Aftermarket diagnostic manufacturer EZ Lynk is being sued by the U.S. Justice Department and the EPA for manufacturing and selling devices that can disable a vehicle’s emissions compliance software.
EZ Lynk’s AutoAgent vehicle diagnostic and control device is designed primarily for pickup trucks and works on both diesel and petrol engines. According to Reuters, the lawsuit alleges that the company knowingly helped customers defeat emissions controls in their vehicles.
“EZ Lynk refused to cooperate with EPA’s investigation, and all the while continued to sell aftermarket defeat devices that resulted in harmful air pollution,” said Larry Starfield, EPA acting assistant administrator. “This is not acceptable and EPA will work diligently with the Department of Justice to stop the illegal activities and ensure that EZ Lynk complies with the Clean Air Act.”
Through the use of the AutoAgent physical device, the EZ Lynk Cloud, and a phone app, customers were allegedly able to download programs designed explicitly to defeat emissions software designed by OEMs. In fact, in a release, the Justice Department claims that, through an EZ Lynk official forum, the company helped and actively encouraged its customers to cheat emissions standards.
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The department provides an example of a user on the forum who experienced a malfunction after installing EZ Lynk on their 2014 Ram 3500 with the intention of defeating emissions controls. The poster later wrote that an EZ Lynk technical support representative had helped them fix the problem.
In other posts, the official EZ Lynk account “loved” posts about using the device and app to circumvent emissions programming. In my own research for this article, I found the product being sold by a distributor called Dirty Diesel Customs.
Emissions standards set out by the EPA target pollutants associated with heart and lung disease, heart attacks, aggravated asthma, not to mention the wider environmental impact.
“EZ Lynk has put the public’s health at risk by manufacturing and selling devices intended to disable those emissions controls,” said U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss in a statement. “Through our lawsuit, we will prevent Defendants from continuing to sell this product and impose civil penalties to hold them to account.”
The suit is being presented against EZ Lynk and its founders Bradley Gintz and Thomas Wood. The government is seeking an injunction barring future sales of the product as well as civil penalties and other relief.
