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Volkswagen and Porsche recall Touareg and Cayenne

The Basics: Volkswagen and Porsche will recall about 800,000 units worldwide of the 2011-2016 Touareg and Cayenne, according to Reuters. Of these, there are 88,300 Cayennes and 46,700 Touaregs in the US. The Problem: A securing clip on the brake pedal hinge could be missing. This can cause the pedal pivot pin to move, and "the pedal could lose guidance," according to Volkswagen's statement. Over time, the problem might cause the pedal hinge to fracture, which could make it impossible to activate the brakes. Injuries/Deaths: Porsche's statement says, "this is a purely precautionary measure, as there have been no reports of accidents or injuries as a result of this concern." Volkswagen's statement reports, "no incidents have occurred in the US to date. However, single events have been reported overseas." The Fix: Dealers will inspect the clip and reinstall it if necessary. If you own one: Porsche says it discovered the problem during internal inspections. Related Video: PORSCHE EXAMINES CAYENNE MODELS AS A PREVENTATIVE MEASURE Inspection of pedal hinge clip Atlanta, Georgia. Voluntary safety recall: Porsche is conducting an examination of 409,477 Cayenne models worldwide from model years 2011 to 2016 for a precautionary inspection, of which 88,300 are in the United States and 10,370 are in Canada. The reason for this is a clip may have become dislodged from the pedal bracket. We are implementing a voluntary recall to inspect all Cayenne vehicles built during that period to ensure the clip is present and to re-install it if necessary. The problem was identified during internal inspections and remedied in production. This is a purely precautionary measure, as there have been no reports of accidents or injuries as a result of this concern. ### Volkswagen Statement Volkswagen has notified NHTSA of an upcoming voluntary safety recall affecting approximately 46,700 Volkswagen Touareg vehicles from the 2011-2016 model years. In rare cases, a securing clip at the brake pedal hinge may be missing. If the clip is missing, the pedal pivot pin could start to move and the pedal could lose guidance. If this remains undiscovered, the pedal hinge could fracture after continued operation, allowing the pedal to dislodge. A customer may not be able to properly actuate the brakes with a dislodged brake pedal. A non-functional brake or reduced braking power could result in a crash. No incidents have occurred in the U.S. to date.

VW Jetta TDI dyno shows HP loss trying to recreate cheat mode

Volkswagen is working on a fix for diesel-engined vehicles that are out of compliance with emissions regulations in the US and other countries. We're told that engineers will be presenting a solution internally sometime this month, but that doesn't mean we'll actually see it in the wild this month. One big question we have about the coming fix is, will it affect the car's performance? That question relates to another we have about the engine as it is: How much performance would the 2.0-liter diesel lose right now if it were turned down to pass US emissions? The Fast Lane Car tried to sketch some answers by going to a shop in Denver, Colorado to run a 2011 Jetta TDI with a six-speed DSG transmission on an all-wheel-drive dyno. The thinking was that if you ran all four wheels the car would think it was on the road, whereas if you ran only two the car might think it's being tested. We'll get straight to the numbers: the stock sedan is quoted at 140 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque. When run with all four wheels turning it produced an uncorrected 114 hp and 214 lb-ft at the wheels. When run with just two wheels in motion the Jetta got 113 hp and 188 lb-ft at the wheels. Reading the graph, we're told that power differences between the two runs were as much as 15 hp and 32 lb-ft. You'll need to take some salt with these numbers, though, because the dyno and test protocol in the video are nothing like those used by the EPA. The shop attempts to trick the Jetta into 'emissions testing mode' by using the front wheels only for the two-wheel-drive run, but we have a feeling the software code at issue is far more sophisticated than that, since the ICCT, UVA, the EPA, and CARB investigated the situation for more than a year and couldn't figure out. Also, the technician adjusts for being a mile above sea level with a correction factor of 1.2 applied to horsepower and torque, which inflates the disparity in the final power differences over the two runs. Go to YouTube and read the lengthy comments on the video left by Andrew Price for a more thorough dissection of what could explain TFL's disparities. You can watch the video above, and feel free to try and dissect the results yourselves in the comments below. Related Video:

Volkswagen loses thousands of vehicles in Chinese explosion

Yesterday, a blazing, explosive fireball erupted from a port in the city of Tianjin, in China, lighting up the night sky and shattering windows with the force of 21 tons of TNT. Hundreds were injured and the death toll continues to rise, with the most recent reports claiming 50 were killed. While the human cost of this tragedy simply can't be overstated, it hasn't taken long for corporations to look into what the enormous explosion cost them. And for Volkswagen, the answer is quite a lot. According to our friends at Jalopnik, a Chinese source claims the German giant, which remains one of the PRC's most popular brands, lost thousands of vehicles. The automotive casualty sheet lists 1,065 Touaregs, 391 Beetles, 257 Tiguans, 114 Golfs, 84 Up! minicars, 39 SportVans, and 28 Magotans (a locally built version of the Passat). While those are the only vehicles listed, the Chinese source said over 2,700 vehicles were destroyed. For example, both Land Rover and Renault lost an unspecified number of Discovery SUVs and Koleos CUVs, respectively. The explosion also affected Toyota. Its research and design facility with joint-venture partner Sichuan FAW also suffered an unspecified amount of damage. You can check out the translated source article here. As Google Translate jobs go, though, this one is particularly bad, but it still offers some details of the automotive cost of this disaster.