retmil46 wrote:
With the original ORM, the vehicle can be returned to stock configuration and full compliance in 2 seconds just by plugging in the MAF sensor, and there haven't been any PHYSICAL modifications to the vehicle. Even if caught red-handed, an inspector would be hard-pressed to prove you had made a deliberate attempt to defeat the emissions controls ("I just missed that connector when I changed out the air filter") with nothing else out of the ordinary.
However, if caught with a circuit box hard-wired into the vehicle harness and mounted on the fender well, I imagine you'd have a tougher time talking your way out of that one. In this case, you have made a physical modification to the vehicle and altered it from stock for the express purpose of defeating the emissions controls. And the inspector would have physical evidence on the vehicle, either from the box or where you hacked into the harness, to back up his charge.
Woooaaa now, hold the phone! As far as disabling the EGR, etc, etc, for off road, who and even more important, why would DC even care? (Or anyone else?) This vehicle is out of production. They are not responsible for what anybody does! You can’t even get them to do half the warrantee work when they are supposed to!
As far as cutting into the wiring harness and splicing in your own “Test” connector, there are NO federal, local, or any other law or rule that says you can’t! (That I can find).
If you splice into the main wire harness away from all connectors, then have YOUR harness going into a “Black Box”, you assume that this someone knows what it is. If it is going back on the road or in for an inspection, and you have the jumper plug in place, then everything is EXACTLY the way it was before you molested it. (Just some electrical signals go a little bit further than they used to). EVERYTHING is in compliance. Everything will be working because nothing was removed, bypassed, short-circuited, re-plumed or anything else. 100% compliant.
Even with it in place, I have a nice $100 bill that says they won’t even know what it is. Even if they ask and one was to reply that is was some sort of security system, who would know?
I know of no inspector (state, private, or other), dealer, super tech, etc, that is going to take your connector, unplug all 5 CPU’s, and get an Ohm Meter out and start buzzing out over 1000 contacts trying to figure out what this “Suspicious” connector is.
There is NO dealership or state inspection that can even check the functionality of a working EGR on a diesel. PERIOD! (Nobody even puts an EGR on a diesel in the private market except this one). There is nothing they can stick up your tailpipe to check. If there are no CEL codes, (and there won’t be any EGR ones anyway), your on your way.
There are NO laws that state that you can’t add your own magic box. (So now LoJack, Onstar, other security systems, remote starters, GPS tracking systems, aftermarket electronic monitoring systems, fleet maintenance data recorders, cell phone amps, etc, etc, are all illegal because they have to splice into the wiring harness?) I hate to tell you that when you added your electric trailer brake controller you “Modified” your wiring harness. Don’t even think of adding that boom-box amp or Ipod adapter because you will be “Tampering”.
Don’t take my word for it. Check your local laws and see if you can get permission to add an experimental electrical connector on your own private vehicle.
Sorry if this sounds like a flame, but it is not intended to be.......