Volkswagen has released a full press statement accompanied by a short YouTube video that details the repairs to be made to the EA 189 diesel engines affected by the emissions scandal. Of course, we're not going to pretend everything has been fixed and clarified, but at least we know what Europe's largest automaker plans to do to about 11 million engines.
These measures were presented recently to the German Federal Motor Transport Authority and targeted the 1.6 TDI and 2.0 TDI mills. The final technical solution for the 1.2-liter engines will be presented at the end of the month. As we previously reported, they will take the longest to repair.
For the 1.6-liter diesel engine, engineers devised something called a flow straightener. It looks like a piece of pipe or an attachment for your vacuum cleaner that sucks up dog hair. However, Volkswagen says this cheap and simple hardware change improves the flow of air and somehow solves the dieselgate thingie.
So how does it work? Well, there is a mesh that calms the swirled air flow in front of the air mass sensor and will thus decisively improve the measuring accuracy of the air mass sensor. This steady flow of air is a very important parameter for the engine management system and helps create an optimum combustion process. Also, a software update will be performed on this engine.
As for the 2.0-liter TDI, things are even easier, as the only thing needed is a software update. In both cases, the time needed for the implementation of the technical measures is expected to be less than one hour.
Volkswagen has set itself an ambitious goal to fix the emissions problems without impacting fuel consumption or performance. Considering many customers paid extra for the "German performance and technology," that's probably a good thing. However, independent tests carried out in the US have shown that when the defeat device is active and emissions are within legal limits, fuel economy is negatively affected.
If the fixes are approved by the German Federal Motor Transport Authority, Volkswagen will begin the recalls in January 2016 and stretch them out over the entire year.
But if VW discontinued the guilty TDIs in 2014, why can't we buy the new ones in some countries? And if they only needed a piece of pipe to fix the 1.6, why didn't engineers realize this before production of the EA 189 engines started?
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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