EPA Diesel Engine “Delete Tuning” Crackdown...Is It Here Now?

[Christian P.]

Diesel Brothers Hit With $850,000 Fine for Tampering With Truck Emissions

The TV hosts were found guilty of violating the Clean Air Act.

www.thedrive.com

Honestly I am not surprised. I watched the show once or twice on the plane last year and I was very surprised they would get away with that stuff.

"The duo and their fellow defendants are banned from removing diesel emissions equipment as well as selling vehicles that have been modified as such. From here on out, if they violate pollution standards they could be found in contempt of court."

 

[phsycle]

Diesel Brothers Hit With $850,000 Fine for Tampering With Truck Emissions

The TV hosts were found guilty of violating the Clean Air Act.

www.thedrive.com

The worst thing is, those numbskulls live in my state, where one of the major concerns is air quality. It gets as bad as LA at times. All the pollutants gets trapped in between the valley (where all metro cities are built) and our red air quality days continue to get worse. Wish they would've fined those idiots even more.

 

[billiebob]

I don’t think the modification itself is illegal to do. It’s the driving down the road after that is. I’d assume they’d keep up business as usual marketing only to the “off road use only” crowd.

I'm pretty sure that is changing. They want to control emissions everywhere, not just on public roads. Off road is usually on public land, crown land, desert, beach, the Rubicon. About the only questionable area is competitions on private property. But everywhere else is fair game for the EPA. We all breath the same air and the air over private property is pretty mobile.

 

[luthj]

The EPA has jurisdiction over all engines sold in the USA. They typically have allowed exceptions for vehicles used for hobby applications off highway. Though now they do mandate emissions for everything from RAZRs to lawnmowers (at different levels obviously). They do not regulate racing and motosport specific vehicles though. You can't even import a lawnmower unless it meets the relevant specs.

 

[shade]

Diesel Brothers Hit With $850,000 Fine for Tampering With Truck Emissions

The TV hosts were found guilty of violating the Clean Air Act.

www.thedrive.com

It's even worse for them than the headline suggests.

"The Salt Lake Tribune reports that U.S. District Court Judge Robert Shelby announced in his ruling Friday that the plaintiffs may also submit their attorney fees to be paid by Sparks and Co. Per Cole Cannon, a lawyer for the Diesel Brothers, the opposing party claimed $1.2 million in fees when speaking with the judge."

And: "Court documents show that none of the fines can be avoided or dismissed in bankruptcy, according to KSL."

No sympathy from me.

 

[twodollars]

I just got hit with a 7k repair bill for replacement of the urea dosing tank back to the tailpipe. Little contamination from somewhere in the def and it wiped out most of the hardware. Was on a 2015 2500 Chevy bone stock, 265k on it. And the dealer had the truck for over 2 weeks. Makes me question our choice for our fleet. The only failures we have seen are all emission related. Failed egr valve or cooler? Plan on 1k in labor to pull the engine or remove the cab. Poorly engineered **************** designed to get off warranty and fail. Rest of the truck is fantastic, but the emission add ins have been costly.

 

[luthj]

Gasoline.

 

[McCarthy]

Good friend of mine has a fleet of about 50 diesel one ton trucks that are used exclusively in the logging industry, they adopted the 6.7 Ford in 2012, (and are still solely buying 6.7 fords today) and for a while deleted about half the trucks, using various tuners and delete kits etc. They went back to bone stock trucks, not for the legal reason in about 2015, but for the fact that it was much cheaper to have the odd repair for an emissions related issue, than the cost to delete, tune, and repair anything warranty wouldn't cover.

 

[NevadaLover]

Our fleet is going gas for everything 5500 size or smaller, all of our newer diesels have had DEF problems, the one dodge was the most expensive to repair but all 3 have been problematic so we are getting fuel stations in 4 key locations to compensate for not being able to use the diesel in the transfer tanks, small cost to eliminate the problems down the road with diesels exhaust treatment.

 

[Dalko43]

The worst thing is, those numbskulls live in my state, where one of the major concerns is air quality. It gets as bad as LA at times. All the pollutants gets trapped in between the valley (where all metro cities are built) and our red air quality days continue to get worse. Wish they would've fined those idiots even more.

Yeah there is no defending people like that, but they are also easy scape goats...the fact is that for every one of those diesel bro's there are a dozen more who cut the cats off their motorcycle or sports car....it's just not as easy to spot.

Our fleet is going gas for everything 5500 size or smaller, all of our newer diesels have had DEF problems, the one dodge was the most expensive to repair but all 3 have been problematic so we are getting fuel stations in 4 key locations to compensate for not being able to use the diesel in the transfer tanks, small cost to eliminate the problems down the road with diesels exhaust treatment.

