UK gov to ban all non emissions compliant post 2001 cars.

[mk2]

Just in case you may have missed the news, read this:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/in-use-emissions-of-road-vehicles-regulating-environmental-impacts/regulating-environmental-impact-of-in-use-emissions-of-road-vehicles

Which basically means if your 2001 onwards car doesn't meet the FULL emissions requirements exactly like when it was brand new, the gov will have the power to confiscate and crush it. Every car will fail. Especially vdubs.

So remaps, EGR deletes, cat deletes, cold air intakes, DPF deletes, exhaust component changes, 'pops and bangs', catch cans etc. In fact ANY non-manufacturer alternations. Which Germany has had in place for quite few years already. Factory standard cars allowed only. Full emissions testing, not like the existing MOT checks. Must meet economy fuel consumption figures.

At the time of me writing this, it is just a "consultation" but we all know that means they intend to do it...

 

 

[ObjectiveAway]

I got the impression that Euro 3 (pre-2001) cars were actually worth something a few years ago.  And its getting more and more true.
 

But diesels without a DPF should be fine anyway. Are they really going to remove every EGR system gasket to check whether it has been blanked off? You can also disable the EGR through the software while keeping the system itself in good condition.

[mk2]

I think that the annual vehicle inspections across Europe will require the inspector to plug-in to the OBD connector to read ECU data. To see if everything is like it was in the factory. Even check VIN and various other details like milage.

My local inspector now plugs in already (into gov certified emissions equipment), but he says that it is relatively easy to trick the equipment by putting the tail pipe sensor into a newer car during testing. And the sensor calibration process also has a few flaws.

I agree that older cars are becoming more desirable for the simple reason that they're increasingly exempt from all the new limitations and restrictions on people's freedoms. But taxes on that category are making people pay for freedoms.

[ObjectiveAway]

For now, it’s not possible to verify via OBD2 whether the software is actually a factory developed version or modified, because it isn’t digitally signed. The only thing that needs to match is the checksum, and the ECU itself consider everything to be fine.

There are plenty of services that know how to disable EGR and AdBlue and perform chip tuning in such a way that everything still looks normal when checked with an OBD2 reader. They’re not going to check the maximum turbo boost pressure or other live data on every car and compare it with the manufacturer’s specifications. If there’s no visible black smoke coming from the exhaust, nobody is likely to suspect that the vehicle’s ECU has been modified.

Those who used less sophisticated methods, however, will have problems and will need to put everything back to the proper state.

This whole game will come to an end once the factory ECU software will be digitally signed. A digital signature cannot be forged, and if the software is modified, the signature will no longer be valid, they will be able to detect that in seconds by verifying the signature.

[mk2]

I'm not sure, but I think the idea is that the MOT testers will connect to "the manufacturer" network and compare the ECU maps and settings to the original, without looking at digital signatures. In the same way that they can already do updates.

I know VW was able to use the VAS system to remap (reflash the ECU) with complete new software from around 1996 onwards through the OBD connector. So if they could do do that, any vdub from 2001 onwards could be checked I guess. Many "tuners" I know unsolder the flash memory and then change data on a regular chip programmer- once it's not soldered down and off the circuit board. And I have met one or two people who complained that when they took their car in to vdub for a warranty repair, recall or something, the "tune" had been removed.

After a remap, the checksum changes... The ECU uses the new checksum to verify everything is ok in the new software.  That might be a way to tell if the ECU has been reflashed?

[ObjectiveAway]

Yes, that’s true. The checksum is recalculated and the rest is adjusted to match the new value. I’m just not sure how complex the checksum actually is, whether it could be manipulated relatively easily, or whether it differs depending on countless other factors.

So I don’t know if it could really be used for authentication purposes. If every other car already has a different checksum from the factory, then there’s not much point in using it for that.

If there were only a few factory checksum variants, then it should be fairly easy to identify all the reprogrammed cars, assuming this value can actually be read through the OBD.

[Rich]

Yet my ulez compliant TT pd has no issues every year. . . . . 

[mk2]

@Rich, you're one of the prime candidates they're going after. And me with my lightly mod'd SDIs. I think they're trying to make us go down the same route Germany has. Only standard production cars. No kit cars. No self builds. No hot rods. No funny cars. No remaps. No aftermarket parts (only OEM). No fuel changes (petrol to diesel) etc. At least my V12 'rod and my Kei car are exempt 'now'.

I've had friends going to/from the Nurburgring with their heavily mod'd cars getting pulled by the local politzei and having their cars confiscated because they were driving on regular roads. To get them back, they had to organise a flat bed to take them to the border. Mad. It's going to be happening here (especially for post 2001 cars).

[ObjectiveAway]

You can use aftermarket parts in Germany, but they must be TÜV compliant, and there are plenty of options, mods are allowed on same rules.