From Ed on FB:
This is clearly the hot topic of the day, so let's try to clear some things up.
This is part of a continued effort from Cobb to be as compliant as possible with the EPA and CARB. It's not easy for anyone, but this is the only way that our industry can continue to exist. Cobb is not the first to implement such measures and most other tuning companies will have to follow suit soon if they want to continue to operate in the USA. None of this is a big surprise as things have been moving in this direction for years.
This update covers all platforms supported by Cobb, but it affects these platforms in varying ways. Let's start with how it affects our MQB EA888.3 cars and tuning. Thankfully, we are one of the least affected platforms overall. All Cobb based tunes on this platform have always retained full functionality of emissions code and checks. If any tuned car was not running emissions equipment that satisfies the factory checks, the ECU will set the appropriate P code which will appear with a scan of the ECU. The only difference is that up until now, we were allowed to decrease the priority of certain codes so that they would not illuminate the CEL in the cabin even though they would be present on a scan. This means that any new tunes will continue to function just like they always have, with one exception. If your vehicle has hardware that causes a factory check to set an error code, your CEL will illuminate alerting you to the stored code.
Other platforms are more affected by this. For example, Subaru and GT-R flex fuel tunes had been set up in such a way that they use existing factory sensor inputs to wire in a flex fuel sensor. These sensors usually have to do with emissions functionality, so they can no longer be deleted and used for a flex fuel input. As such, these platforms can no longer use the same flex fuel functionality and alternate methods are being worked on (alternate inputs such as CAN). Luckily, this will not be an issue for the future flex fuel implementation for MQB cars because our ECU's have a native input set up for a flex fuel sensor. This means that we don't have to replace or alter any emissions based sensor to implement flex fuel functionality.
These are wild times for everyone in the industry. We all want to make sure that we can continue to enjoy our hobbies in a way that is congruent with our evolving society. We will continue to work with companies like Cobb to develop emissions friendly solutions that keep everyone happy and keep our industry alive in the long term. These days, fun and poor emissions do not have to go hand in hand.