People say these anecdotal "well my fleet is doing this." doesn't amount to much. Diesel rigs are still out in force hauling, towing and doing work...the demand for those kind of vehicles is still strong. Otherwise why would the OEM's be making them?

 

[badm0t0rfinger]

Diesel Brothers Hit With $850,000 Fine for Tampering With Truck Emissions

The TV hosts were found guilty of violating the Clean Air Act.

www.thedrive.com

Hopefully they were smart enough to put some money aside when THEY KNOWINGLY BROKE THE LAW. F*ing CL?WNS.

The reason peoples recirc gear was going bad is because they were flooding their engines with fuel to look cool.

 

[NevadaLover]

People say these anecdotal "well my fleet is doing this." doesn't amount to much. Diesel rigs are still out in force hauling, towing and doing work...the demand for those kind of vehicles is still strong. Otherwise why would the OEM's be making them?

You're correct, the OEMs are still making diesel powered cars and trucks no one is disputing that, but for the fleet I manage it was just too much hassle and expense to keep buying diesel trucks, our 12 new ford and gm gassers pull the same trailers and loads without the exhaust treatment problems we had with our diesels, we haven't looked at new ram gassers because of the problems we had with the electronics on the old rams on top of the DEF troubles, so don't act like people are lying about diesel after treatment problems or whatever has you all argumentative, if you like diesel then buy one but for a lot of us the benefit of extra pulling power and mileage doesn't outweigh the penalty of DEF troubles.

 

[billiebob]

I just got hit with a 7k repair bill for replacement of the urea dosing tank back to the tailpipe. Little contamination from somewhere in the def and it wiped out most of the hardware. Was on a 2015 2500 Chevy bone stock, 265k on it. And the dealer had the truck for over 2 weeks. Makes me question our choice for our fleet. The only failures we have seen are all emission related. Failed egr valve or cooler? Plan on 1k in labor to pull the engine or remove the cab. Poorly engineered **************** designed to get off warranty and fail. Rest of the truck is fantastic, but the emission add ins have been costly.

Yes, here in Canada too. The worst part of new diesels today is the wait for parts on new trucks. We often see new trucks sidelined for months, not just weeks. A friend of mine has gone thru all 3 brands of diesel duallys. He now has one Dodge Cummins diesel for the heavy hauling long distance, and the rest are all gas trucks. One his new Chevy Duramax diesels spent 6 weeks waiting for parts. It was not 1 year old. He bought a Tundra in frustration but it has been parked since it just is too light, not comparable to the big three. Gas engines are the rule now in his business.

And yes, those failures are related to the electronics, maybe emissions controls, but not mechanical failure.

A few years ago he chipped a new Cummins, biggest mistake ever. Money, warranty denial was the least of the problems. There was zero support from Chrysler to keep it running. They washed their hands of that truck. Order whatever parts you want and send it to any shop you choose but it was not going to a Chrysler Dealer.... period.

Working with him has been enlightening.

 

[zoomad75]

You're correct, the OEMs are still making diesel powered cars and trucks no one is disputing that, but for the fleet I manage it was just too much hassle and expense to keep buying diesel trucks, our 12 new ford and gm gassers pull the same trailers and loads without the exhaust treatment problems we had with our diesels, we haven't looked at new ram gassers because of the problems we had with the electronics on the old rams on top of the DEF troubles, so don't act like people are lying about diesel after treatment problems or whatever has you all argumentative, if you like diesel then buy one but for a lot of us the benefit of extra pulling power and mileage doesn't outweigh the penalty of DEF troubles.

Smaller fleets are one thing making the switch from diesel to gas. Look at the big fleets. UPS switched to gas package delivery trucks back in the mid 2000's. You older folks might remember them running 4bt Cummins rattlers back in the day. But way back when well before full blown emissions and aftertreatment systems got thrust upon the diesel world they saw extra expense in maintenance along with higher acquisition costs. When you add that up in a fleet of thousands of trucks over the life cycle of each that turns into a big number. Factor in the modern Gas-powered V8 has a similar life span of 250,000 miles with correct maintenance, the diesel advantage of long term durability gap got closed up. The final nail in the coffin was fuel costs. Once the cost of diesel eclipsed gasoline there went another diesel advantage. That advantage got worse once low sulfur fuel got mandated in and increased fuel refining costs. It's one case where the beancounters at any company got it right. Plus those brown trucks never fail to deliver our favorite goodies when delivery time comes.

 

[shade]

Hopefully they were smart enough to put some money aside when THEY KNOWINGLY BROKE THE LAW. F*ing CL?WNS.

They certainly look like wise investors.

I wonder if it'll affect their game sales.