

 

If they nic my plate, then I have a legit reason for not having one.

 

yesterday was a VERY BAD day to drive in Chicago. Seen over 30 people getting pulled over on 355 (south of woodfield), ALOT of speed traps. Heck, driving my firiends STi yesterday, we got a no front plate ticket as well.

 

City sticker????

 

+1

After seeing so many people getting tickets and being followed by a cop for an uncomfortably long time, I parked it and walked around with my GF.

I'll second the b**s*** Chicago city stickers too. They are fairly large stickers and if you combine it with a parking sticker, your field of vision is narrowed. Very annoying.

 

City of Chicago requires a sticker for parking and such...

Same with suburb chicagoland... I am using my Indiana plates, so no issues for me If I ever got pulled over --- I am a student doing an internship b.s. excuse.

 

If you live in Chicago and own a car, Chicago city law requires that you purchase an annual city vehicle sticker.

 

City stickers are essentially an added annual cost associated with owning a vehicle in certain Chicago land cities and towns.
I have no idea why they even do it...like we don't pay enough tax?

 

OT: Do you have to pay Excise also? Nothing like have another 2.5% tax on your car's value... EVERY year.

 

All of a sudden Cops are out like crazy. I wonder if it has something to do with that Radostits woman that was an official who was DUI and killing herself and a couple others.

 

^ Who knows. Either way it's not relaxing driving around lately. And with the weather being really nice out....it blows!
I'm really gonna look into this magnet thing.