Emissions and wear and tear related to Eco-driving
 

I believe we all mostly assume that ecodriving tends to cut down wear and tear on a vehicle. We tend to not accelerate as hard, accelerate a lot less than 'normal' drivers, brake minimally and in general just not work the vehicle as hard.
Most of you know that California has fairly stringent emissions requirements. What you may not know is that all new cars in California must have a manufacturers guarantee that the emissions will be below a certain level for the first six years of the car's life. Hence the reason for this thread.

My Taurus turned six this year(not quite 60k miles) and today had its first smog test. It passed with flying colors I am happy to say. Not only that, the smog tech said it was probably the cleanest test he has ever seen.
I attached a copy of the actual readout.
Apparently there was no nox, only 1ppm HC and 0% of carbon monoxide output. The CO2 is of course still there.
I've been pretty easy on my vehicles for years now and with the additional ecodriving techniques perhaps even easier. I don't do anything special to the car--just basic change the oil, filter, etc. maintenance.

So what does everyone think? Is easy driving = less wear and tear = lower emissions?
Anyone else have comparable numbers? Or even comparison numbers?
JJ

Unfortunately eco driving can have detrimental effects on some emissions equipment. The 1985-87 Mercedes California emissions diesels had a DPF that would plug up if the cars were not driven hard enough to keep the DPF hot enough to prevent plugging. In fact a shop manual page I got a hold of described the regeneration procedure "Place the car on a dynamometer at 4000 rpm for 20 minutes". On my car that would be the equivalent of driving it over 90mph. So any trip that does not sustain highway driving conditions for an extended period will plug the DPF. A plugged DPF increases emissions.

( Can you please post a larger image of your printout, or type out the printout ? I can barely read it. ) :)


I'd like to think that my emissions were really low, but I have my doubts. My car is a 1993 model and I believe it is listed as TIER 1, which is horrible.
Even brand new, my car was a smog machine, and we all know it hasn't gotten cleaner all by itself.


When I have my bellypan installed on my car, I assume that it results in a faster warm up time for the catylic converter and less emissions as a result.
Perhaps I can run an emissions test someday with, and without the bellypan.

Maybe we can start a post where we can all compare our emissions. I'd love to see how clean a new PZEV car is.



If I learned that my emissions were actually higher as a result of eco driving, I would drop it like yesterdays trash and start driving 'normal' again.

Sort of off topic ( but not that far ) has anyone noticed that the new Fit is rated as a LEV ? ( The same emissions rating as cars from a decade ago ) That makes me wonder why, because several cars that are out now ( even non hybrids ) are rated as PZEV.

The biggest increase in wear and tear is if you do a lot of EOC - either constant starts from the starter will kill it quicker, or bump starting with clutch will cause it to end it's life sooner.

With that being said, I do a lot of EOC. :D

Hello jjackstone.
What are the one way distances of you most frequent trips?
Have you done any mods to the car/engine?

I had to point this out... while 4kRPM might be 90MPH in high gear, in low gear it might be the equivalent of about 10-20 MPH, and is completely do-able.

What this means: You could potentially drive around town "cleaning" your Diesel Particulate Filter.

What impact does bump starting have on emissions?

One question I have (this was mentioned earlier, "PZEV" non-hybrids) is about a non-hybrid 2009 Camry I rented last weekend. It had the PZEV sticker on the window...how would that be, if the ICE never shuts off?

"PZEV" was a cop-out. Because of the automakers' stonewalling on ZEV cars, CARB backed down and created a PZEV, or "Partial Zero-Emissions Vehicle" rating for cars with very low emissions. (I didn't know that there could be fractions of zero--maybe I'll get that in higher-division math classes?) Automakers could sell a certain number of PZEV vehicles to meet their ZEV mandate. PZEV was invented long before hybrids, so was never a hybrid vs. non-hybrid standard.

Incidentally, the reason the EV and CNG vehicles get to use the carpool lanes in CA, and none of the gasoline vehicles do, is because gasoline vehicles can never meet the evaporative emissions standards (ILEV) with the current fueling infrastructure. That kinda blows away the accuracy of a gasoline vehicle being considered "PZEV" in my book.

KJSatz -

I think if you have a "one wire" 02 sensor that depends on the exhaust heat to get hot enough to work (like mine), it can cool off if you do a lot of bump starts. If the 02 sensor gets too cold, the ECU/PCM will go into open-loop mode, which is not as fuel efficient. If you have a "four wire or more" 02 sensor, then it is probably self-heating and will stay hot when the engine is off.

My car has two 02 sensors. The second one is post-cat and does have 4 wires. If I had my druthers, I would convert my 1-wire 02 sensor into a 4-wire, just like my other sensor. That would get me into closed-loop mode faster.

CarloSW2

07+ camry has to exhaust systems for the non-hybrid 2.4l, most like mine have the heat sheild, but some that come stock with out the heat sheild are the pzev, it has special 3 way convertors, and other stuff, i also has a few less hp cause of this.

i would love to see the emissions om my truck, no egr and no cats :)