Posted on 10/05/2015 12:23:46 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
WOLFSBURG, GermanyTwo top Volkswagen engineers who found they couldnt 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 Porsches winning Formula One engines, were among the engineers suspended in the investigation of the emissions cheating scandal that sank the companys 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 didnt 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, couldnt be reached for comment. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Music by “Cheap Trick”.
Remember “How to Lie with Statistics”. The 40 times is meant to shock. If the standard was at a small amount and then the standard was revised to reduce by to a fiftieth of that amount over three years, a vehicle that was better than the standard could easily be 40 times dirtier if the standard was drastically changed.
This huge reduction is why the scam took place.
The governments keep raising the bar for pollution and mileage. It is past the point of being unrealistic.
Already saw an article stating that "this will be the death of diesel, and Europe will have to move to electric/hybrid, like Japan did."
These guys are geniuses.
The requirement is that WHEN THE EMISSIONS EQUIPMENT IS CONNECTED, the care emits X or less amounts of Y.
That’s what it did.
All being done to increase cost and force people to drive less.
Yep - there is a common object (to quote the Declaration) among all leftist policies:
to make every good or service so expensive that only those being subsidized by (beholden to) government can afford to use it.
I’ll never take my TDI in to get the fix. I love my car and the 48 mpg I got this weekend - which is great considering diesel was at $2.19 in Alabama.
Maybe some stupid tree-hugger will sell me one for cheap.
Theres no steering data changes when youre on a dynamometer!
May have been an extension of existing programming.
The anti lock braking system alerts when the rear wheels lock up. These are front wheel drive vehicles. It is possible early programming derated engine output automatically when the anti lock system was activated. The engineers would have to bypass this feature during dynomometer testing, but they would have noticed lower emissions during resting if they didn’t. So...they just enhanced the “safety” features of turning down the engine output in a situation of rear wheel lockup (and running on th dyno).
Exactly. I see an opportunity here. How many hundreds of thousands of people in this market? A device or software you can plug into the test port on the car (maybe interfaced to a smartphone/laptop) that loads the "updated" clean software for any emissions test... Then loads the "original" after the test so the little beast is drivable. Of course legally, I'd market it merely as a device/scheme for ensuring you had the proper software load...
The Euro 5 standard sets the limit at 0.29 gm/mi for cars 2014 and before.
The US standard is currently 0.07 gm/mi, a quarter of what Europe allows.
Why is the US standard so much stricter? Does it truly need to be?
Or is it simply the issue of an out-of-control regulatory agency that will never admit that they've done enough, because that will interrupt their funding stream?
The EPA will always generate statistics that "prove" that failure to adopt the whatever tightening of the regulatory noose they are currently pushing will kill a specific number of people.
And that also "proves" that anyone who opposes such regulations wants to kill all those people.
In this case (per Wiki), the EPA is claiming that this violation by VW will kill between "16 and 94" people in the US (as if they will live forever had VW not done what they did).
This is what the EPA is fighting. Hint-it's NOT pollution.
So where are the slimy business majors that OK’d this? When are they going to be suspended? When are they going to be made the scape goats?
Chances are VW caved too soon, making them look super guilty of the crime of the century. The could’ve flipped the bird and gone on the offensive over the letter of the law and the laughable emissions restriction. Too late now!
As you dig down into the specs, that 10-40x becomes very ‘fuzzy’.
Is that 40x the CARB spec?
The US fed spec has a large allowable tolerance.
It is speculated that the suspect TDI’s, would pass the Euro specification???
A lot of testing and a whole lot of lawyering to sort it out.
The latest news is the use of FOUR WHEEL DYNOS!
Our son has a 2015 TDI and we are more concerned about the DSG trans fluid change, required at 40k miles.
The dealers want $600 to $800 to change the gearbox oil!
Not THAT much work, and you can buy the supplies for about $100, but You need a VERY SPECIAL’ OBD tool to reset.
He has 20 k on it now, so we have some time.
If fuel drops around $2 (5 cents/mile), the trans oil change cost 2 cents mile!
RELEASE THE HACKEN!...........................
One of my vehicles would crawl right off a FWD only dyno. I guess there are a lot of full time 4wds on the road now.
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