Diesel shop fined $10M for making and selling Emissions Defeat Devices

I want them to go after muffler shops for noise pollution.<p>Most states have laws that you can&#x27;t modify an exhaust to be louder than the stock exhaust.<p>Yet in every urban area you can hear some percentage of drivers that modify their cars to be 10x louder than everyone else, often with &quot;crackle and pop&quot; tunes to intentionally defeat emissions controls to leave unburnt gasoline to detonate in the exhaust every time they lift off the gas.

A quick primer on what diesel shops are selling with these:<p>There are 3 main methods of emissions controls on modern diesels<p>- EGR (Exhaust Gas Return) which takes already burned (hot) exhaust and reinjects it into the intake tract. This causes soot and cokes the intake valves, grid heater, etc.<p>- DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) which collects soot until it’s restricted, then burns fuel in the exhaust to cook the soot into ash.<p>- Catalytic converters &amp; SCR (selective catalytic conversion) which injects corrosive DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid&#x2F; cow piss) into the exhaust.<p>If you remove these systems from your vehicle, it won’t run, because the OEMs engine controls say if the DEF tank is empty or it’s throwing codes for EGR or DPF, it won’t get full power.<p>These shops sell a way to get around that, so you can take all these systems off your engine that kill longevity and efficiency, while not caring about the soot and NOx you’re emitting. A pre-emissions diesel will easily go for 300-400k miles without a rebuild, the modern ones break in really really expensive ways right about the time your warranty ends (60k)<p>I drive a modern diesel, I race motorcycles and I’ve got a heavy rig to tow to the track, and I’ve left my emissions in place. I don’t love the trade off, it does seem like the manufacturers took the easy way out and tuned their components for timed obsolescence just like the incandescent lightbulb. What these shops are doing is filling a request from owners in states that don’t emissions control these engines, but I guess federally they are breaking the law. Seems grey to me. The manufacturers are only selling the emissions controlled engines to comply with CA and MA and others, while the middle of the country doesn’t control these things.

I&#x27;m regularly involved in the car community, and this is far more common than is often thought. I&#x27;ve met dozens of people who have illegally modified their diesels, and that&#x27;s in California. There&#x27;s plenty more for the EPA to crack down on.

What do these &quot;emissions defeat&quot; devices do? Are they to make the engine produce more power, or to be able to pass emissions testing (like how VW try to make their cars seem less poluting by detecting whether or not the engine was under test and altering engine behavior)?

Made $33M in revenue and was fined $10M. I highly doubt the company worked at 30% margin, so they must still be profitable after paying the fine.

What are these defect devices trying to achieve? More engine power at the expense or pollution and worse fuel efficiency?

They made 33M and were fined 9M? Roughly a net profit of 24 Million? Yes I&#x27;m sure they totally learned their lesson and would never make tens of millions in defiance of lax enforcement again.

Is a fine not another way of saying - “no fair!- we want our cut!”