Emissions Testing By The EPA?

[Mikec557]

Didn't someone once say, "absolute power corrupts absolutely."...

[[email protected]]

For the testing they're going to put it on a dyno and over the 2 to 3 week. They're going to put the equivalent of about a 150000 to 200000 miles of wear and tear on your car. That's what they do in California. I'm pretty sure it's what they're doing their. It may not reflect on the odometer but it will reflect on, the overall wear and tear. That is the entire purpose of putting it on a dyno. All while testing the "smog" output under extreme driving conditions. The dyno can place enough resistance on the drive train to mimic your maximum towable load while carrying the maximum weight in the bed under full throttle all for only a couple of hours of testing and not overstress the frame or suspension.

[Chiefblueman]

For the testing they're going to put it on a dyno and over the 2 to 3 week. They're going to put the equivalent of about a 150000 to 200000 miles of wear and tear on your car. That's what they do in California. I'm pretty sure it's what they're doing their. It may not reflect on the odometer but it will reflect on, the overall wear and tear. That is the entire purpose of putting it on a dyno. All while testing the "smog" output under extreme driving conditions. The dyno can place enough resistance on the drive train to mimic your maximum towable load while carrying the maximum weight in the bed under full throttle all for only a couple of hours of testing and not overstress the frame or suspension.

As long as the wheels are turning to drive the rollers on a chassis dyno the mileage will be registered by the odometer and the ECU. Unless they disable the odometer or alter it in some way. Either way it's a felony by federal statute. Of course the EPA is the federal government...……..

[Bamaman]

What does the license receipt on the loaner say? Doesn't sound Kosher.

If legitimate, they could test my last of the 7.3's with an 80 hp econo tune. I could warn'em that it puffs a little smoke coming off a dead start. And shower down on it hard, and it's a bunch of smoke.

[[email protected]]

No they will not disable your odometer but they will stress the drive train. What I mean by stress is they will apply force to the drive wheels to make it extremely hard to turn. That will work the truck like it is pulling a very heavy load under extreme throttle positions. So even though the throttle will be floored and the and the truck engine under maximum load, the truck may only be spinning the wheels at a rate of 35 to 55 miles per hour

[[email protected]]

As someone who has worked with EPA agents in the past and other environmental protection agencies in California, I can tell you they want it to smoke. This is the agent CARB, California air resource bureau, that until the current president, controlled the emission standards for the entire United States. These people are idiots. They are making stricter and stricter rules for automobiles based on the fact that the local government in California wants to do away with all gasoline driven vehicles. They have tried passing bills that require pick up trucks to get 40 miles to the gallon is just one of them. If the truck smokes and puffs that gives them cause to make stricter and stricter air quality requirements and emission standards, even though the air, in California specifically, has been getting cleaner and cleaner ever since the late seventies. They still want to make things stricter instead of letting ut see how clean it gets with current standards.

[backtrack2015]

It would be nice to know how much the diesel emissions changes since ~2007 have actually changed the air quality both locally and regionally. I'm not a fan of EGR. I can live with the DEF and the particulate filter.

That being said, as a diesel owner (both my truck and my wife's SUV), it irritates the heck out of me to see someone with a full delete and a power tune lay down a thick cloud of particulates. I followed a new F-250 for a bit in Austin the other day. He was repeatedly belching enough smoke to impede visibility. It's this kind of display of stupidity that people remember and it gets the general public thinking we need tighter standards.

Hopefully this borrow-the-truck-to-test thing works out fine.

[RVRunners]

I’ve never received any type of letter and would shred it if I did. I would’t let anyone take any of my vehicles for any type of testing. Seems that they could random sample the trucks coming off of the assembly line to test them for compliance rather than hassling individual owners to abscond with their trucks for 2-3 weeks doing who knows what. I’d tell them to pound sand. I’m certain that if Rudolf Diesel was to see what the EPA folks have caused to be done to his creation he would be perplexed to say the least. Consider the EGR system for example. Who seriously thinks its a good idea to push that carbon particulate back through the engine? How about just throwing sand into the intake?! Crazy! My last truck was deleted after the warranty. The one I have now is under warranty so it has all of the environmental goodies for now. The thing that irritates me about these initiatives is that as we here in the US move toward less pollution, waste, etc. the other large economies of the world (e.g. China & India) continue to do the same things to curb their carbon footprint/pollution - nothing! So as we pay more for trucks that have technology certain to shorten the life of our engines the characters in these other countries are having a good laugh.

[backtrack2015]

So as we pay more for trucks that have technology certain to shorten the life of our engines the characters in these other countries are having a good laugh.

They laugh and then they cough several times.

I'm right there with you with respect to the EGR. It kills efficiency and fills the system with soot.

[TNFSolitude]

Well, I got my truck back today and a nice check for $1600. It was washed, cleaned and detailed inside & out (value $100). I talked with the tech and got a work order sheet showing what they did to the truck; oil/filter change (value $125), new air filter (value $35), new radiator cap (old one failed pressure test, $20), topped off DEF (value $12). I put over 600 miles on the loaner, (value $300). They put 139 miles on my truck, 82 miles round trip to their facility and 47 miles on a dynomometer.
The good news is my vehicle passed the EPA's emission testing. According to the tech it's one of the few that has. The dyno was set to simulate city driving with low hills. The affect on my vehicle was the equivalent of 47 miles city driving.
As luck would have it I happened to have a conversation with someone, an engineer now retired from GM, who used to work on emissions equipment at GM's Milford Proving Grounds and is very familiar with the dyno testing used by the EPA. This was after I started this thread. I summarize: What EPA wants to know is whether the exhaust emission control systems are continuing to work as designed after various lengths of time in regular customer service. The dyno will not be free wheeling, but will be programed to simulate a normal “City” driving cycle and a “Highway” driving cycle. I would expect this to be less than 100 miles.

So there you have it. Call me naive if you will, but I don't believe for a second that anything happened that has harmed my truck in any way. I asked for input and got some interesting responses above. See you down the road.