A system and method for detecting and mitigating automatic ignition in a cylinder of an internal combustion engine. The method includes providing a first sensor for sensing and determining a crank angle of a crankshaft of the engine. A second sensor is provided for detecting a change in an engine vibration frequency caused by Auto Ignition (AI). The engine vibration signal of the second sensor is processed into a knock intensity signal. The knock intensity signal is indicative of the cylinder pressure and is acquired when the crank angle is between a first predetermined crank angle and a second predetermined crank angle. At least one characteristic of the knock intensity signal is determined and the at least one characteristic of the knock intensity signal is compared to at least one predetermined characteristic threshold. If the at least one characteristic of the knock intensity signal is determined to exceed the at least one predetermined characteristic threshold, then at least one auto ignition mitigating action is performed to mitigate the auto ignition event.

A misfire determination device of an engine in which explosion occurs at unequal intervals, the engine including a plurality of cylinders and a crankshaft which is angularly displaced at a different angle between expansion strokes, is configured to calculate generated torque correlation amount correlated with generated torque, based on an angular position signal of the crankshaft, and perform misfire determination, based on an average value of the generated torque correlation amount in an interval less than one cycle of the engine, at an angular position of the crankshaft which is different from an angular position of the crankshaft at an ignition timing.

A method for analyzing a fluid that flows from a chamber, in particular a combustion chamber, of an internal combustion engine into a fluid guide. The internal combustion engine includes at least one element, in particular an injector, for the supply of fuel. The analysis takes place with the aid of a sensor, in particular a lambda sensor, on which the fluid in the fluid guide acts. The analysis takes place during cranking of the internal combustion engine, and the fluid acting on the sensor is not influenced by fuel that is supplied in a controlled manner.

A CPU substitutes a difference between a crank-side speed that is a rotation speed of a crankshaft and a downstream-side speed that is a speed of a portion, opposite from the crankshaft, in a damper into a differential speed. The CPU calculates a torsion speed component that is a speed component of the crankshaft due to torsion of the damper based on a physical model of which an input is the differential speed, and calculates a time that is a variable indicating a speed of the crankshaft, used to determine a misfire, based on the torsion speed component. The CPU delays acquisition time of the downstream-side speed used to calculate the differential speed, with respect to acquisition time of the crank-side speed according to the rotation speed of the crankshaft.

A method of adaptively sampling data to determine the start of injection in a solenoid actuated valve of a fluid injector includes, in an operating cycle or portion thereof of the valve, sampling the signal of current through a solenoid of the valve at sampling points having a pre-defined interval therebetween. At each sampling point, determining the value of the first derivative of current and detecting the sampling point at which the first derivative achieves a maximum as the start of injection. Values of the first derivative of the sampling points immediately preceding and immediately following the start of injection are determined. In a subsequent operating cycle, synchronisation of sampling is altered to shift sampling times depending on the values of the first derivative of the sampling points immediately preceding and immediately following the start of injection.

An electronic control apparatus that controls actuation of an inductive load includes: a current detector that detect current flowing through the inductive load and outputs a current detection signal in an analog signal; an analog-digital converter that takes in the current detection signal at a fetch timing, and converts the current detection signal into a current detection value; and a controller that calculates a current arithmetic value by executing arithmetic processing for the current detection value, and controls the current based on the current arithmetic value. The controller obtains a sample data value of the current arithmetic value for each of a plurality of fetch timings. The controller calculates a deflection between an ideal value of the current arithmetic value and the sample data value of the current arithmetic value, and learns the fetch timing, causing the deflection with the ideal value of the current arithmetic value to be minimized.

Methods and systems are provided for accurately estimating intake aircharge based on the output of an intake oxygen sensor while flowing EGR, purge, or PCV hydrocarbons to the engine. The unadjusted aircharge estimate is used for engine fuel control while the hydrocarbon adjusted aircharge estimate is used for engine torque control. A controller is configured to sample the oxygen sensor at even increments in a time domain, stamp the sampled data in a crank angle domain, store the sampled data in a buffer, and then select one or more data samples corresponding to a last firing period from the buffer for estimating the intake aircharge.

Disclosed is a method for determining reliability regarding misfire determination of cylinders of an engine, comprising detecting a pressure in an exhaust manifold for a set of operation parameters comprising a certain range of crank angles for a certain engine load and certain engine speed so as to, for an actual cylinder setup of the engine, create pressure sample value patterns for combustion and misfire conditions. A template course is created for the thus created pressure sample value patterns comprising a set of sample points. The pressure for the created template courses is normalized at a desired crank angle. Difference values are determined based upon differences between sample points and corresponding detected and the normalized pressure values. The determined difference values are summarized so as to determine whether a predetermined share of the summarized difference values lies above or below a predetermined threshold value indicating reliability regarding misfire determination.

Disclosed is a method for detecting the clogging of an air filter including the following steps when the cross section for the passage of air in an intake tract is greater than a predetermined passage cross section: measuring a pressure in the intake tract at the end of a phase of admitting air into a cylinder; measuring a pressure in the intake tract at the end of an exhaust phase in a cylinder; and determining that the air filter is clogged by comparison between at least one pressure measured during a pressure measurement at the end of the phase of admitting air into a cylinder and, on the other hand, a pressure measured during a pressure measurement at the end of the exhaust phase, the filter being estimated to be clogged when the comparison yields a value higher than a predetermined value.

Disclosed is a method for detecting the clogging of an air filter including the following steps when the cross section for the passage of air in an intake tract is greater than a predetermined passage cross section: measuring a pressure in the intake tract at the end of a phase of admitting air into a cylinder; measuring a pressure in the intake tract at the end of an exhaust phase in a cylinder; and determining that the air filter is clogged by comparison between at least one pressure measured during a pressure measurement at the end of the phase of admitting air into a cylinder and, on the other hand, a pressure measured during a pressure measurement at the end of the exhaust phase, the filter being estimated to be clogged when the comparison yields a value higher than a predetermined value.