German Engineering

drifter

drifter

Well-known Member
How about the Germans and their fabulous Germain Engineering. What a following they have with their small superior diesel engines. Chances are if you drive a diesel and it's not a diesel truck, you're driving a German diesel. Turns out it's all smoke and lies. They have fooled our government for many years. We've all known electrical products throw german auto manufacturers for a loop but it turns out their superiority is ineptness covered up by software that gives an appearance their engines are clean and don't produce dirty diesel engines that pollute. It's a planted software which gave the appearance of excellence. It's all smoke and lies.

http://www.businessinsider.com/if-v...diesel-cars-then-it-has-a-huge-problem-2015-9
 

drifter said:
How about the Germans and their fabulous Germain Engineering. What a following they have with their small superior diesel engines. Chances are if you drive a diesel and it's not a diesel truck, you're driving a German diesel. Turns out it's all smoke and lies. They have fooled our government for many years. We've all known electrical products throw german auto manufacturers for a loop but it turns out their superiority is ineptness covered up by software that gives an appearance their engines are clean and don't produce dirty diesel engines that pollute. It's a planted software which gave the appearance of excellence. It's all smoke and lies.

http://www.businessinsider.com/if-v...diesel-cars-then-it-has-a-huge-problem-2015-9
Click to expand...

Sounds like an executive that wanted to save a few bucks and didn't let the final natural development/work out the kinks stage of a product take place. This IS what many recalls are made of.

I'm still a bit confused on the software angle. Don't emissions test stick a device on to the tail pipe so even if the software was controlling output would the exhaust air still be the same? I do know the government and others like to test the engine by itself, not with a load or in a chassis meaning no exhaust system. They caught manufacturers cooking numbers on small engine horse power several years ago on things like lawn tractors because lone engine hp didn't match hp found on the actual product with a load.
 
German Complexity

It seems German engineering aims to so mystify others, that only they will ever be able to decipher their methods. Back when the VW Rabbit was being sold here, they were offered with a diesel engine that refused to start at all, in cold temperatures. I worked with a guy who had one. It sat unused for several months during the winter.

Neighbor bought a used Porsche. Fuel-injected gasoline. Learned if the gas tank was run dry, re-filling resulted in a no-start. Their wondrously-designed fuel-injection system under those conditions had to have the air bled from them.

'Course, one year early on in Electronic Fuel Injection, GM cars required re-programming if the battery was disconnected! Now tell me, HTH would one replace a bad battery then?

Germany has come a long way, though. With the help of America, of course. I drive a Ford product having a German-built V-6 engine which is amazingly reliable and long-lived. Nothing has been done to the engine in 150,000 miles. Oh, yeah, I replaced the spark plugs at 100,000. These particular engines are built in Cologne, Germany, in what I suspect is either a Ford-owned plant, or German-owned with heavy Ford collaboration. In studying the engine's basic design approach, it is way beyond Ford's usual engineering simplicity, like, for example, having a lower-crankcase "girdle" which is fastened onto the bottom of the engine block. Sure, makes it stronger, but a feature rarely seen. imp
 

Maybe we'll learn more as time goes by. I've owned nine VWs counting the pop top campers, all but one bought new. Been an advocate of a car everyone could afford. They were all good ones if you could get them fixed right.
 
I don't mean to imply shoddiness or lack of reliability on the part of German Engineering. Just the opposite, they seem to "cover bases" and "dot i's" which don't need to be. imp
 
I think the problem seems to be they couldn't figure out how to meet US requirements so they developed software that kicked in when tests were conducted by conventional methods of testing (I don't know how they were tested) and lied and directed their advertising to support those lies, until caught, then admitted to whatever charges were directed at them. However, it's going to be huge penalties for Volkswagen I would imagine.
 
drifter said:
I think the problem seems to be they couldn't figure out how to meet US requirements so they developed software that kicked in when tests were conducted by conventional methods of testing (I don't know how they were tested) and lied and directed their advertising to support those lies, until caught, then admitted to whatever charges were directed at them. However, it's going to be huge penalties for Volkswagen.
Click to expand...

/\/\/\ This.

There are a lot of German supercars out there these days, with cutting-edge technology, but then I doubt they have to meet US emissions standards.
 
I think cars shipped into this country for sale have to meet emission tests. It's the diesel engine that has been the problem, even those Mercedes diesels.
 
Saw a piece today that said the car can apparently sense when it's being tested. It picks up on things like if the car is on a car treadmill which is part of the process of emissions testing. My guess the computer looks at engine rpm, gear, idle numbers then adjusts accordingly. On a treadmill theoretically it would take less gas which the computer is monitoring because there is a lower load or stress on the engine.

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/aut...ve-suspect-software-emissions-scandal-n431456

At idle or while sitting at a light theoretically a system like this could kick in. But when accelerating- ppffffttt.

German stock market taking a hit along with VW.

http://profit.ndtv.com/news/global-...more-than-3-pulled-down-by-volkswagen-1220426
 
Diesel Electronic Fuel Injection is a much more complex system than gasoline, due to the much higher injection pressures needed. Today's gas engines inject at around 60 pounds per square inch. Diesel injection requires 30 times as much, or even higher, 2,000 psi common. The simple little solenoids which "fire" our gasoline engines haven't a "prayer" of accomodating such pressures.

How it's done boggled my mind, when I studied it. Expensive as hell, too! imp
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top