Volkswagen cheats emissions tests!
- Thread starter coolsurfer
- Start date
Caporegime
The additive only last so long and has to be topped up.
Cars with ad blue have a seprate flipper cap for it. You just keep topping it up like screenwash. Quoted cost earlier was £50 a year.
The reason this wasn't fitted as standard and why VW cheated was purely down to cost. VW finance dept calculated it would cost 300 euro per engine to fit this extra hardware so they decided not to bother and just to use the ECU software to cheat the tests.
The way they cheated was by running the car in a low emission low power mode when it was being tested. it then switched all that off and ran at full power when back on the road. The cars implicated in the test cycle didn't have ad blue.
1) VW goes to sell Dielse in europe
2) VW finds out in order to pass tests they need to fit 00 euros worth of extra hardware to pass the 2.5x more stringent US tests. This extra hardware is fitted on some other new VW diesels and is called "Ad Blue".
3) VW says this 300 euro per model extra expense isn't worth it, ships the car with ECU software to cheat the tests, and without ad blue
4) VW gets found out.
5) VW has to pay 300 euro per car to fit the ad blue system after all , plus many many many ££££$$$ i fines.
The reason the cars ran in the cheat mode only during the tests, is likely because power or torque or similar was reduced to in turn reduce the emissions.
Unless it turns out these cars had a urea system fitted all along, but only used it during the test cycle, and the only change is now you have to fill up the system as it runs out ? But that's not what I've read so far. Happy to be corrected.
But why bother fitting the system if the whole reason for the cheat devices was to save the 300 euro per engine VW calculated it would cost ?
Cars with ad blue have a seprate flipper cap for it. You just keep topping it up like screenwash. Quoted cost earlier was £50 a year.
The reason this wasn't fitted as standard and why VW cheated was purely down to cost. VW finance dept calculated it would cost 300 euro per engine to fit this extra hardware so they decided not to bother and just to use the ECU software to cheat the tests.
The way they cheated was by running the car in a low emission low power mode when it was being tested. it then switched all that off and ran at full power when back on the road. The cars implicated in the test cycle didn't have ad blue.
1) VW goes to sell Dielse in europe
2) VW finds out in order to pass tests they need to fit 00 euros worth of extra hardware to pass the 2.5x more stringent US tests. This extra hardware is fitted on some other new VW diesels and is called "Ad Blue".
3) VW says this 300 euro per model extra expense isn't worth it, ships the car with ECU software to cheat the tests, and without ad blue
4) VW gets found out.
5) VW has to pay 300 euro per car to fit the ad blue system after all , plus many many many ££££$$$ i fines.
The reason the cars ran in the cheat mode only during the tests, is likely because power or torque or similar was reduced to in turn reduce the emissions.
Unless it turns out these cars had a urea system fitted all along, but only used it during the test cycle, and the only change is now you have to fill up the system as it runs out ? But that's not what I've read so far. Happy to be corrected.
But why bother fitting the system if the whole reason for the cheat devices was to save the 300 euro per engine VW calculated it would cost ?
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Soldato
It wont cost €300 to retrofit. It might have been €300 when the car was new (although our experience is that it seems to cost far more than that), but a retrofit would probably costs 10x that.
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
Exactly - the device was present on all cars by the look of it but only required to meet the US's ultra strict rules (Other manufacturers have gone with AdBlue).
Which is why all the OMGZZZ amongst British owners is somewhat misguided by the sound of it.
I may have missed this in previous posts, my apologies if my following question has been answered...
If my car (57 plate Golf GT Sport TDI 2.0) is affected and their (VW's) fix is proven to harm MPG and performance do I have to take my car in?
If I don't take the car in to be fixed am I breaking any laws at all?
If my car (57 plate Golf GT Sport TDI 2.0) is affected and their (VW's) fix is proven to harm MPG and performance do I have to take my car in?
If I don't take the car in to be fixed am I breaking any laws at all?
Soldato
It wasn't made between 2009 and 2014, so no.
Soldato
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Soldato
Oh I've missed this, didnt know it only affected car from this period
Cars from that period with the 1.6/2.0 TDI in Euro 5 emissions spec.
Yours is most likely the older Euro 4 PD injector engine.
Soldato
It's not an affected car.
I think its because a the changes that if implemented should bring the emission in line with legal requirements which would have a knock on effect to performance.
Just removing the test mode will mean that come the next MOT the car should fail on emissions.
Personally if I had an effected car I'd be demanding a full refund based on mis-selling or illegal practices
Soldato
Over reaction .... much?
It wont fail the MOT!
For type approval & emission homologation it probably didnt even use that mode for EU cars either, just that its on the software. The problem is what they did IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Unless you soak your car at 25C for 8hrs before the your MOT?
Soldato
Soldato
TL;DR: Real-world driving conditions aren't anything like laboratory test conditions. Quelle surprise.
That's a bit of a misleading article.
Is any of this a massive surprise? No one ever gets the claimed figures on cars, especially diesels - if it's burning more fuel obviously there's more emissions... All of this has been brought on by the stupid lab tests that have no resemblance to real life driving.
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