In recent years, we’ve seen the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ramp up its efforts to crack down on third-party companies and other entities that delete emissions devices from vehicles, or modify those vehicles in ways that violate emissions standards. This has largely been relegated to the world of diesel engines, as many tuners have been selling vehicle emissions defeat devices for years now. Problem is, those same mods result in those vehicles emitting high levels of pollutants, many of which are directly linked to respiratory diseases. As such, the EPA has been on a mission to punish those that sell them, and that list now includes Cobb Tuning as well.
Cobb – which makes and sells all sorts of parts and accessories for various Ford vehicles – has reached a settlement with the EPA and the U.S. Department of Justice after it reportedly violated the Clean Air Act and its prohibition against the sale or manufacture of aftermarket emissions defeat devices. According to the EPA, Cobb has manufactured and sold over 81,000 tuners that disable emissions controls or alter engine performance, and 8,400 exhaust replacement pipes that don’t meet current standards since 2015.
Under the settlement, Cobb Tuning must stop manufacturing and selling defeat device products and may only continue to sell tuners and software tunes which have undergone an engineering evaluation, been demonstrated to not increase emissions above allowable levels, and obtained an Executive Order from the California Air Resources Board (CARB). Cobb must also pay a civil penalty of $2,914,000.
Cobb is just the latest company to face massive financial repercussions for selling emissions defeat devices in recent months, a list that includes Rudy’s Performance Parts Inc., EZ Lynk, and Ford dealer Moody Motor Co., Inc. in Niobrara, Nebraska, while eBay also banned the sale of those types of devices some time ago. As for Cobb, it sells a wide variety of parts for Ford vehicles including tunes for the Ford Maverick, Hydrocarbon Trap Intakes for the Ford F-150, tuning support for the Ford Explorer ST, and an intake system for the sixth-generation Ford Bronco.
Comments
At 280M U.S. vehicles, they’ve sold tunes to 0.0003% of the vehicles on the road. This crackdown will save the environment, and save us from the violent onslaught of surging oceans. The number of tuners is such an infinitesimal percentage of the population that these tunes should all be legal. They are having no discernible effect on anything. You’d have a better case citing them for noise pollution.
Ya, okay professor.
Bureaucrats are out of control. We need some BIG changes here soon.
How are they out of control when they are just enforcing already established laws or did you miss this part?
“Under the settlement, Cobb Tuning must stop manufacturing and selling defeat device products and may only continue to sell tuners and software tunes which have undergone an engineering evaluation, been demonstrated to not increase emissions above allowable levels, and obtained an Executive Order from the California Air Resources Board (CARB).”
I’ve been messing around with cars since the ’80s and a CARB exemption was required even back then for compliance. The problem is that certain administrations have been lackadaisical in their enforcement for whatever reason and instead of maintaining constant enforcement and when they slacked off the kids went out to play despite knowing the ground rules.
Effect notwithstanding they are breaking the law and we do not get to decide which laws we want to obey. If I come to your house and steal just a little bit of your money is that ok? No. These companies knew the risk going in, estimated the potential profit, and made their choice. They bet wrong and now have to face the consequences.
The problem is that the standards that are in question and are meant to be defeated by these
devices were not determined by the congress or any other democratic process, rather by a bureaucratic decree driven by a climate change justification, the validity of which is questionable.
Nonsense, the standards in question were approved by congress and overseen by the EPA. It’s not some invisible shadowy process where a few “communists” get to arbitrarily decide what standards to implement. That is of course unless you consider the average American’s lack of participation in government a “shadowy process” in which case then, its mostly self-inflicted.
FACTS hurt some people’s feelings. Hurting people’s feelings is like murder. 😛
The ATF makes up sh*t as they go. And so does most of the traitors associated with this admin.
You guys need to keep your political comments for truth social, 8 chan and Twitter.
Yes. Agreed.
Fascists looooove them some whinin’, unless they’re the ones causing the whines.
Typical.
The ones making and enforcing these laws are the same ones that think words can be assault.
We as a country need to get realistic of what our problems really are. A tiny percentage of car buyers modifying their cars aren’t a real issue., they’re only an issue to bureaucrats looking to pad their budgets.
We have micro plastics found in brains, every organ of the body, babies, embryos, sperm, and have been linked.toassive amounts of health risks for humans. The EPA should be focusing on things that actually matter.
Can’t we all just get along?