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Volkswagen Emissions Investigation Zeroes In on Two Engineers
Wall Street Journal ^ | Oct. 5, 2015 | William Boston

Posted on 10/05/2015 9:53:54 AM PDT by TroutStalker

Two top Volkswagen engineers who found they couldn’t deliver as promised a clean diesel engine for the U.S. market are at the center of a company probe into the installation of engine software designed to fool regulators, according to people familiar with the matter.

The two men, Ulrich Hackenberg, Audi ’s chief engineer, and Wolfgang Hatz, developer of Porsche’s Formula One and Le Mans racing engines, were among the engineers suspended in the investigation of the emissions cheating scandal that sank the company’s market value by 43% since Sept. 18 and triggered a world-wide recall to refit the engines to meet clear-air standards, these people said.

Messrs. Hackenberg and Hatz, who didn’t respond to requests for comment, are viewed as two of the best and brightest engineers in German industry. They were put in charge of research and development at the Volkswagen group shortly after Martin Winterkorn became chief executive in January 2007. Mr. Winterkorn, who resigned over the scandal, couldn’t be reached for comment.

The company has acknowledged that managers, struggling to meet U.S. sales targets, masked the emissions of new-car engines to sell so-called clean diesel technology to skeptical American consumers. The car maker said as many as 11 million vehicles carried a “defeat device,” software that reduces tailpipe emissions only when the car is being tested, not on the road.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Germany; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: diesel; emissions; volkswagen; vw
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1 posted on 10/05/2015 9:53:54 AM PDT by TroutStalker
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To: TroutStalker; sully777; vigl; Cagey; Abathar; A. Patriot; B Knotts; getsoutalive; muleskinner; ...

Rest In Peace, old friend, your work is finished.....

If you want ON or OFF the DIESEL ”KnOcK” LIST just FReepmail me.....

This is a fairly HIGH VOLUME ping list on some days.....

2 posted on 10/05/2015 9:58:54 AM PDT by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
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To: TroutStalker

They should have just put an air pump on the stupid things: “The solution to pollution is dilution”.

That’s how they did it in the 1970’s. Cars got lower mileage, but they werepolluting “less”...


3 posted on 10/05/2015 9:59:01 AM PDT by Don W ( When blacks riot, neighborhoods and cities burn. When whites riot, nations and continents burn.)
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To: TroutStalker

The real point here is that two of the world’s best automobile engineers could not design and build a diesel-powered car that could meet this country’s ridiculous emissions standards, especially those in California, even though the libs repeatedly promised that the technology could be mandated.


4 posted on 10/05/2015 9:59:53 AM PDT by Timber Rattler (Just say NO! to RINOS and the GOP-E)
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To: TroutStalker

These guys need to be jailed. Over 120 people died because of their faulty ignition switches.

Oh wait, that was General Motors.

This is just some nonsense about emissions.


5 posted on 10/05/2015 10:00:50 AM PDT by agere_contra (Hamas has dug miles of tunnels - but no bomb-shelters.)
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To: TroutStalker

If you go back and read through Diesel innovation and technology development....there’s some peak that occurred in the late 1990s. As much as people want to suggest that there’s some great clean method to develop and utilize for the Diesel engine....it’s been twenty years and nothing has really occurred.

These two charming engineers probably reached a point where they admitted....you can have performance, durability and gas mileage....or you can have great emissions success. You can’t have all four. So, they cheated the system. It’s kinda like Captain Kirk in that silly scenario game at Star Fleet HQ’s....the only way to win....is to cheat.


6 posted on 10/05/2015 10:00:51 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: TroutStalker

Porsche’s Formula One and Le Mans racing engines,

= = =

Wait till they find out these engines were ‘engineered’ also, to met racing requirements.

That will be REALLY bad.


7 posted on 10/05/2015 10:01:01 AM PDT by Scrambler Bob (Using 4th keyboard due to wearing out the "/" and "s" on the previous 3)
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To: Timber Rattler

“The real point here is that two of the world’s best automobile engineers could not design and build a diesel-powered car that could meet this country’s ridiculous emissions standards, “

Well said, exactly my thoughts. I’m an engineer, love working on my old cars. It is damn hard to improve emissions to the levels Obama has dictated, so get used to riding bikes.


8 posted on 10/05/2015 10:03:58 AM PDT by DaxtonBrown (http://www.futurnamics.com/reid.php)
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To: Red Badger

More discussion on the same story here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3344738/posts


9 posted on 10/05/2015 10:10:14 AM PDT by Moltke
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To: TroutStalker
Earlier post: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3344738/posts
10 posted on 10/05/2015 10:10:42 AM PDT by Yo-Yo (Is the /Sarc tag necessary?)
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To: TroutStalker

These two may be deeply involved, but as a quality engineer for an automotive electronics tier 1 supplier... there is no way they pulled this off themselves. Suppliers had to be involved, programmers, management, lots of support staff. This was not just a handful of people. Particularly given the multiple platforms involved. So if they just focus on these two and you never hear about anyone else being implicated, it’s a real failure to root out the whole rotten gang.


