Since EDAR can symptomatically identify elevated emissions caused by malfunctioning components on a vehicle, knowing this information can help motorists avoid costly repairs.
How, you might ask?
The Emissions Detection and Reporting (EDAR) system continuously monitors the emissions being emitted from the tailpipes of individual vehicles in real-time on the roadway. The system proactively identifies malfunctions in emissions controls or potential tampering. This serves as a preventative measure to reduce air pollution effectively and efficiently – not to mention saving motorists time and headache.
We have a real-world example of this actually happening to an employee of HEAT.
During routine testing at the HEAT facility, occasionally, employees will drive their vehicles under the EDAR units being tested to provide our quality engineers with extra data to examine. One employee ran her 2009 Subaru Forester, which was in a warmed-up condition, under the EDAR system, and it detected extremely high NO emissions from its exhaust plume. To be precise, 3030ppm of NO was being emitted from the tailpipe of the Subaru. In many US cities that use remote sensing, the cutpoint for NO emissions is 2000ppm.
The employee mentioned that the vehicle had been running a little rougher lately, but a check engine light had not illuminated to warn her of any issues. She did not take her car to the mechanic or pay attention to the elevated emissions that were detected by EDAR. This was a mistake.
A couple of months later, while driving on a busy interstate, the Subaru started to malfunction in the middle of heavy traffic. This was a frightening and dangerous situation. In a harrowing feat, she got off the interstate and limped the car home - all the while, the vehicle kept misfiring and stalling.
She discovered that a catalytic converter on her car had completely melted because the exhaust system was getting overheated. The reasoning behind this happening took months of trial and error and excessive expense to figure out. After months of towing the Subaru from repair shop to repair shop, and spending thousands of dollars on repairs, including installing an entire new exhaust system, the car was finally repaired but not without major headache and inconvenience.
The dangerous situation and excessive expense could have all been avoided if she had taken the vehicle into the repair shop at the initial discovery of a malfunction by EDAR.
Wouldn’t you like to know if your car is not running efficiently before any indicators alert you of an issue?
Imagine being able to monitor your vehicle emissions in real-time. Knowing if you need to have your car examined for any issues can avoid experiencing dangerous situations on the road or spending thousands of dollars. Driving around in a vehicle that is not functioning in the efficient way it is intended is also increasing your carbon footprint without you even knowing it.
EDAR is a highly accurate and streamlined device that is unobtrusive to the motorist. Continuous monitoring of vehicle emissions is just one way we can make smarter strides towards a greener future.