VW in trouble with USA authorities.

[Dicko1]

The article above explains how the cars detected when it was being tested.

This whole scandal seems a bit out of balance to me.

Yes, they've done the wrong thing. No doubt.
Yes, they deserve to be punished for it.

BUT, is a $77 bn loss to the company and pontially significant job loss in Germany as a result, plus the downstream economic impact to Germany (1million jobs), to a country who bailed out Greece, and have opened their arms to the refugee crisis whereas other contries have put up razor wire.....

Dunno....
It's a bit like YOU using an SVR mod, or an EGR blank, or installing a power chip, getting caught, and then getting fines of $700,000, causing you to sell your house and take out another 50 year loan as a consequence. Seem fair?

And they lost the war.......

[nj swb]

[RoyHarvey]

It's a bit like YOU using an SVR mod, or an EGR blank, or installing a power chip, getting caught, and then getting fines of $700,000, causing you to sell your house and take out another 50 year loan as a consequence. Seem fair?

Interesting thought, If I were to weaken and buy a new NX (very tempting) I would want to add the EGR resistor trick.

Does anyoneknow what sort of penalty might appply if caught with such a mod in Australia.

[m_and_m]

Interesting thought, If I were to weaken and buy a new NX (very tempting) I would want to add the EGR resistor trick.

Does anyoneknow what sort of penalty might appply if caught with such a mod in Australia.

I think it's up to $25,000

[Dicko1]

Interesting thought, If I were to weaken and buy a new NX (very tempting) I would want to add the EGR resistor trick.

Does anyoneknow what sort of penalty might appply if caught with such a mod in Australia.

Up em mate...Live dangerously..

[spot01]

Its not only VW with problems

GM FINED $1.26 BILLION GENERAL Motors has been hit with fines and compensation orders after being found guilty of intentionally concealing knowledge of a faulty ignition switch that has cost 124 lives. The United States justice department has levied a fine of $US900 million ($A1.26 billion) on the company for not revealing the fact that the ignition switch could shut off the car while it was being driven. (Source: Mellor's Go Auto Edition 795 24/9/15)

I wonder if this type of finding is why we are now seeing car companies conducting safety recalls for faults in quite old cars that may well have been known by them for years? At least they are now acting.

[littleriver]

but wait there's more

http://www.9news.com.au/world/2015/10/09/17/02/police-raid-vw-headquarters-as-probe-mounts-in-germany-us

[Terryo]

I actually had a Pajero on order when Japan suffered it's Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011 & wondered if it had been exposed to any contamination as a result. At the time, the car makers stated their cars were not exposed, but in light of the VW disaster, I wonder if any would have risked having to junk many new cars by saying otherwise. It didn't appear to glow or have any special powers, but I sold it a year later just in case

Fellow I know is in the nuclear business. After that happened there was a ship load of cars came in from Japan and his company got the job of testing every car for radiation at $500 per car. Probably just got added to the new car price.

Any way would these VW's be any more polluting than a 10 year old car petrol or diesel?
If there is a recall then there will be a business opportunity open up to return them to pre recall performance.
Son works in environmental health and drives a diesel Golf. Work mates are threatening to slap him with a fine

[Stoneman]

There all the bloody same!

My triton may or may have a overheating problem

As I said on the triton forum

Emission cheating won't leave you on the side of the road...

If it wasnt so political it would just be an every day recall

I heard yesterday that VW was stupid enough to have the program in there software and not an add on device other manufactures supposedly use ....... Is it true wouldn't be one bit surprised though

We are to beilieve a tooling issue for thousands of engines in tritons and challengers, seriously!

But I don't trust any of them and I think we're stupid if we do

[RoyHarvey]

Dirty deeds

Personally I very much doubt it was just a couple of software engineers that did this without the knowledge of at least some level of management.

While I don't condone this sort of commercial skull duggery they are obviously clever engineers and I wonder if they could be recruited to look at the MM ESC/ASC software.

[vladguan]

Personally I very much doubt it was just a couple of software engineers that did this without the knowledge of at least some level of management.