11 posted on 10/05/2015 10:11:28 AM PDT by Another Post-American (Jesus died for your sins.)
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To: DaxtonBrown

After treatment is the only way to get there. The VW Taureg has it, but they thought it was too expensive for the small engine. So they cheated but you’ll never convince me that in the highly deciplined German company that the top management didn’t know. The Germans cheat on these technical details all the time. I worked in competition to them and they pulled this crap all the time.


12 posted on 10/05/2015 10:12:42 AM PDT by Oldexpat
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To: TroutStalker

I used to work for a large US automaker. We were testing small diesel engines in an assortment of passenger vehicles. This was about ten years ago The performance and fuel economy was exceptional.

I asked one of the powertrain engineers when I could buy one of these vehicles. His response was concrete: the US EPA will not allow us to sell these diesel equipped passenger vehicles on the US market, they are for export only.

He told me that they are too efficient, and the policy of the EPA is to forbid any engine that achieves anything over 40% thermal efficiency. The claim was that NOx emissions increased exponentially in engines that made more than 25% efficiency.

He also told me that the tradeoff was increased CO and CO2 emissions are preferred to NOx emissions, and this was driven solely by only one region of the country.

That is the main reason why I only buy and drive pre-OBDII equipped vehicles. Late 80’s and early 90’s vehicles get much better mileage than the current offerings in terms of size and weight.


13 posted on 10/05/2015 10:14:07 AM PDT by factoryrat (We are the producers, the creators. Grow it, mine it, build it.)
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To: TroutStalker
"The company has acknowledged that managers, struggling to meet U.S. sales targets, masked the emissions of new-car engines to sell so-called clean diesel technology to skeptical American consumers."

I wonder if any Morton Thiokol type communications will turn up. If any of you recall, they tried to pin the o-ring thing on the engineers, until that pesky memo turned up....

14 posted on 10/05/2015 10:18:27 AM PDT by Tench_Coxe (For every Allende, there is a Pinochet)
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To: DaxtonBrown

It is damn hard to improve emissions to the levels Obama has dictated, so get used to riding bikes.
= = =
But hold your breath, and no flatulence allowed!


15 posted on 10/05/2015 10:19:04 AM PDT by Scrambler Bob (Using 4th keyboard due to wearing out the "/" and "s" on the previous 3)
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To: pepsionice

The urea injection system seems to work well.


16 posted on 10/05/2015 10:39:12 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: Another Post-American

Or management knows they can’t afford to lose that entire crew, and those two are the fall guys.


17 posted on 10/05/2015 10:40:13 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: TroutStalker

What they did is to only way to meet the crazy regulations


18 posted on 10/05/2015 11:02:26 AM PDT by butlerweave
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To: Don W
Wrong...air injection was used to completely burn the unburned hydrocarbons exiting the engine, not to dilute the exhaust stream. Wikipedia:

The first systems injected air very close to the engine, either in the cylinder head's exhaust ports or in the exhaust manifold. These systems provided oxygen to oxidize (burn) unburned and partially burned fuel in the exhaust before its ejection from the tailpipe. There was significant unburned and partially burned fuel in the exhaust of 1960s and early 1970s vehicles, and so secondary air injection significantly reduced tailpipe emissions. However, the extra heat of recombustion, particularly with an excessively rich exhaust caused by misfiring or a maladjusted carburetor, tended to damage exhaust valves and could even be seen to cause the exhaust manifold to incandesce.

As emission control strategies grew more sophisticated and effective, the amount of unburned and partially burned fuel in the exhaust stream shrank, and particularly when the catalytic converter was introduced, the function of secondary air injection shifted. Rather than being a primary emission control device, the secondary air injection system was adapted to support the efficient function of the catalytic converter. The original air injection point became known as the upstream injection point. When the engine is cold, air injected at this point cleans up the extra-rich exhaust and raises the temperature of the exhaust so as to bring the catalytic converter to operating temperature quickly. Once the engine is warm, air is injected to the downstream location — the catalytic converter itself — to assist with catalysis of unburned hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide.


19 posted on 10/05/2015 11:11:54 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not, no explanation is possible)
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To: TroutStalker

Guessing this is what government regulators get when they try to legislate the impossible(with present technology).


20 posted on 10/05/2015 11:52:19 AM PDT by oldtech
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