VW’s easy fix to diesel scandal

Two months into its diesel scandal, Volkswagen says it finally has found a silver-bullet solution.

In receiving the blessing of the KBA, Germany's type approval authority, to clean up hazardous emissions from the 1.6-liter diesel, VW has now resolved the hardest aspect of its massive recall as that specific engine required technical modifications.

Not only does the proposed new component bring the cars into compliance in Europe, VW Group believes the fix will not even impede fuel efficiency or engine output.

Fitted directly in front of the air mass sensor (see diagram below), this part is equipped with a mesh that calms the swirled air flow and thus decisively improves accuracy when measuring current air mass throughput, a very important parameter for optimum combustion. That last passage is taken almost word for word from the company's statement.

The component comes complete with a cool name, too – 'flow transformer.' It sounds kind of like the fictional Flux Capacitor that allowed a DeLorean to travel through time in the 1980s film "Back to the Future."

Of course just because it looks cheap doesn’t mean it won’t work. — We have to assume it does. Volkswagen cannot possibly be dumb enough to announce a fix that doesn't work. They know that environmental advocacy and consumer rights groups won't take them at their word, preferring instead to carry out their own tests to verify the authenticity of VW's claim.

There's no reason a fix should be ludicrously expensive either, but at least retrofitting all engines with completely different injection nozzles as VW Group CEO Matthias Mueller had initially warned might lead one to understand why engineers were not forming lines to be the bearer of bad news.

Given that, the implication of the fix is truly staggering. Christiaan Hetzner/Autonews