Actually the fuel mapping would be the reverse of that. Running rich on a diesel reduces NOx because the extra fuel cools the burn. Lean it out and create more heat and you get higher NOx.
This is the reason why 99% of the VW owners bragged about getting better mpg numbers than the EPA tests as well.
The only real change is in the code map in the ECM. They basically had a "normal" map for constant driving and a "test map" that only engaged when undergoing tests. I would bet it took fewer that 10 people to do the entire thing.
You need to consider that the engineers already know how to make the engine run and get good mileage and wrote the software to do that. However that programming didn't pass the EPA testing.
The actual program change is easy. It could be hidden just about anywhere but is likely very simple. Something like IF the engine is running at XXX rpm but there is a connector in the OBD test port, with no input from the steering rack and the parking brake is set, add 2% fuel enrichment to the drive cycle.
Extra fuel cools the fuel burn and drops the NOx to legal limits. Car passes.
The CEO of VW is stepping down.
-- =
Using Opera's mail client:
The VW case is a conspicuous textbook example of how and why emissions testing is a doomed to failure approach similar to solving drug abuse by arresting individual users. As even the admitted guilty party have undeniably exposed, emissions control MUST be properly addressed at the point of manufacture.
The VW case is a conspicuous textbook example of how and why emissions testing is a doomed to failure approach similar to solving drug abuse by arresting individual users. As even the admitted guilty party have undeniably exposed, emissions control MUST be properly addressed at the point of manufacture.
Um, someone was comparing the punishment meted out to other auto manufacturers who were punished under a different legal code than the legal code which will be used to punish VW.
That's all I was saying to keep in mind.
Thanks for explaining.
I just wonder why many people think EVERYTHING is caused by one party or the other.
In this case, VW simply cheated. They broke laws on purpose. And they repeatedly lied (probably to avoid detection).
All to make money. At the expense of everyone else.
If I was a competitor, I'd be livid that I had to spend money to meet a standard that VW didn't even bother to meet, and yet profited for years by not meeting.
I don't know how VW works, but, in one newspaper, they "speculated" that this kind of cheat had to be approved at the top level.
But don't you think the code, which clearly had legal implications known to all involved, would have to be signed off at the highest level?
That's an interesting observation!
That's assuming none of the other auto makers pull(ed) the same trick. I think this is the tip of an iceberg...
John :-#)#
EPA should require vw to buy back every vehicle for its original purchase price and monitor them being crushed....
now its true vw might go bankrupt, but given its harsh penalty no car company will ever try to pull it again..
And all the ordinary people, the hundreds of thousands of workers that lose their jobs, health benefits, retirement, etc, being a lib, you're OK with that? Seems the punishment is worse than the crime, especially since only a negligible percentage of all the people involved with VW worldwide had anything to do with this and they get hit just like the small number that did the deed.
Pick up a history book sometime and see what a "goof" it is. Government has always been a criminal enterprise whose primary activities have been theft, extortion, murder, and slavery.
Volkswagen lied, but they lied to a motley collection of liars, thieves, thugs and other miscreants. (As a practical matter, the total emissions are still very low with no actual effect on air quality vs. the arbitrary EPA "standard." The environmentalist crowd has never really grokked the concept of "diminishing returns" or the fact that causing a vehicle to use more fuel just shifts emissions elswhere to provide the extra fuel.)
Screw the EPA and the horse they rode in on (the federal beast). The best comment I saw on the VW situation was this on a political site:
Translation: Slaves rebel; caught trying to escape from The Plantation. Massa plans to whip their asses.
This reads more like a comedy routine than a serious protest.
Screw the lead, asbestos and dioxin, full speed ahead.
That much is true, Felipe Massa always hopes to beat every driver.
Yes. The real mystery here is who implemented this and who all knew about it. I think they have to run the cars on test tracks for 50 or
60K miles to verify they system holds up but even if not, surely during development of any engine system they must run them fully instrumented for quite a while to see what the "real world" results look like as well as how well the "lab strategy" works in the field. Surely *someone* at VW must have noticed that when they tested instrumented vehicles on the road they were not meeting emissions standards. It's inconceivable they never tested these "in the wild" but only tested them back at the shop on the dynamometer and the "switch" kept those engineers from seeing that things weren't as they should be.
That's my point for this thread branch, yes. Not only isn't it worth it, the code is none of teh EPA's damn business.
Ewald Böhm wrote in mti9lu$jb$ snipped-for-privacy@news.mixmin.net:
This video says that the VW TDI meets all California and US & Europe requirements!
trader_4 wrote in snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:
I feel for the innocent people, but, in reality, is *anyone* at VW actually innocent when they *all* benefited from the sales of cars which, we now know, were sold with audaciously fraudulent claims?
Ashton Crusher wrote in snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
What I don't understand is that the code, apparently, allowed *more* fuel to the engine (to cool the combustion chamber) which lowered NOx emissions.
So, fixing the problem should result in *less* fuel to the engine, if that's the case.
When they reflash the ecu, wouldn't that lowering of fuel *increase* gas mileage *and* bring NOx emissions back down to where they said they were?
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