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Just had a mail from my brother in Michigan who runs a diesel Jetta. The car has just gone in for a 100k service and the dealer has told him they are going to have to convert it from Lean NOx trap to full urea SCR, whatever that means. That means a complete exhaust system, end to end, a new fuel tank with tandem urea tank, engine control module and a load of pipes, ducts and wiring, costing between $5000 and $8000 per vehicle. The dealer reckons they will end up simply buying back all the cars and crushing them!
Why aren't VW doing this all over Europe? More stringent US emissions controls, I guess?
Excuse ignorance on this.
But if it has a separate urea tank, then that implies you'd need to fill it.
Where can you get 'engine grade' urea from?
That is insane though. All the energy and pollution going into creating the car in the first place, then within a couple of years crushing it for the small amount of extra emissions it produces.
Where can you get 'engine grade' urea from?
It's just another name for AdBlue.
http://uk.air1.info/en/all-about-adblue/what-is-adblue/
AdBlue - widely available.
Edit - too slow. Don't mix it with sodium hypo though...
The urea is for the Adblue system, which requires you to fill a small tank with blue-coloured urea every thousand miles or so. This is used to make a secondary reaction in the exhaust system, which makes the car smell of fairy dust. Probably.
Why aren't VW doing this all over Europe? More stringent US emissions controls, I guess?
The EPA has I think mandated that cars (made after the applicable date) must be below certain levels, so it's a legal requirement to be on the road. In the EU you just get a certification ie Euro V, VI and so on - but you can I think still be on the road you just don't get the certification. Which means you might not be able to enter certain cities and hence drive to your house.. if they don't simply waive it like the UK are doing for the VED.
Tin-foil hat mode - the US govt have been accused of making life as hard as possible for non-US manufacturers via legislation - so they are more than happy for the EPA to set the bar high because they know it'll neutralise the unique selling point of the pro-diesel Euro manufacturers.
In the same way that the USA levies protectionist import duties on a whole range of imported items and materials to protect crap American manufacturers.
Vw are going to be doing the same over here I've been told by my local vw dealer but the big issue is to attain the correct emissions most engines will have to be de tuned and owners are not going to accept that... He also said some cars are buy back and crush only and not able to "update"
How many Diesel VW's are there in the US? It cant be a big portion of the market? Surelly it'd be better to resell them to another LHD market than to crush them?