dieselgate recall, X years after?

[RJVB]

In the months after the first recalls to make the dieselgate engines compliant there were quite a few reports from unhappy owners of the 1.6TDI engine (and probably others as well) who found themselves with a car that had lost a noticeable amount of HP and also fuel economy.

 

I wonder if and how that situation has evolved?

 

Back in the day those reports were enough for me to ignore the invitations to have the recall applied, something I have yet to regret (I'll be having my 3rd RWT inspection without the recall fitted this fall, and I'll be worrying again that they'll notice this time ).

[Ootohere]

?

If they notice is that a fail & is it compulsory in France that you have the Software / Engine Management update and the flow device fitted which could ruin your car?

Is there no comeback on the VW Group / Skoda in France is you have this done 7 years after they know they were cheating and then you have issues?

 

Not compulsory in the UK.

[RJVB]

To be honest, I have no idea. I suppose that if ever they update their emissions measuring set-up so it knows how to bypass the cheatfeat that I'll be toast because my car will probably not meet the norms it was homologated for. That would always be a fail on the test, and require repairs and a re-test. In this case the repair would presumably be having the recall done.

 

AFAIK there were 2 cheating tricks. One the ECU programming trick that allowed it to discover when being tested, and select a cleaner mapping not normally

used on the road. The other being the rev limiter when the car is stationary.  In itself that's not really a cheat, IMHO, just a sensible thing to do - but it also makes it impossible to run the full emissions tests. The test centres are aware of that, and of the fact they cannot do anything against that. I suppose they'd also know if the recall removed that particular limiter, but then they should have noticed my car still has it.

 

Is it 7 years ago already that I "should" have had this done (assuming France and the UK had the recall at the same time)??!

[pikpilot]

3 hours ago, RJVB said:

but it also makes it impossible to run the full emissions tests. The test centres are aware of that, and of the fact they cannot do anything against that. I suppose they'd also know if the recall removed that particular limiter, but then they should have noticed my car still has it.

Not sure I understand what you are saying above.

I have the same engine and refused to have the emission service action.

My car has had the stationary car rev limiter from new. As you say, a very good feature.

It was not part of the software "upgrade" as far as I can tell.

 

If you are saying the feature was removed when they did the emissions service action, I am would be surprised that they could have deleted such a necessary protection. 

 

 

[J.R.]

No the standard vehicle static rev limiter is still present after the emissions "fix".

 

I know for certain because my vehicle had had the fix before I owned it and I paid to have the software rolled back, one of my better investments.

 

I had a UK MOT to be "clean" for the journey to France where I reregistered the vehicle, it was done by a pal and he didn't do an emissions test because he could not rev the engine to the required threshold.

 

2 years later I had a CT test in France and they did do an emissions test but at the lower RPM, getting the oil up to test temperature took a lot longer, the test was done at the limited 2.5k RPM, I am surmising that they have different pass/fail figures than if it could reach maximum rpm, maybe not but the engine is going to be cleaner at 2.5k rpm than at double that and wont risk shredding the original cam belt.

 

My UK MOT was accepted by the French registration authority so I did not have to pay for a second test, the real bonus was that they gave me 2 years validity like a French CT so for a year I was driving legally on an expired MOT, I was looking forward to confusing a flic with that one but I never got stopped which was no surprise.

[RJVB]

27 minutes ago, J.R. said:

No the standard vehicle static rev limiter is still present after the emissions "fix".

OK, that's good to know. I was simply not certain if it would be the case, as this is the feature that my "CT guy" referred to when I first asked him what he knew about the VW cheat. He was not aware in fact that there was an additional trick being pulled; the rev limiter is quite obvious and makes it impossible to do the full test. If memory serves me well that test involved testing at different revs back at that time, corresponding to typical engine regimes in different typical driving situations. So they just skipped the impossible parts. The CT has been "improved" since but apparently not as far as this is concerned.

 

JR, if you imported your car before brexit it would stand to reason that your MOT was accepted as a CT as these tests are supposed to be equivalent across member states.

My test centre is just far enough from my home that it's easy to present the car at the fixed hour with the engine at working temperature.

[J.R.]

I knew it would be accepted as a CT and it was well after Brexit, the surprise was to get the carte grise showing that a CT was not required for 2 years rather than the expiry date of the MOT.

 

For 2 years I was driving without a CT vignette in the windscreen, I thought surely that will result in me being questioned one day but no, I was disappointed because I really enjoy exchanges in French like that with officialdom 😒

[RJVB]

5 minutes ago, J.R. said:

the surprise was to get the carte grise showing that a CT was not required for 2 years rather than the expiry date of the MOT.

 

I think that also stands to reason. If the MOT is accepted as a CT it will have the same validity here. These tests aren't any different because of a longer or shorter interval after all - the interval just represents how fast the country thinks the car can evolve in ways that mean the old test results are no longer representative of its current state.

 

Had you been stopped you would have been asked to show your carte grise, which would have shown your car was `en règle`.

BTW, you can stick that  vignette in the upper right corner of the windscreen. The lower right already has the insurance vignette and the big eco thing (can't remember the name right now 🤷‍♂️) which already creates enough of a blind angle in an annoying location.

[J.R.]

11 hours ago, RJVB said:

The lower right already has the insurance vignette and the big eco thing

 

Speak for yourself!

 

I find the CT more intensive and in depth than the MOT, one example being the vibrating plate shock absorber analysis, another is that the MOT did not test my emissions for the reason spoken of but also no brake test because it is 4x4, exemptions for both, in France both were tested on very similar equipment, but yes I do agree with your point regarding the duration of validity.

 

Editted, I should have said exempt from the brake roller test, it was tested with a 55 year old Tapley deccelerometer! A really sought after antique which does not incur the annual fee for calibration, my pals one was passed down through the family business from grandfather to father to him so he can continue using it, any other MOT station has to have an expensive new all singing and dancing one and pay to have it calibrated every year like the brake rollers.

Edited 30 August, 2023 by J.R.

[RJVB]

1 hour ago, J.R. said:

Speak for yourself!

 

???

[Ootohere]

Euro 5 emission TDI,s with or without the defeat device were not Re-certified / homologated were they some time after 2016 so that they were not going to meet the standard pre 2015 when produced.

 

VW Group would have had to buy them back then in the EU, well not really as they are the tail of the dog that wags the EU.

 

As it was the Euro 6 AUDI, VW & Seat that were certificated late 2015 and on sale that had 'Implausible emission' test results had their sale suspended and then those found to have been tested and mistakes made were bought back and scrapped/ disposed of. Maybe to someplace not too fussy about such things.

 

http://autocar.co.uk/car-news/business/vw-emissions-scandal-nine-vw-vehicles-have-false-co2-ratings

 

http://autocar.co.uk/car-news/business/16-volkswagen-dieselgate-fix-cars-suffer-power-loss-says-uk-court-case

 

 

 

Edited 30 August, 2023 by toot

[J.R.]

9 hours ago, RJVB said:

 

???

 

11 hours ago, J.R. said:

and the big eco thing

 

I do not and will not have a Crit-Air sticker.

[RJVB]

Crit-Air, of course.

 

Well, having one or not is up to you to decide of course but it's bound to become compulsory to have one sooner rather than later. Basically it already is if you want to go places.

 

I  tweaked mine so it clings to the glass electrostatically, partly because I thought I'd keep it in the glovebox most of the time. Turns out I can't be bothered in practice, of course, so in the end I've only benefitted from that tweak when I had to have my windscreen replaced.