VW/Audi Exorcism Thread

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > VW/Audi Exorcism Thread

thatguy: Feb 5, 2003

Is anybody here familiar with vagcom and disabling the alh alarm? I don't really want to post an entire thread about it yet but I have a 99 alh tdi beetle and I'm trying to put it into an 84 Grumman Kubvan I've had sitting in my yard for years. This is the first modern vw I've owned and I'm trying to figure out whether to just sell the beetle and pick up an older jetty or Passat tdi or if the swap will be a decent project.

# ¿ Aug 26, 2015 05:39

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 12:38

thatguy: Feb 5, 2003

Fart Pipe posted:

By alarm do you mean the immobilizer? because a 99 wont have that so you should be good to go.

The beetle is a driver and it's got the same cut rfid key as the newer keys but instead of the instrument panel car symbol and the startup/shutdown of the immobilizer the alarm just goes off and the car won't start. Is this something the Ross tech vagcom programmer can handle? I am literally a mk1 idi 1.6 dude, I know basically nothing about the mk3+ other than stuff I've been reading and that I've driven the beetle for the last few months while doing zero work on it.

# ¿ Aug 26, 2015 23:32

thatguy: Feb 5, 2003

Yeah it was terrible getting 48 mpg in my TDI beetle this summer driving the 2000 miles from SC to Idaho. I don't know how to handle how poo poo diesels are in small cars. Makes way more sense to get 35 in a gas.

# ¿ Sep 20, 2015 03:23

thatguy: Feb 5, 2003

Throatwarbler posted:

Yep. We should all use diesel because it's cheaper and lower tech than a gas engine.

I guess this forum's filled with people that never work on their cars or something. I've always been horrified at thinking about working on a 20 year old version of a car made in 2005+ era, especially a vw. I sure would love to run new electrical diagnostics on a 15 year old car because the dash won't light up at night after I use the touchscreen radio controls. tdiclub might be a whole bunch of freeper shitters, but I know a much higher percentage of those guys actually do their own work.

I'm actually way more curious about the possibility of VW or maybe just VW diesel totally exiting the US. Never done particularly well, the number of models and options has always been way more limited than EU.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2015 23:24

thatguy: Feb 5, 2003

Cockmaster posted:

Holy crap, I just remembered that I almost considered buying a diesel Jetta wagon. I went with a Prius because I really wanted adaptive cruise control (and a car reliable enough that repair bills wouldn't eat up anything I'd save by giving a gently caress about fuel economy).

That's just it - the cars were programmed to detect when they were being put through emissions testing, adjust their engines to pass the tests, then go back to belching NOx like there's no tomorrow.

From what I've read, any fix would involve one of the following:

1. Update the software to keep the engines tuned to whatever parameters they use to pass the emissions tests (which would most certainly compromise performance and/or fuel economy)

2. Install a urea injection system (which would mean another maintenance item to worry about, and possibly less trunk space)

I thought the nytimes article said that actually passing tailpipe emissions requirements from just a software update wasn't possible

# ¿ Sep 21, 2015 23:26

thatguy: Feb 5, 2003

VelociBacon posted:

I agree it's morally inexcusable, I just don't feel it constitutes an environmental crisis.

My 92 dodge d350 disagrees most flatulently

# ¿ Sep 23, 2015 05:31

thatguy: Feb 5, 2003

blugu64 posted:

I agree though it's totally irrelevant, they were built/sold legally(as far as we know). The answer isn't to break the law or try and cheat the system. Change the system or have your car turned in to a cube, regardless if its a H2 or Prius.

emissions is going to be the new SJW cause for at least the next week before a flavor of cheetos and a microaggression on the bus they can tumblr about takes hold

# ¿ Sep 23, 2015 22:27

thatguy: Feb 5, 2003

You guys thinking there's a difference between a multinational conglomerate that used to be american and a multinational conglomerate that isn't much american make me lol, politicians are 2-faced pragmatists not idealists. Have you paid no attention to how politics has operated for the past 20 years

# ¿ Sep 24, 2015 00:58

thatguy: Feb 5, 2003

VelociBacon posted:

I would be. It's not a political issue, Germany has not wronged anyone, it's a private automaker.

21% of VW voting rights owned by the state of lower saxony, and always has board members from there, and Porsche-owned shares are run by VW. That's like saying Amtrak is a privately owned train operator.

# ¿ Sep 24, 2015 02:34

thatguy: Feb 5, 2003

I still don't loving understand people overvaluing the gently caress out of the vans. My business partner has a rusting hulk of a vanagon and one of a bus, and he sold a loving third one in worse shape with serious structural rust and barely functional seats with no transmission for 2500 to some moron in Virginia. OH MY GOD SPLIT WINDOW? BRING THE WHOLE BANK

# ¿ Sep 24, 2015 05:39

thatguy: Feb 5, 2003

bizwank posted:

Because there is no "simple fix" for this clusterfuck at this point; the cars meeting emissions is now only one small part of it. Clearly the cars can meet emissions with code that's already in the ecu, otherwise they would have been failing state emission tests since 2010 and they wouldn't have passed the EPA's tests in the first place. VW was trying to hide this for as long as possible, and they only came clean at the last possible second when their future sales were threatened. That's why they haven't "fixed" this yet, even though it would have been smarter to do it before they got caught.

Is that actually clear? Emissions tests take place solely in software. There's no actual tailpipe emissions testing. Remember honda engineers said they were never able to replicate NOx emissions in any car without a urea tank, yet until 2015 VW didn't use adblue.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2015 17:57

thatguy: Feb 5, 2003

iwentdoodie posted:

EPA didn't. CARB did, outside of testing parameters, which is how it got caught.

And from my time in TX, OBD2 cars didn't get sniffed. Just OBD1 and older. So these cars in a lot of places would've never been caught.

Every state I've lived in (NC, MD) that has emissions tests never had tailpipe emissions tests on anything but cars too old to hook up. I was just assuming other states did the same.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2015 19:13

thatguy: Feb 5, 2003

http://consumerist.com/2015/09/25/epa-overhauling-emissions-tests-to-catch-defeat-device-cheaters/

quote:

He noted that the newest cars � those in model year 2015 � should be fixed rather quickly, while older models will likely take engineering to be remedied. He reiterated that the affected cars are safe and legal to drive.
However, Grundler points out that all car manufacturers must receive an EPA certificate of conformity before they can sell vehicles, something VW has not been granted for its model year 2016 diesel cars.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2015 02:45

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 12:38

thatguy: Feb 5, 2003

dissss posted:

Doesn't all that apply to VW diesels too?

no, the diesel penalty for a vw is 4k, the diesel penalty for a cruze is you get spiffy upgraded interior and warm seats and pay 4k.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2015 02:54

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > VW/Audi Exorcism Thread