A signal acquisition apparatus has a vehicle state sensor that outputs measurement results in current form, an overcurrent interrupter connected downstream of the vehicle state sensor, which interrupts an overcurrent due to a short from the output connection of the vehicle state sensor to a battery voltage, and a shunt, connected downstream of the overcurrent interrupter, across which an output voltage corresponding to the output current of the aforementioned overcurrent interrupter is dropped. A control part is provided that controls the operation of the overcurrent interrupter according to the output voltage dropped across the shunt and assesses the measurement results of the vehicle state sensor on the basis of the output voltage.

The present invention obtains a humidity measuring device capable of performing self-diagnosis with high reliability. This humidity measuring device 20 has a diagnosis processing unit 25 for performing self-diagnosis by using gas temperatures and gas humidities before and after a gas in an ambient atmosphere to be measured is heat-controlled. The diagnosis processing unit has a diagnosis start determining unit 26 for determining whether the self-diagnosis can be started on the basis of an exchange state in the ambient atmosphere to be measured and the gas temperature and the gas humidity before the gas in the ambient atmosphere to be measured is heat-controlled, and a diagnosis continuation determining unit 28 for determining whether the self-diagnosis can be continued on the basis of the gas temperature and the gas humidity that are heat-controlled during the self-diagnosis.

An abnormality determination device includes an injection instructor that realizes a rich state of an air-fuel ratio in an exhaust gas by sending an instruction of (i) stopping an application of bias to a plus terminal and (ii) adjusting a fuel injection amount from an injector. The abnormality determination device also includes an abnormality determiner that distinctively determines abnormality of, i.e., in terms of which one of, the plus terminal or a minus terminal having a short circuit to a power supply or a ground failure by detecting an electromotive force of an air-fuel ratio sensor when the air-fuel ratio in the exhaust gas is in the rich state according to the instruction of the injection instructor.

A drive system for driving a motor vehicle has an internal combustion engine and an operating mode coordination device for determining and controlling the operating mode of the internal combustion engine. The drive system has a function coordination device for coordinating secondary functions of the drive system, the function coordination device being designed for generating, based on the coordination of the secondary functions, an operating mode request for the operating mode coordination device for controlling the operating mode of the internal combustion engine, and transmitting it to the operating mode coordination device. The invention further relates to a motor vehicle having a drive system, and a method for operating a drive system of a motor vehicle.

A particulate detection device has an insulation part, electrodes, an adhesion amount calculation section, a heater and a controller. The insulation part is located in an exhaust passage of an internal combustion engine and has an adhesion surface to which exhaust particulates emitted from the internal combustion engine adhere. The adhesion amount calculation section calculates an adhesion amount of the exhaust particulates adhered to the insulation part based on an electrical resistance between two of the electrodes. The controller, in a normal control, controls an air/fuel ratio in the internal combustion engine to be a theoretical air/fuel ratio. The controller, in a regeneration control, controls the heater to increase a temperature of the insulation part and removes the exhaust particulates from the insulation part by burning the exhaust particulates, and controls the air/fuel ratio to be lean as compared to the theoretical air/fuel ratio.

A method for operating a probe having a pumped reference cell. A pulse-width-modulated pump current is applied to the reference cell at a first point in time. In accordance with the first point in time, a first voltage characteristic value (representing the voltage applied to the reference cell) is determined within a first time frame. The pulse-width-modulated pump current applied to the reference cell is switched off at a second point in time. A third point in time is determined, at which a pulse-width-modulated pump current applied to the reference cell is switched off. In accordance with the third point in time, a second voltage characteristic value (representing the voltage applied to the reference cell) is determined within a second time frame. The first and second voltage characteristic values are used to determine a diagnostic characteristic value, which is representative of an error in determining the nitrogen oxide concentration.

Methods and systems are provided for conducting a fuel tank pressure transducer rationality test diagnostic procedure in vehicles with sealed fuel tanks. In one example, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) or vehicle-to-infrastructure-to-vehicle (V2I2V) technology may be utilized to obtain fuel tank pressure transducer data from a select crowd of vehicles, where the select crowd may be based on the vehicles in the select crowd experiencing similar ambient temperature and weather as the vehicle being diagnosed. In this way, FTPT data from vehicles in the select crowd may be compared to FTPT data in the vehicle being diagnosed, in order to indicate whether the FTPT in the vehicle being diagnosed is functioning as desired, where such a diagnostic can be performed without unsealing the fuel tank on either the vehicle being diagnosed or the vehicles in the select crowd, and which may thus reduce undesired evaporative emissions.

Methods and systems for diagnosing operation of an exhaust gas recirculation system of an internal combustion engine are described. In one example, the EGR system is diagnosed while an engine that includes the EGR system is not rotating and combusting fuel. The EGR system is diagnosed when the engine is not operating so that vehicle passengers are not disturbed by the diagnostic and so that flow estimates through the EGR system may not be disturbed by pressure changes that may be related to combustion within the engine.

In a control device and a control method for an internal combustion engine according to the present invention, when a crank angle signal is behaving abnormally, a phase angle of an exhaust camshaft relative to a crankshaft is set to a reference phase angle, and a phase angle of an intake camshaft relative to the crankshaft is determined based on an intake cam signal and an exhaust cam signal. Furthermore, the phase difference between the exhaust cam signal generated when the relative phase angle of the exhaust camshaft is set to the reference phase angle and the intake cam signal generated when the relative phase angle of the intake camshaft is set to a target value is greater after a start-up of the internal combustion engine than during the start-up.

A hydrocarbon sensor diagnosis system includes a computer programmed to collect data from a hydrocarbon sensor while an exhaust gas recirculation system is in an open state. The hydrocarbon sensor is mounted along an engine air intake between an exhaust port of the exhaust gas recirculation system and an intake port of a cylinder head. The computer is further programmed to determine whether a hydrocarbon sensor fault exists based at least on the collected data.