Volkswagen cheats emissions tests!

Man of Honour
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Oops CO2 certification now under investigation also :p

VW reported anomalous CO2 readings.
So CO2 cheating as well. If it is cheating, then that's going to be a big headache in Europe. VW saying could be 800,000 affected cars and could cost them another 2billion.
 
Soldato
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VW announces a fix: http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/25/vw-fix-european-diesel-engines/

It seems for the 1.6 they have a new map and an airflow restrictor. It's pretty clear that this device does not stabilise intake air and in fact is there to richen the burn at low duty to reduce combustion temps and NOx emmisions. I don't think metering air more precisely would actually help reduce NOx emissions here.

The 2.0 is getting just a new map. Does anyone know if this is one of the few diesels that does have a throttle? Maybe more aggressive EGR waspossible and was enough?
 
Soldato
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Haven't watched the video but your link says the 1.6 and 2.0 need that 'flow transformer', it references a 3.0 petrol as only needing a map.
 
Soldato
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The only thing I'm concerned with is if it is going to effect the performance or, more importantly, the fuel economy :o

I don't have any choice as to whether my one is dealer serviced (company car) and I'm assuming it won't be something you can opt out of when they start rolling out the fix.
 
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Caporegime
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Who says they wont ;)

The Government through the VCA has instigated a complete retest of all vehicles with engines suspected of cheating and has also asked for on road emission testing of those vehicles to compare with the lab results so that they can get an actual correct real life emissions figure for all gasses emitted from the vehicles.

I know this is happening because I work at the lab that is doing all the new testing.

I have not heard it explicitly but surely they would not go to all that trouble to just get some numbers, they must have a plan and I am certain it means re-rating the cars in the correct bands.

Also once the engines and vehicles suspected of cheating have been done, the talk is that they will be going back over all cars from all manufacturers, and comparing lab results with on road results.
We have been told we have got a good two to four years of work coming our way from this scandal.
 
Man of Honour
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Who says they wont ;)

Patrick McLoughlin, the Transport Secretary.

Patrick McLoughlin, transport secretary, said: “Our priority is to protect the public and give them full confidence in diesel tests. The government expects VW to support owners of these vehicles already purchased in the UK and we are playing our part by ensuring no one will end up with higher tax costs as a result of this scandal.


http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/02/vw-drivers-uk-escape-higher-emissions-tax

The Government through the VCA has instigated a complete retest of all vehicles with engines suspected of cheating and has also asked for on road emission testing of those vehicles to compare with the lab results so that they can get an actual correct real life emissions figure for all gasses emitted from the vehicles.

I know this is happening because I work at the lab that is doing all the new testing.

I have not heard it explicitly but surely they would not go to all that trouble to just get some numbers

They would if those numbers resulted in successful action against a manufacturer deemed to be cheating the system.
 
Soldato
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Yea the government would never change their mind to make more money.

They'd claim it from VW directly if they wanted the lost revenue, not the public. It's VW that cheated the system, the government aren't mental enough to punish the public for buying those cars in good faith, however much some people might like to think the Tories are only out to string everyone up.
 
Soldato
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VW announces a fix: http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/25/vw-fix-european-diesel-engines/

It seems for the 1.6 they have a new map and an airflow restrictor. It's pretty clear that this device does not stabilise intake air and in fact is there to richen the burn at low duty to reduce combustion temps and NOx emmisions. I don't think metering air more precisely would actually help reduce NOx emissions here.

Very clearly it is not a flow restrictor. Gratings like this are usually part of the AFM itself and do exactly what was described in the video, stabilise airflow around the sensor element.

A fixed air restriction would be completely useless since to have any effect at all at low engine loads it would utterly crucify the performance at high engine loads. To reduce airflow to a significant extent at low engine loads, you'd need far more more restriction than this device would offer anyway.
 
Soldato
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But there was a policy a while ago that they were going to increase rfl on cars bought in 2007 or something like that if i remember rightly (on cars that were a few years old).
 
Soldato
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Very clearly it is not a flow restrictor. Gratings like this are usually part of the AFM itself and do exactly what was described in the video, stabilise airflow around the sensor element.

A fixed air restriction would be completely useless since to have any effect at all at low engine loads it would utterly crucify the performance at high engine loads. To reduce airflow to a significant extent at low engine loads, you'd need far more more restriction than this device would offer anyway.

Indeed, would choke it at high load.

My guess it makes MAF more accurate to allow better control/resolution over the EGR system to manage NOx in conjunction with updated software.
 
Soldato
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Perfect time to have a rethink on all the emission BS !!

With the exception of possibly a main dealer serviced particulate filter for the Diesels, remove all the rest of the rubbish and run the motors efficiently not the emission systems.

The manufacturers will get them to very high efficiency you can be sure as it's in their interest, set more silly tests and you will just get more of this. I don't know what VW did in the States but as far as I can see the cars passed the current tests for Europe so it's not their fault the body setting them was dumb is it :rolleyes:
 
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