EPA accuses Fiat Chrysler of excess diesel emissions

[gone-ot]

Just remember the only difference between the THIEF and an HONEST person is that one of them "...got caught..."!

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

Just remember the only difference between the THIEF and an HONEST person is that one of them "...got caught..."!

Mmmmyes, but which one?
Seriously, in this case someone has to admit that the pollution goals are set too high to match properly.

[RustyLugNut]

That does not mean FCA is guilty. It simply means they are accused. The funny thing is, FCA was working with the EPA and CARB on the issues they had brought up concerning the AECDs ( Auxilliary Emission Control Devices ). These are not necessarily physical devices as much as they are lines of code within the system controllers. FCA has already addressed one of the eight AECDs with a recall. The others were being hashed out with the powers that be as it was argued by FCA that these AECDs were necessary in certain modes of operation to physically protect the engine and emissions devices. They did not affect emissions during the FTP 75 testing protocol and their operation is limited outside of the testing. However, on road emissions testing revealed elevated emissions - which is true for pretty much all diesel engines simply because of the complexity of diesel combustion. You can force a diesel engine to produce more emissions by simply driving long enough and looking hard enough.

All AECDs must be declared by the manufacturer to the EPA. However, some of the so called "illegal" AECDs are contained within other AECDs and may not have been seen as declarable. Most of the AECDs are dealing with the use of EGR and SCR ( Exhaust Gas Recirculation and Selective Catalytic Reduction ). An example of an infraction AECD is the use of a set of codes that run the engine without EGR. The engine is to run hot and lean to burn off valve residues. It is used only on occasion. It was caught operating during the extensive on road testing. Of course emissions are elevated during this type of operation.

The fact the EPA made an accusation after FCA was notified back in fall of 2015 and progress had been made in working through the noted AECDs shows that the EPA is simply fearful of what will happen under the new incoming administration. They fear they will lose much of their power and influence after this administration is done with them.

[rmay635703]

Chrysler is just incompetent not cheating.

Stupid witch hunt

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

Clean diesel, and clean direct injection of any kind without high micro particulate emission, simply cannot be done.

External combustion?

[oil pan 4]

The government can't afford for people to buy 30mpg trucks.

[wdb]

I wonder if Chrysler or Renault also uses Bosch for their engine control software. Could be a single source for all of these cheats.

[cowmeat]

They probably just copied VWs equipment and weren't smart enough to realize it was a scam

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

All this witch-hunting is supposed to come to an end soon, even though it doesn't seem any likely that either EPA or CARB could be disbanded.

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

No, more like the engineers meet the board of directors because they cannot match the new pollution standards with their engines, and get told that the other automakers do succeed.
So they have to admit failure or cheat left and right to match the threshold.

Now they learn that the others cheated as well...
Clean diesel, and clean direct injection of any kind without high micro particulate emission, simply cannot be done.

No, the engineers can meet the emissions standards. They just can't do it at the right price point, weight and form factor to satisfy their Board. Assignment 1: Make this diesel pass emissions, report what it's going to take to do it. Assignment 2: Ignore the results of Assignment 1 and just fit the diesel in this car, spending no more than $X, and make it look like it passes emissions.

RustyLugNut- Yes, the main news is that the EPA charged someone. But you're reading it backwards: The takeaway is that since the Volkswagen problem, the EPA actually started looking for other automakers doing the same thing. The fact that they found one isn't news at all, and the fact that it's going to be argued is even less newsworthy.