OBD Technology Seen Adding Time, Complexity
By Dan Leone, Staff Reporter
This story appears in the Feb. 18 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Representatives of heavy-duty engine manufacturers said during the 2008 annual meeting of the Technology & Maintenance Council that onboard diagnostic technology bundled with 2010 engines will add considerable time and complexity to troubleshooting routines.
“OBD will bring more complexity, fault codes, parameters and information to the technician,” said Jim Roal, a mechanical engineer with Caterpillar Inc..
The Environmental Protection Agency’s OBD requirement will call for heavy-duty engine manufacturers to include diagnostic technology to monitor the performance of emission control technologies needed to meet 2010 standards.
While manufacturers will be required to “provide information in a fashion that would assist technicians,” the OBD mandate does not formally address the training of mechanics to handle hundreds of new diagnostic trouble codes, said Greg Gillham, manager of onboard diagnostics at Detroit Diesel Corp.
DTCs are codes that correspond to engine and component faults.
Gillham said that while the exhaust gas recirculation technology already used to moderate heavy-duty diesel emissions has its own associated OBD technology, the 2010 standards will require manufacturers to install far more complex systems.
Another complication introduced in 2010 rule is the requirement for “threshold monitors,” Gillham said.
Rather than just alerting drivers of component failures, OBD systems must be able to track engine pollutants within a certain range.
“It will get more difficult for a technician to know why he got a fault,” said Ben Zwissler, chief of onboard diagnostics for engine manufacturer Cummins Inc.
OBD systems will be required to police not only emission-control components, but sensors used to monitor the components.
“All electronic components that interface to [a truck’s] onboard computer” must be monitored because “malfunctions of certain components can affect emissions,” said Tim Gundrum, of International Truck and Engine Corp.
Gundrum said if a diagnostic can’t be completed because a sensor has malfunctioned, the incident will generate a failure report, meaning that a technician will have to correct the issue before a truck can get back on the highway.
The 2010 OBD rule poses further difficulties for fleets, because some of the sensor technology that will be required to keep track of engine emissions does not yet exist.
Currently, the EPA rule requires one engine family from each manufacturer to comply with the OBD mandate by 2010. By 2019, all engines will have to comply with the rule.
