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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and California officials say some 482,000 Volkswagen and Audi diesels were engineered to falsify their emissions for federal tests—a violation that opens the German automaker to a theoretical fine totaling $18 billion.
The EPA and California Air Resources Board say the affected models had software in its computer engine controls that could sense exactly when it was being tested for emissions quality. At all other times, it would run the diesels in a different mode with illegal levels of pollution; for example, spewing up to 40 times more nitrogen oxide, a key component of smog, than allowed.
While other automakers have been accused of violating the Clean Air Act, this is the first time one has been found to have designed software specifically to circumvent the rules....
It appears from the article that VW had software written with two modes. When emission testing equipment is connected to the vehicle, it passes the emission test. But when the electronics used in testing isn't connected to the vehicle's electronics and just the exhaust is tested, the diesel VWs failed the emission test. It appears that the software was written so that the vehicle's emission control only worked properly when electronic testing equipment was connected. All other times VW was "riding dirty".
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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I only have 34 VW diesels (born long before software...), They never fail a dyno diesel emission test (I use home brew bio-diesel, so they don't even register any emissions. )
SOP.. EVERY time I go for a test...
test the car, (no emissions detected),
recalibrate test machine
retest car (no emissions detected)
reboot system
retest car (no emissions detected)
Call on a coworker / tech specialist
retest car (no emissions detected)
Get a supervisor
retest car (no emissions detected)
Supervisor says to recalibrate machine!
retest car (no emissions detected)
Supervisor reboots test machine
retest car (no emissions detected)
Supervisor checks all equipment and connections
retest car (no emissions detected)
Call a big meeting and go inside test office
come back and give me a 'PASS' finally .... sometimes 2 hours wasted (per car). Gets REAL old (about 20 yrs ago)
One thing I do know... CARB doesn't have a clue, and will go to great measures to 'indicate' their useless worth (justify their GOV jobs).
A company is not going to write covert software to "sense exactly when it was being tested for emissions quality" and to LIE...
Another Prius driver as an editor...(thick as flies)
Last edited by StealthRabbit; 09-18-2015 at 05:06 PM..
It appears from the article that VW had software written with two modes. When emission testing equipment is connected to the vehicle, it passes the emission test. But when the electronics used in testing isn't connected to the vehicle's electronics and just the exhaust is tested, the diesel VWs failed the emission test. It appears that the software was written so that the vehicle's emission control only worked properly when electronic testing equipment was connected. All other times VW was "riding dirty".
Yikes!! So much for trusting the hype etc by automakers and Sales Staff
I do have a question tho..as up here in Canada..it's mandatory every two years you must pass an emission test ( costs over 45$$ each time) that actually allows you to obtain a tag for your licence.. I haven't heard it mentioned much from my American friends at all!! Do American's have to do this as well?? or is it State by State a requirement???
I've always been suspicious of VW Diesel's after following a few on the road..watch that dark to black smoke coming out of their exhaust pipes..No doubt full of "Carbon" emission that pollutes
I wonder if Canadian equivalent will climb on board with this issue..given we too have millions of those vehicles on our roads too???
BTW~~ Who makes the switch change then..The Emission checking folks or the owner? Maybe VW sent out a protocol to these Emission Centres "How to analyse emissions on their vehicles??? THAT would be interesting to find out
How did VW "hack" anything here? They didn't hack a thing, they simply programmed the ECU to behave differently under testing conditions. The word hack has been used far too liberally over the years and often by people who don't really understand what it means.
TThe same way that allows Hyundai to get 40mpg in EPA tests yet nobody in the real world could reproduce. This is one of the reasons other car makers have not adopted diesel. They're afraid of lawsuits and EPA fines.
Now state of CA may hand out big fines because the have the country's strictest emissions control. Time to dump the cars because a fix would be for VW to require issuing a software fix to lower torque output and make them slow turds and won't be competitive with petrol cars anymore like new Civic already gets 38mpg.
Last edited by vision33r; 09-18-2015 at 05:37 PM..
This is horrific corporate behavior. Already I would never buy a VW or Audi for reliability reasons, but this now makes me despise them. Other car companies can hit the performance and emissions targets they want without hacking their software. This is just pathetic.
Diesel in passenger cars will become a worldwide minority again since the Euros seem to have become sensitive to the air they sniffed in...and finding that their current way of testing for emissions underestimates how is actually dumped out of over there. The government sweets and lemonade for diesel will be evaporating in due time, starting in the metropolises of Paris and London...
Here, it's nothing much since diesels in passengers aren't that much. I don't expect the EPA to charge the theoretical maximum.
State by state and may even differ in different regions of the state. Where I live they take off my gas cap and test it every two years, cost is about $20. I could just go buy a new gas cap every two years for $10.
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VW accused of false emmisions data on diesel vehicles
