Repair strategy announced for VW EA189 diesel engines

Volkswagen (VW) has released details regarding the technical fixes it will use to bring two of its EA189 diesel engines into line with current emissions standards.

The fixes are designed for the 1.6 litre and the 2.0 litre diesel engines, and have been presented to the federal motor transport authority (KBA) before being offered to the public. VW assured the procedure will rectify emissions on ‘the majority’ of vehicles affected by the ongoing emissions scandal.

In a statement, VW said: “After implementation of the technical measures, the vehicles will comply with the applicable emissions standards”.

Specifically, the EA189 1.6-litre diesel engine will require a new ‘flow transformer’, a mesh material which will be used to calm air flow around the mass sensor and help regulate the internal combustion process. A software update will also be applied, while the process as a whole should take less than one hour.

For the EA189 2.0 litre diesel engine, only a software update is necessary, which should take less than 30 minutes.

VW said: “Thanks to advances in engine development and improved simulation of currents inside complex air intake systems, in combination with software optimisation geared towards this, it has been possible to produce a relatively simple and customer-friendly measure.

"The objective for the development of the technical measures is still to achieve the applicable emission targets in each case without any adverse effects on the engine output, fuel consumption and performance. However, as all model variants first have to be measured, the achievement of these targets cannot yet be finally confirmed."

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