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US sues eBay for allowing sale of emissions defeat devices

thedrive.com

121–130 of 410 posts

Re: US sues eBay for allowing sale of emissions defeat devices

#121

This is wonderful. I wish they did the same about modifications done to increase the noise. I've got 2 people living nearby that both have straight-piped their car and I literally cover my ears when they pass by. My Watch literally tells me that a noise peak happened when they drive by.

Your municipality likely has noise ordinances for anything above a certain decibel level. This can be handled by your local PD giving them tickets for their exhausts. I’ve seen it done before. If they keep getting tickets/fines they will likely change their exhausts. You can probably call the city about it but you can also call the cops. Just remember what they say about snitches.

I have never heard of a municipality actually enforcing their sound regulations other than live performances being shut down.

Re: US sues eBay for allowing sale of emissions defeat devices

#122

My understanding is that such parts are not by themselves illegal. The crime is actually using them on the road. My understanding was that they were legal for track purposes. I would never want to say that people should be able to defeat emissions, but a part of me does not like the idea that every vehicle owner is beholden to the OEM for parts in perpetuity. The "right to repair" people should be all over this fight…

This is incorrect. Federal law prohibits the removal of emissions devices on a vehicle, even if not used on public roads.

Which makes sense. It's not like pollution stays confined within the track area.

Re: US sues eBay for allowing sale of emissions defeat devices

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most municipalities, especially ones relying on cops to enforce these rules, rarely take action on these complaints.

At least in Canadian cities, both bylaw officers and police can enforce these things. Bylaw officers tend to have less discretion on doing their job (and uhhh, fewer other crimes to claim to be busy with) Though sometimes this double-responsibility just means finger-pointing instead of action.

I've never heard of bylaw officers being a thing in the US. There are some code enforcement people in the US, but they mostly deal in very specific areas (fire code, building code, etc).

Re: US sues eBay for allowing sale of emissions defeat devices

#124
post #9

What about silencers/suppressors? Haven't looked for a while, but it used to be fairly common to be able to find them on both Amazon and eBay, usually listed as "lawnmower mufflers", with pretty un-subtle hints: "This lawnmower muffler fits a 9mm exhaust and you can bang around your back yard all morning without disturbing your neighbor."

Is this similar to the brass knuckles, I mean “belt buckles”, they sell in shady gas stations? Or the tobacco shops who sell pipes for anything but tobacco? As long as they don’t say it’s for illegal use it’s a gray area.

I miss the time in Canada when you’d walk into a bong shop and they’d look at you and smile when they’d say “and you put your… tobacco… here”

Re: US sues eBay for allowing sale of emissions defeat devices

#125

This is wonderful. I wish they did the same about modifications done to increase the noise. I've got 2 people living nearby that both have straight-piped their car and I literally cover my ears when they pass by. My Watch literally tells me that a noise peak happened when they drive by.

You would need to stop the sale of exhaust tubing to prevent this. I don't think that is realistic

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30364669 ("New York is using cameras with microphones to ticket loud cars")

Re: US sues eBay for allowing sale of emissions defeat devices

#126
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me translate for you: Management (the courts) do not find it lucrative enough (political capital) to pursue weak cases (lax laws passed by the legislative branch). In order to fix you must bring awareness in your local community to the problem (lax laws) and petition change (raise political capital). The courts and byproxy, enforcement, will follow. The larger the city, the more difficult this becomes.

No, I believe the officer I talked to didn't care and thought I was a pansy.

Probably a gearhead showing his personal bias.

Re: US sues eBay for allowing sale of emissions defeat devices

#127
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I believe the officer I talked to didn't care and thought I was a pansy.

Probably a gearhead showing his personal bias.

The really frustrating thing is I love cars. I love driving, I love shifting though the gears, I love working on them, I've replaced headgaskets, rebuilt transmissions, and regeared differentials. I just hate how obnoxious noisy vehicles are.

Re: US sues eBay for allowing sale of emissions defeat devices

#128
Great, now do Amazon.

It is always amusing to see the evolution of "code names" for things that sellers use to try to get around algorithmic detection.

And bottom line, I expect businesses operating in the country of origin will likely become the sellers of choice here.

Re: US sues eBay for allowing sale of emissions defeat devices

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One motive is that it's cheaper to delete the emission system vs having to replace/repair the unit. Diesels have much more sophisticated emission devices vs gasoline engines, so it's more costly.

One does not roll coal from e.g. an EGR bypass or delete, though! The only way to get thick clouds of black smoke are too much fuel (turn up the pump) or not oxygen (bag over the air filter in the simplest case). Many states and localities have "visible emissions" rules, where even if your vehicle doesn't have to pass emissions tests, you can still get pulled and cited for actual smoke. I've never been pulled for it…

In my lived experience the folks who intentionally want to roll coal are younger guys (something to do in high school) - "matured" diesel owners want little/no smoke for the higher performance

Re: US sues eBay for allowing sale of emissions defeat devices

#130
post #116
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My understanding is that such parts are not by themselves illegal. The crime is actually using them on the road. My understanding was that they were legal for track purposes. That certainly used to be the case, but it changed recently, and the EPA has been aggressively going after anyone who sells them for any purpose. If you're in the US and sell things that can modify emissions stuff, they're coming for you. Peri…

Does this include chip tunes?

Yes, a popular diesel tuner was the target a take down and fined big money for providing tunes that make vehicles non-compliant. https://www.thedrive.com/news/another-diesel-tuner-nailed-wi...

Omitting wear and reliability concerns, some tunes gain their effect by not controlling for things like NoX and unburned hydrocarbons.

The worst offenders? "Coal rolling". It would be one thing to do this to help spool a turbo or for some other performance reason, but it's literally running the motor as rich as possible to dump unburned fuel out the tailpipe to make a visual effect. At the expense of everyone around you.

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