Dear Car Talk:
Recently, 71-year-old Frank wrote you to ask why he no longer sees smoke blowing out from cars’ tailpipes. He said that he commonly saw belching tailpipes 50 years ago. You explained about the Clean Air Act, fuel injection, computers, and Japanese-led manufacturing improvements.
Well, here in Texas, I’ve encountered vehicles, mostly pickup trucks, that, seemingly on command, can spew a huge amount of disgusting, black smoke out of their tailpipes.
Sometimes, the smoke is accompanied by a sprinkling of a black, oily substance, that can land on the vehicle behind it, or, I would guess, anything or anyone near the side of the road. I saw one of these guys release his black smoke when he passed a bicyclist.
What’s going on, and how are these trucks managing to bypass the improvements in pollution that took place over the last 50 years that you described?
— Francois
This is an unfortunate fad called “rolling coal,” Francois. But unlike tattoos of Gerry, the Golden Bachelor, this fad affects more than just that one person expressing himself.
Rolling coal is practiced by a small number of people with diesel pickup trucks who buy equipment to modify the engine’s operating system, allowing them to blast concentrated amounts of diesel exhaust and soot at will — usually directed at whatever or whoever they disapprove of.
It’s like being able to fart at will, if farts caused lung disease and cancer.
Common targets of rolling coalers seem to be bicyclists and electric vehicles, although a widely viewed online video shows a guy spewing diesel exhaust into the open doors of a Texas hamburger joint, where a bunch of teenagers were having a meal after a football game. I guess this guy was rooting for the other team.
Are these things legal? No. There are laws against tampering with emissions systems, which is exactly what these rolling coal devices do. The problem is that some states have relatively small fines, and a person has to get caught in order to be fined.
In your area of North Texas, there’s a regional Smoking Vehicle Program, that tells you how to report these folks, by sharing their license plate and the location of the offense.
Many states have similar programs. Try Googling “report smoking vehicle” along with your area and see what comes up.
But more effectively, the feds are finally cracking down on companies that sell or promote these devices. Most recently, the Justice Department fined eBay up to $2 billion for selling hundreds of thousands of these things. That may put a dent in the fad.
Meanwhile, maybe we can encourage people to go back to something more wholesome, like obnoxious bumper stickers.
