Cheating on Emissions: Nearly All New Diesel Cars Over Limits; Tractors Next?

[OkieDave]

Revealed: nearly all new diesel cars exceed official pollution limits | Business | The Guardian

Ninety-seven percent of all modern diesel cars emit more toxic nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution on the road than the official limit, according to the most comprehensive set of data yet published, with a quarter producing at least six times more than the limit.

More at the link.

It got me thinking...I wonder if off-road diesel engine manufacturers are doing the same thing. I checked the Tier 2/3/4 standards, and for smaller engines, they don't have a specific limit for NOx, but rather a combined limit for NOx + Non-Methane Hydrocarbons (NMHC, basically unburned fuel). Still, the (NOx + NMHC) limit does put an effective cap on both. (Standards are at https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-03/documents/420b16022.pdf )

So...are we going to see a story saying our tractors don't meet standards?

 

[5030]

I don't care actually. I won't purchase any Tier 4 final unit.

 

[tcartwri]

GDI vehicles will be next.

 

[Snobdds]

Yes, GDI will probably have to have DPF's because of the unburnt fuel used in reversion to try and clean the valves. Just look at the tail pipe of any GDI and it's all sooty. EPA standards are too restrictive for the current technology. Manufacturers simply cannot get the results without huge costs that consumers will not absorb or resort to fudging the numbers.

The tractor market will have to respond like the truck industry did with aftermarket turners to eliminate the emission functions. I'm pretty surprised there hasn't been a push from the big tuning companies to start at least writing DPF delete tunes for the new Tier 4 motors.

 

[buickanddeere]

Not too hard to fool a tier IV into a working machine . Two biggies. Make and install an EGR block off plate so the engine is not breathing in it's own pharts. Find some way to fool the timing pickup sensor into having the engine advanced 5-10 degrees more than the sensor thinks it is.

 

[ovrszd]

We'll all be driving Tier 4,5,6, whatever the number reaches, if we live long enough.....

 

[Blackgreyhounds]

i'm certainly no expert, but that article in the Guardian and the data table they cite are all for European/UK spec'd cars measured against European standards. Most of these are not available in the U.S., and the ones that are, will have their engines and exhausts tuned and configured differently to meet CARB requirements. So, basically, this is irrelevant to any cars in the U.S., different engines, tunes, exhausts and standards here.

 

[RalphVa]

I can't get excited about tractor NOx. Most of them are used out in the country. NOx problems are city air problems.

Diesel will give lower almost anything else (if there's a soot collector) than a gasoline engine just because it'll use 30% less fuel than a carbureted gasoline engine. When they start putting fuel injection, etc. on the gasoline models to lower their emissions to those of cars and trucks, then the only way diesel can get much more than 20% (difference in fuel energy values) ahead is with turbo charging.

Ralph

 

[5030]

We'll all be driving Tier 4,5,6, whatever the number reaches, if we live long enough.....

I don't plan on being around that long.

 

[ovrszd]

I don't plan on being around that long.

I do.