The present disclosure relates to a method for detecting and distinguishing a cause of at least one combustion misfire of an internal combustion engine. The internal combustion engine has several cylinders, at least one exhaust gas tract, and an exhaust gas sensor which is arranged in the exhaust gas tract. The method includes the following steps: acquisition of a measurement signal with the exhaust gas sensor over a certain first period of time gas tract; subdivision of the measurement signal into measurement signal sections; assignment of the measurement signal sections to the corresponding cylinders, whereby cylinder-selective measurement signal profiles are produced that are characteristic of the respective oxygen content downstream of the respective cylinders over the determined first period of time of time; and evaluation of the cylinder-selective measurement signal profiles to detect at least one combustion misfire of the internal combustion engine.

A vehicle predictive control system based on big data includes: a vehicle terminal, which is installed in each of a plurality of vehicles, collecting status information related with an in-vehicle device in a corresponding vehicle to transmit the collected status information in real time, and transmitting problem occurrence information upon problem occurrence of the in-vehicle device; and a big data service provider classifying and storing the status information received from the vehicle terminal as big data, and obtaining a problem occurrence condition based on the status information to transmit information corresponding to the problem occurrence condition to the vehicle terminal when receiving the problem occurrence information of the in-vehicle device from the vehicle terminal of at least some vehicles among the plurality of vehicles.

Provided is an electronic control unit capable of performing a high-accurate failure diagnosis in a short time as an electronic control unit having a failure diagnosis function. A load drive circuit that drives a load, a control circuit that controls the load drive circuit, and a diagnosis circuit that diagnoses an output state of the load drive circuit and outputs a diagnostic result to the control circuit are provided. The diagnosis circuit outputs a diagnosis completion flag indicating whether or not there is a diagnosis opportunity to the control circuit.

Provided is an electronic control unit capable of performing a high-accurate failure diagnosis in a short time as an electronic control unit having a failure diagnosis function. A load drive circuit that drives a load, a control circuit that controls the load drive circuit, and a diagnosis circuit that diagnoses an output state of the load drive circuit and outputs a diagnostic result to the control circuit are provided. The diagnosis circuit outputs a diagnosis completion flag indicating whether or not there is a diagnosis opportunity to the control circuit.

Provided is an electronic control unit capable of performing a high-accurate failure diagnosis in a short time as an electronic control unit having a failure diagnosis function. A load drive circuit that drives a load, a control circuit that controls the load drive circuit, and a diagnosis circuit that diagnoses an output state of the load drive circuit and outputs a diagnostic result to the control circuit are provided. The diagnosis circuit outputs a diagnosis completion flag indicating whether or not there is a diagnosis opportunity to the control circuit.

Provided is an electronic control unit capable of performing a high-accurate failure diagnosis in a short time as an electronic control unit having a failure diagnosis function. A load drive circuit that drives a load, a control circuit that controls the load drive circuit, and a diagnosis circuit that diagnoses an output state of the load drive circuit and outputs a diagnostic result to the control circuit are provided. The diagnosis circuit outputs a diagnosis completion flag indicating whether or not there is a diagnosis opportunity to the control circuit.

A spark plug inspection method and a spark plug manufacturing method that enable evaluation for the position of a ground electrode of a tapered-seat-type spark plug. The spark plug inspection method includes: a contact step of screwing an external thread of a metal shell to an internal thread of a gauge so as to bring a part of a tapered portion of the metal shell into line-contact or point-contact with an inner edge of the gauge; and a determination step of determining whether or not a ground electrode is present within a predetermined range in a circumferential direction of the gauge when the tapered portion comes into line-contact or point-contact with the inner edge of the gauge in the contact step.

A spark plug inspection method and a spark plug manufacturing method that enable evaluation for the position of a ground electrode of a tapered-seat-type spark plug. The spark plug inspection method includes: a contact step of screwing an external thread of a metal shell to an internal thread of a gauge so as to bring a part of a tapered portion of the metal shell into line-contact or point-contact with an inner edge of the gauge; and a determination step of determining whether or not a ground electrode is present within a predetermined range in a circumferential direction of the gauge when the tapered portion comes into line-contact or point-contact with the inner edge of the gauge in the contact step.

A method for detecting glow plug replacement or an aging glow plug. The glow plugs are heated and monitored. When a threshold value is reached for a first glow plug, a first value of a temperature-dependent variable is measured for all other glow plugs and is stored as reference values associated with the first glow plug. This process is repeated until reference values associated with each glow plug have been determined and stored for each glow plug. The process is repeated to determine a set of comparative values. The comparative values are compared with the reference values. A deviation of a comparative from a reference value of less than a specified tolerance value is considered an agreement. The inventive process concludes which of the glow plugs of the engine are unaltered and which have a resistance-temperature characteristic that has been altered to an extent indicating replacement, aging or a defect.

A method for detecting glow plug replacement or an aging glow plug. The glow plugs are heated and monitored. When a threshold value is reached for a first glow plug, a first value of a temperature-dependent variable is measured for all other glow plugs and is stored as reference values associated with the first glow plug. This process is repeated until reference values associated with each glow plug have been determined and stored for each glow plug. The process is repeated to determine a set of comparative values. The comparative values are compared with the reference values. A deviation of a comparative from a reference value of less than a specified tolerance value is considered an agreement. The inventive process concludes which of the glow plugs of the engine are unaltered and which have a resistance-temperature characteristic that has been altered to an extent indicating replacement, aging or a defect.