What's Happening With Emissions Controls?
What's Happening With Emissions Controls?
Lane Campbell
Motorcycles emission controls have been since subject January to 1 this year. You may not know it yet. You probably have not yet seen a motorcycle built after January 1. Most of those 1978 models (as the vehicle ID plate on the steering head is boldly marked) were actually made in ’77. For proof, look for the date of manufacture stamped in fine print on the plate. It takes months for bikes to work through the pipeline from factory to showroom floor.
Still, the bikes are coming. The factories, the distributors and dealers are all learning to live with them. It’s not easy, for the EPA bureaucracy keeps making up new hoops for the tradespeople to jump through.
The latest buzzwords in the emission control lexicon are “emission warranty”, “aftermarket parts certification”, and “anti-tampering”. Uh, OK, buzz-phrases. Nothing about this emission control mess is simple or easy.
Plain old warranty you’re familiar with (or should be). The manufacturer warrants to you, the buyer, that the product will work for some specified period or the manufacturer will fix or replace it. That’s fine. If a manufacturer had confidence in his product, he offered a warranty, for however long he wanted. It was part of the selling package. You were in the market for something, you looked for a good warranty, or a low price. It was strictly between buyer and seller.
No more. Now there’s a third party, the government. Both the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board have rules on the books requiring manufacturers to offer an “emission warranty” on all vehicles, motorcycles included.
What’s this mean?
They’re saying that the bike builders (among others) must guarantee the performance of all “emissions related parts” on those machines subject to emission controls (namely, those with road-legal lighting built after January 1). They’re saying that if any such part fails within the bike’s “useful life”, the maker must replace it free.
Definition time. What’s an emissions related part? What’s a useful life? A motorcycle (so far, at least) doesn’t require add-on gadgets like catalytic converters or EGR or any of that other car stuff. (Thank goodness.) The “emission control device” on a bike is simply its engine, built to certain specs so it will burn its fuel cleanly and at the right temperature. So the government has “suggested” to us what emissions related parts of that engine can be: cams, valve gear, pistons, cylinder heads, porting, carburetion, manifolds, air filter/ airbox, ignition, and possibly exhaust systems (they haven’t given us a definite yes or no on that).
Did we leave out anything? What we have here is the whole upper end of the engine and then some, warrantied for five years or a specified mileage, whichever comes first. (For motorcycles, the mileage varies with displacement: 50 to 169cc it’s 12,000 km (7,456 mi.); 170 to 279cc it’s 18,000 km (11,185 mi); 280cc and over is 18.000 km (11.185 mi.); 280cc and over is 30.000 km (18,641 mi.). The parts are to be warrantied against an "emissions failure". which the government defines as failure to meet the emission standard in effect at the time of manufacture. 30.000 km ( 18.641 mi.). The parts are to be warrantied against an “emissions failure”, which the government defines as failure to meet the emission standard in effect at the time of manufacture.
So. we're not talking about failure as in "Blap! Clatter, scatter. thunk!" If the engine quits running, it also quits polluting. An ~`emissions failure" is all but invisible. The engine keeps on running. and may even be running better than stock. So. we’re not talking about failure as in “Blap! Clatter, scatter, thunk!” If the engine quits running, it also quits polluting. An “emissions failure" is all but invisible. The engine keeps on running, and may even be running better than stock.
If your mind is leapfrogging, you're already thinking, “Hm. If you can't see that the part’s failed, the warranty’s meaningless, along with all the government regs that go with it . . . unless . . . there’s some sort of test.”
Aha! You’ve got it. The handy-dandy quickie government-sanctioned emissions inspection for everyone. There is some sort of inspection program in the legislative works in most of the country’s large industrial states. In California. CARB is swearing up and down that motorcycles won't be included. But if motorcycles are to be excluded, why saddle them with a warranty that’s meaningless without the test?
Meanwhile the bike makers and the bolt-on parts makers have had their say on “emissions warranty”. If it’s too much hassle, some bikes and some types of parts just won’t be made. For those that are still produced, the cost of doing business wall be passed along just like other costs.
Warranty is like insurance (actually, it is insurance). The company collects its loss history for each year, sums up the cost, and spreads it out by tacking a little extra onto the following year's prices.
Part II — How about aftermarket certification0 That’s largelv a California creation. but it’s got a nationwide reach. The CARB says it must certify all aftermarket parts (replacement and/or modified) which replace or alter an emission-related part or system of parts on an emissioncontrolled bike. That means the Board is taking into its own hands the powder to approve parts for sale on emission-controlled street bikes in California.
CARB will base its approval on whether or not the add-on or modified part will make an engine run “dirtier” than stock. However, there's only one legally acceptable proof: the full-cycle EPA emission certification test, which runs $50,000 to $60.000 a shot.
Everybody wishes there was a cheaper bench test to use for aftermarket parts. In fact. Congress has ordered the EPA to come up with one in about tw;o years. Meanwhile there’s no such animal, and the motorcycle tradespeople flatly say they can’t afford the full test on every part they make. So CARB has offered to negotiate certification on a case-by-case basis with the various parts suppliers. Sounds like job security for somebody, doesn't it?
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Finally. we get to anti-tampering. This is something written into both federal and California law. It is the government's way of discouraging vehicle owners from modi fying their emission-controlled motors so they run better. It now applies to motorcy cles. too: and a fine old flap it has gener ated among the motorcycle parts trade.
See, it's now a violation of federal law to install upon an emission-controlled motor cycle any part that could make it run dirtier than stock. So big carbs, trick cams, different valves and valve gear and high domed pistons all become suspect if fitted to a made-after-January 1, 1978 street bike. Never mind that these might be the same parts that fit a non-controlled bike; the government doesn't want you to think about that.
The people really caught in the middle are motorcycle dealers. They get slapped with a $10,000 fine every time they're caught violating the anti-tampering law. Some of them are in a panic, and are canceling speed-goodie orders right and left. The Motorcycle Industry Council is trying to damp down the panic and show dealers the kinds of parts and modifica tions they can install legally.
This is not too easy, for the bureaucrats who kicked off this flap as usual fail to have their act together. Remember, there's no quickie certification test for aftermarket parts. So there's no on-the-spot way of telling what's certifiable and what isn't.
The feds have given the industry a few guidelines to go by. The EPA says a dealer is off the hook if the parts he installs are (a) replacement or repair parts installed ac cording to factory specs, (b) add-on or auxiliary parts (such as an oil cooler or a spark arrester), or (c) alterations to parts or systems that are done to factory specs.
As to out-and-out modification work, EPA says, in effect, use your judgment. That's not too comforting to a dealer. It means that a lot of speed goodies which we're accustomed to buying over the coun ter will be marked "Not for street use on [brand name] motorcycles built after Janu ary 1, 1978. Racing only."
One more thing. EPA says it will con sider parts that have been state-certified home free on anti-tampering. California has mandatory certifications. This, in ef fect, gives the CARB staff a certification power affecting parts sales all over the country. And they have as much as admit ted they don't know what they're doing.
They don't know much about motorcy cles, to begin with. They don't have the quickie bench test. They don't have a vehicle-in-use inspection (yet). But they have all this raw power. just waiting to be used.
Frightening, isn't it?
