HEAVY DUTY OBD REQUIREMENTS – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW.

On Board Diagnostic Systems (OBD) aren’t new to the automotive industry, and they have been required by The California Air Resources Board (CARB) in cars and light duty applications since the early 1990’s. Beginning this year, CARB requires OBD systems on all heavy-duty highway applications as stated inTitle 13, California Code of Regulations, Section 1971.1 This is the next step to ensure that all emission reduction systems on HD engines continue to operate properly to maintain the certified emission standards for heavy-duty 2010 engines used in highway vehicles weighing over 14,000 lbs. CARB’s mandate requires that all major emissions control systems be monitored, and that any problems or malfunctions be detected prior to emissions exceeding the mandated thresholds.

CARB is requiring that just one engine rating (OBD parent rating) within one of the manufacturer’s engine families (the highest weighted sales number for 2010) be certified to the Full OBD requirements in 2010 through 2012. Other reduced OBD requirements apply to other engine ratings (OBD child ratings) within the same family selected for Full OBD. All other engine families not selected for Full OBD shall apply an Engine Manufacturer Diagnostic (EMD) System according to 1971.1(d)(7.1.4). Visithttp://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/obdprog/hdobdreg.htm to access the rule and related documents.

One of the additional requirements of this HD OBD regulation is to report data to CARB regarding In-Use Monitoring of Performance of the OBD systems according to Section 1971.1(l)(3). This data must be provided within twelve months of introduction of the engines into commerce. Data from fifteen vehicles per grouping is required. CARB requires data from different groupings based on emission architecture as well as from a performance grouping. Preceding the collection of data, the manufacturer must provide a data collection and reporting plan to CARB for review and approval.

Boshart  has been conducting this data collection and reporting for numerous light duty vehicle manufacturers for years. We are using the same process, modified for this application, for the HD engine industry. This whole data collection process, including the plan submittal to CARB, can be supplied as a turn-key project for full reporting compliance. At Boshart we locate vehicles, collect, translate and report OBD data for you to send to CARB, making compliance a painless experience. We are fluent in all Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and International Organization of Standards (ISO) coding languages such as SAE J2403 and ISO 15765-4:2001.

Call us today and you OBDon’t have to worry about it.