While I don't condone this sort of commercial skull duggery they are obviously clever engineers and I wonder if they could be recruited to look at the MM ESC/ASC software.

These engineers are nothing special (takes no more than 3 lines of code with formatting). As for ESC/ASC, it is all about setting and compromises. At least the Pajero drive-by-wire is fairly responsive compared to other cars.

[nj swb]

Being the owner of an affected vehicle I've been following this on a VW forum.

As best I can tell, the software "switch" was written by Bosch. Somebody speculated that they use it for in-house testing, to tell their ECUs when they're on a dyno so that things like traction control & stability control don't become upset. VW decided to use this same "switch" to help them through their emissions test.

Apparently, to pass the most stringent NOx levels in the US, VW were using a multi-pronged approach - finely tuned injection patterns, careful injection timing, EGR & NOx traps in the exhaust.

I suspect that they could make all of this work, but not reliably and/or economically. As a large number of diesel Pajero owners are aware, EGR does horrible things to your intake, and apparently the NOx traps need to "burn off" regularly - intervals in the minutes rather than weeks, and the additional fuel adds to the consumption. So they used the "switch" to pass testing in the laboratory, and turn off some of their emissions controls to maintain economy & reliability outside the laboratory.

Reading various news stories & other reports, most vehicles use more fuel in the real world than the "official" figure calculated during emissions testing - but some of these affected VWs are returning better figures in the real world, including mine. Officially, mine is rated at 7l/100 km in the "combined" cycle - I average less than 6l/100km in my daily commute. This fits - implement emissions controls on the dyno, get a clean exhaust but use more fuel. Off the dyno, turn off the emissions controls and use less fuel.

If something seems too good to be true...

[old Jack]

I suspect that VW have just programmed in a EGR by-pass which is linked to all 4 wheel sensors and steering angle sensor. If so then this is just a version of the SPV mod or DIY resistor mod that is popular with many owners of CRD engines. It gives better fuel economy and performance and the engine intake does not carbon up.

I would like to see some real world testing done on CRD engines with 100,000km on the clock, 1 with EGR system functioning and 1 that has been bypassed since new. Chances are the by-passed engine will be less polluting given the same real world drive/load conditions and use less fuel. Emission test should be based on the life of the car and not when it is only new.

I think we have all been "conned" on the concept of "clean diesel engines", modern petrol engines with variable valve and injector timing combined with small supercharger can give the same kW and Nm per litre of fuel used particularly when matched to close ratio gearboxes. If we (our governments) really want to get serious about reducing vehicle pollution then there would be stronger incentives for hybrids which have a small fixed internal combustion engine working at peak efficiency, generating electricity and storing it, to power electric motors, same principle as diesel electric locomotives and heavy mining trucks.

What I dread from all of this is that governments will start testing emissions on all cars at roadworthy inspections and if the standards are set too high then most cars will fail, this would be a great revenue raiser and increase the demand for better vehicles. Japan has had a different approach to reducing pollution, the registration increases substantially every year and by the end of 3 years it virtually forces you to buy a new car as the cost of the registration is so high. The result for Japan is the most modern fleet of cars, a thriving demand for their car industry and a great export business in low km vehicles to other countries like NZ.

cheers, old Jack.

[discolaw]

Personally if I owned one of the affected cars (which I don't) I'd like VW to leave it exactly as it is thank you. I believe their mod will reduce performance and increase fuel consumption and probably any pollution reduction will be small in the great scheme of things. The issue has nothing to do with safety. Only problem might be resaleability given the massive media coverage.

[nj swb]

What I dread from all of this is that governments will start testing emissions on all cars at roadworthy inspections and if the standards are set too high then most cars will fail, this would be a great revenue raiser and increase the demand for better vehicles. Japan has had a different approach to reducing pollution, the registration increases substantially every year and by the end of 3 years it virtually forces you to buy a new car as the cost of the registration is so high. The result for Japan is the most modern fleet of cars, a thriving demand for their car industry and a great export business in low km vehicles to other countries like NZ.

So odds are good that this will happen here. Now that we've killed off the Australian auto manufacturing industry, introduce stringent new laws to massively boost demand for new cars - which will all come from overseas.