obob

Here is my theory when trying to think of why they did this. I do this to kind of make sense of things and it is not really based on anything real other than I have worked in engineering environments. Here are some assumptions that I am not sure are true but seem to makes sense and have some support in the facts. 1. Manufacturers need to have meet an average mpg for all the cars they sell that is high. Some car manufactures meet this number with small light cars that have little or negative profit margin so they can sell the higher margin cars. Some do it with hybrids which also probably have a low margin. 2. Diesel pollution needed to be reduced. This was extremely bad for VW for the diesel was their go to car to get their average mpg for all cars up. They did not have the hybrid or small cheap car so they could still sell the high margin gas guzzler cars. Plus they own Porche which also kind of depended on VW to up the average mpg. http://www.caranddriver.com/features/how-automakers-will-meet-2016-cafe-standards 3. They felt unfairly affected so they decided to “bend” the rules to a new level to kind of even out how they were unfairly singled out, and perhaps felt kind of justified. They might have figured all the automakers bend the rules and we have to compete against them. We are not going to be legislated out of our present leadership. (they kind of feared extinction) 4. Then the marketing people got into the act and sold the public on this clean diesel thing that broke trust which now makes it a felony rather than a big misdemeanor. They fulfilled a deep sincere longing for responsible environmental consciousness for people with a dirty car that they sold as responsible and environmentally consciousness. Might I add that I see parallels between this and athletic competitors using performance enhancing drugs to compensate for seemingly being beat out of competition by old age or lack of talent or lack of focus or lack of keeping up with the Jones' performance enhancing drugs. I also see parallels in social interaction but I won't go into that.

One article coined the word dieselgate. This post from another forum leads to me to believe this may get a lot bigger. http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37715422&postcount=130

I thought it could have been a BMW from this quote: "The lab that tested the VWs also tested a diesel BMW X5, which passed." http://jalopnik.com/your-guide-to-dieselgate-volkswagens-diesel-cheating-c-1731857018

Car A and B I suspect are VW's and B has urea exhaust injection, which apparently just limits the degree of pollution, not eliminating it. Car C might be a diesel BMW X5 http://jalopnik.com/your-guide-to-dieselgate-volkswagens-diesel-cheating-c-1731857018

Great link !!! Thanks. I find it sad that there is so much reporting by major news outlets without referencing this info. In case it is not obvious enough the link to the report is: http://www.theicct.org/sites/default/files/publications/WVU_LDDV_in-use_ICCT_Report_Final_may2014.pdf For those interested, it might be good to start reading at conclusions on page 106. It details the nature of vehicle A and B and C and puts words to a lot of the graph that Plus 3 Golfer posted.

I wonder if VW's investigation will make them look somewhat innocent - like the code was written by a rouge computer programmer, or this is the software for a different country. It is nice when cheaters get caught, but unfortunately I suspect that there is a lot worse cheating going on that is not getting caught by different industries, which is bad because this is a pretty bad cheat. Here is a post from another forum which I found interesting: http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37712981&postcount=96 The fix might be to add a "diesel exhaust fluid system which injects urea based additive into exhaust stream so any nitrogen oxides are converted to carbon dioxide, pure nitrogen and water" and leave it on.

I was having trouble uploading the trip meter jpg. It comes out small. Would appreciate help in how to do it right. 721.2 miles 444.3 EV53.4 MPG13.49 gal Miles driven on car 18597.3 Regular fuelmostly suburban driving Actually was having fun when I was by myself in the car rather than boredom. Not so orthodox with people in the car.

And it will be interesting to me how it effects performance.

That's really, really low in my opinion. I thought VW had more ethics for me to expect that. I got a kick out of this line from the NY Times article: “This is several steps beyond the violations that we’ve seen from other auto companies,” "TDI Clean Diesel makes sure you don’t have to sacrifice driving dynamics for mpg." http://www.vw.com/features/clean-diesel/ It would be interesting to me to know who at VW actually knew about this - how high up the ladder did this idea get OKed.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=1 It mentions that underinflation could reduce treadwear by 25% No mention of reduced treadwear with overinflation.

My understanding is that the rear brakes work during regenerative braking only for the last few miles/hour, like 5 to 0, to make it a smooth stop. I reached this conclusion by listening with the windows open. I am thinking perhaps this very light use of the brakes may contribute to the rotors being so ridged-out. I would think about not changing the rotors if they look like crap and the pads have plenty of pad left. The pads shape themselves to the ridges. They could still be braking safely. My rear rotors looked pretty bad way earlier than 40k. Maybe 5k. ADDED LATER: the left side is way worst than the right.

No I don't so I may have been to quick to say the parts are ready.

I just got my letter in the mail today so the parts are probably ready.

I suspect that the reason the mats don't go up the left foot area has to do with the manufacturing equipment that they have. This video kind of gave me the idea. (Though it is kind of odd to watch a 15 sec commercial to view a 30 second commercial.)

Why do you only use them in the winter ?

I think this pretty much sums it up. I actually wonder whether the problem can be heard long before the problem sounds like a problem. I have noticed that my engine when regenerating is noisier that when I first bought the car. (I noticed this quite a while ago.) I used to think it was because of some of the software upgrades, like the software makes it regenerate more, but now I am wondering if it is the transmission design problem. It is not significant enough for the dealer to say, new transmission but it might be the start of the walk to the gallows, so to speak, for the transmission.

So assuming 3.7 volt batteries, I calculate that you string about 9 in series, and some number of these packs in parallel. One concern for which you may have a good understanding from Wikipedia: Consumer-grade lithium-ion batteries should not be charged at temperatures below 0 °C (32 °F). Although a battery pack may appear to be charging normally, electroplating of metallic lithium can occur at the negative electrode during a subfreezing charge, and may not be removable even by repeated cycling. Most devices equipped with Li-ion batteries do not allow charging outside of 0–45 °C for safety reasons, except for mobile phones that may allow some degree of charging when they detect an emergency call in progress

Perhaps make a set of covers for the headlights.

So do you make these battery packs yourself ? How do you avoid overcharging and fires ?

deleted. UPDATE: after reading raadsel's post I now remember that drive in's use the radio so you wanted to have the car on so I am deleting the post about insulating the key FOB with aluminum foil.

It is not clear to me that driving in neutral is illegal in all states. https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130515042608AAvRyeP

I am not that great at electrical stuff but could you wire both headlights on the same circuit as one headlight and kind of double the draw. By the way, how many watts are your saving ? When you say it puts out good light, is it better than the standard bulbs ? Since you may still have one of each it would be great chance to test it out. Thanks.

LOL

The way I usually brake, I only hear the rear brakes for like the between 5 and 0 mph and it doesn't continue after releasing the petal. It stops when the car stops.

I couple weeks ago I took a 250 x 2 mile trip. Very hilly for half of it. On the way out I used Forscan. To the best of my memory, and it is not that great - I should have just wrote the numbers down, the trans temperature was mostly around 148 and went up to 152 on a big long hill. (as I recall the radiator temp was around 183.)