The EPA Is Targeting Aftermarket Car Modifications

This threatens the car hobby at its core.

There’s an ideal among some Americans, usually those who lean a little more Left, that federal agencies like the EPA are heroes who constantly do good and very little evil. Because of this preconception, any criticism of federal action is met within the frame of anti-patriotism or even worse, an intent to dismantle a loving, kind government. However, two incidents quickly deconstruct this rather simplistic view. One is the EPA’s spilling of pollutants from Gold King mine in Colorado into the Animas River, which in turn polluted the mighty Colorado River. Water that was normally beautifully crystal clear in some areas turned a mustard yellow as recreationists were warned to stay away until everything cleared up. While accidental, the end result was the EPA, the federal agency charged with protecting the environment, caused a tremendous amount of pollution.

Learn how NYC traffic cameras are busting modified cars here.

The second event which calls into question the EPA’s heroic actions – and there are many, many more like this – came after the Norfolk Southern train derailed on February 3 in East Palestine, Ohio. Michael Regan, Administrator of the EPA, insisted there was nothing toxic in the air and water of the area. Yet we have seen countless examples to prove such an assertion not only false, but laughably so.

Citing these two examples, one attributed to incompetence and the other perhaps to something more sinister, isn’t to say the EPA has done no good in its 52-plus years of existence. However, to never question the agency’s actions is to invite disaster, abuse, and corruption.

Targeting An Industry

It’s in that light that we take a hard look at how the EPA is treating the aftermarket automotive parts industry, specifically when it comes to anything it considers to be an emissions defeat device. Just what is such a thing? According to an Enforcement Alert issued by the EPA in December 2020 it’s spelled out as follows:

“Examples of such parts, devices, and elements of design include: the on-board diagnostic system (OBD); diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs); sensors for oxygen, oxides of nitrogen (NOx), ammonia, particulate matter (PM), urea quality, and exhaust gas temperature; diesel particulate filters (DPFs) and their sensors; exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) systems; diesel oxidation catalysts (DOCs); selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems; NOx adsorber catalyst (NAC) systems; engine calibrations that affect engine combustion (e.g., fuel injection or ignition timing, injection pattern, fuel injection mass for each injection event, fuel injection pressure, EGR flowrate, mass air flowrate, EGR cooler bypassing).”

That’s quite the list of potential defeat devices. If you’re realizing pretty much every powertrain, intake, and exhaust modification could fall under that laundry list, you’re starting to catch on to what’s happening.

Of course, the EPA has provided some clarification about certain items it considers defeat devices. In a memo issued on November 3, 2020 it says “tuners” which “change the ECU… might be an illegal aftermarket defeat device, the use or installation of which might constitute illegal tampering.” Hopefully that makes everything crystal clear.

In that same memo, the EPA does let everyone know that there’s no point during the life of a car when tampering with the many emissions-related devices as defined by the agency is okay. Even if you pull the engine or other equipment from a vehicle that’s been wrecked, you still have to play by the rules as defined by the EPA or else.

It gets even better: The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality released a document called Tampering of Vehicle Emissions Controls. It spells out how even adding a turbocharger to a vehicle could be considered an emissions defeat device because it’s “not originally certified on the car.” Of course, if you can produce federally-approved testing which shows vehicle emissions don’t increase with that specific configuration then you get an exception, otherwise you could be facing crippling fees and maybe even criminal prosecution.

Severe Consequences

Failure to do everything just like the EPA wants it can sink your business, or at least put you in a world of financial hurt. The agency proudly trots out recent examples of its and the Department of Justice’s enforcement efforts. One involves fining Borla $1,022,500 in 2022 for the sin of manufacturing and selling aftermarket exhausts designed for the removal of catalytic converters.

In a press release on the Borla matter, Martha Guzman, EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator gives a powerful quote to sum up what this is all about: “Aftermarket defeat devices are against the law and disproportionately impact communities with environmental justice concerns.”

If the sort of “environmental justice” reference Guzman uses confuses you, a great explainer of this line of thinking was laid out in the Los Angeles Times not too long ago. An article headline boldly declares “White drivers are polluting the air breathed by L.A.’s people of color.” This blending of social justice and environmental enforcement has finally reached the EPA in force after being the topic of university classrooms and radical environmentalist publications alongside other level-headed discussions of abolishing farming, shipping, and other practices allegedly destroying the planet.

If you think Borla paid through the nose, consider the $3.1 million settlement Power Performance Enterprises entered into after the EPA alleged it manufactured and sold defeat devices. Not only was the company and president/owner Kory Blaine Willis facing civil action, they were slapped with federal criminal charges. DieselOps LLC and Orion Diesel LLC were slapped with a $10 million civil penalty in a default judgement while the owner of the two companies was hit with a $455,925 civil penalty along with a $1 million fine for alleged fraudulent transfers.

Big names in the aftermarket world have been caught in this squeeze, like Summit Racing, which settled for $600,000 last summer. Parts iD was hit for $500,000 while Keystone Automotive, the owner of Warn and other off-road brands, incurred a $2.5 million penalty.

One of the most notorious enforcement cases involving an aftermarket parts company was for Gear Box Z. The company settled the matter with the EPA in August 2021 after being accused of “violations of the Clean Air Act (CAA) associated with the manufacture, sale, and/or offer to sell aftermarket products that defeat the emissions control systems equipped on diesel pickup trucks.” The EPA alleged almost everything the company made and sold was illegal. Financially broken, GBZ and its owners paid a civil penalty of just $10,000 “due to its demonstrated financial inability to pay a higher penalty.” Essentially, the EPA put them out of business.

Environmentalists cheered the closure of GBZ, National Law Review gave a chilling take on the legal fallout of the case:  “Perhaps more importantly, EPA’s interpretation signals that in the future it may consider any modification of a stock ECM on a vehicle engine certified for road use to be unlawful ‘tampering’ under the Clean Air Act. This might include even those modifications that do not directly defeat a vehicle’s emissions control system.” In other words, the case signaled to many it’s now open season on aftermarket parts companies.

Shops Fall Afoul

It’s not just aftermarket parts manufacturers and retail sellers getting hit by the EPA. Back in August 2022 Road & Track ran a shocking story about a little Honda speed shop which somehow attracted the attention of the EPA. With an ongoing investigation, the shop had to refuse work on any vehicle that wasn’t trailered in or any vehicle lacking a dedicated ECU. The owner told R&T the legal fees alone could put the shop out of business. Then he asks a critical question: why don’t the big names in the aftermarket world help out little shops like him that are targeted?