The maker of a popular line of car tuning devices and software has agreed to pay $2.9 million to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after the regulator accused the company of selling performance-enhancing equipment that allowed customers to skirt alleged air pollution laws.
COBB Tuning, an Austin, Texas, company, manufactured and sold aftermarket accessories at several retail stores, including the former location in Valley Fountains. The EPA said that since 2015, the company has sold 90,000 illegal products, including exhaust systems that allowed cars to bypass polluting catalytic converters and software that boosted engine combustion.
These so-called “breakdown devices” caused smoke and other pollutant emissions to exceed federal standards. The EPA has ordered COBB Tuning to destroy the remaining inventory of these products and notify customers that these devices violate federal clean air laws.
“Destroyed equipment significantly increases air pollution from motor vehicles, especially in already heavily polluted communities,” said David M. “The use of illegal cracking devices has been going on for far too long. EPA will use every enforcement tool to hold polluters like COBB Tuning accountable until these illegal practices cease.”
The enforcement action is one of several taken over the past decade by federal and state regulators seeking to curb excessive pollution from emissions-cheating devices.
Some of the biggest emissions cheating scandals and fines against automakers include Volkswagen’s Dieselgate scandal in 2015, when the German automaker was found to have installed illegal software in nearly 500,000 cars in the United States that made the engines appear cleaner than they actually were. Volkswagen subsequently paid $2.8 billion in criminal fines.
In December 2023, engine manufacturer Cummins Inc. fined $1.6 billion for installing illegal software in 600,000 Ram trucks.
However, regulation and monitoring of aftermarket products is more difficult due to the proliferation of manufacturers, retailers and installers.
In a statement, COBB Tuning officials said the company has fully cooperated with the EPA investigation. and told the agency that it did not develop or market the product as a waste disposal device. They insist that their product line is now fully compliant, and point out that the California Air Resources Board has previously determined that more than 200 of the company’s products do not meet pollution controls and remain on sale.
“As a company, we take our waste management seriously and address in real time any areas of concern that the EPA has identified about how some of our legacy products have been used in unintended ways,” Jeff King, CEO of COBB, said in a statement. “We have had to make difficult decisions along the way about how and when to make changes or discontinue certain products that the EPA is concerned about. We have always focused our decision-making process on implementing changes in a way that benefits the best interests of our passionate customers, distribution partners and the environment. At times, these have been difficult decisions that required immediate action to address the EPA’s concerns.”
Defeat devices are often sold to increase engine efficiency. They can change the engine’s combustion, airflow ratio, and ignition timing. However, the software can also disable the vehicle’s emissions controls and lead to more air pollution.
Typically, the vehicle’s computer determines when it may be producing excessive emissions by turning on the check engine light and limiting the vehicle’s performance, such as putting it into “limp mode.” According to the EPA, the COBB’s faulty software was able to turn off the check engine light and bypass the “limp mode” restrictions.
COBB Tuning exhaust pipes and custom tuning software are manufactured for BMW, Ford, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Porsche, Subaru and Volkswagen vehicles. The company can continue to sell regulatory devices and software that California regulators do not exceed permitted pollution levels.
