An engine control system includes a fuel injector and a sensor that is configured to provide a signal indicative of a temperature. A controller is in communication with the sensor. The controller includes a fuel injector driver in communication with the fuel injector. The fuel injector driver includes a saturated mode and a peak and hold mode. The controller is configured to command the fuel injector driver to control the fuel injector with one of the saturated mode or the peak and hold mode based upon the signal. For a high resistance injector, the peak and hold mode is used in cold weather conditions to break free an injector seal, and then the fuel injector driver reverts to the saturated mode.

A control apparatus, which controlling an operation of an injector provided to an internal combustion engine, includes: a voltage application unit applying a voltage raised to have a step-up target value to the injector to open the injector; a current measurement unit measuring a drive current supplied to the injector in response to an application of the voltage; and a calculator calculating a current difference value which indicates a difference between an actually-measured profile and a reference profile. The actually-measured profile indicates a time-variation in an actually-measured value of the drive current, and the reference profile is a profile set in advance. The step-up target value is corrected according to the current difference value that is calculated.

An internal combustion engine control device to control a fuel injection valve includes: valve-close delay time acquisition circuitry configured to acquire a valve-close delay time of the fuel injection valve; first learning value calculation circuitry configured to calculate a first learning value based on the valve-close delay time when a running state of an internal combustion engine satisfies a predetermined learning condition; valve-open time calculation circuitry configured to calculate a valve-open time of the fuel injection valve based on the first learning value; second learning value calculation circuitry configured to calculate a second learning value based on the valve-close delay time irrespective of the running state of the internal combustion engine; and learning state determination circuitry configured to determine a learning state of the first learning value based on a relationship between the first learning value and second learning value.

Disclosed is an injector controlling method using an opening duration. The injector controlling method using an opening duration converts a target fuel quantity into an opening duration and sets relationship between the opening duration and an injector actuation signal in order to control the fuel quantity of injectors more accurately.

A pressure reducing valve control apparatus is provided for a fuel supply system having a common rail and a pressure reducing valve to control rail pressure in the common rail by controlling a current supply state of the pressure reducing valve. The pressure reducing valve operates to open a valve body for discharging fuel from the common rail against a biasing force applied in a valve-closing direction by fuel-generated valve-opening force biasing the valve body in a valve-opening direction by the rail pressure and an electromagnetic force generated by current supply to an electromagnetic coil. The ECU starts to open the valve body during a period of holding a hold value by holding current supplied to the electromagnetic coil at a predetermined hold value after starting current supply to the electromagnetic coil. The ECU sets the hold value to increase as the rail pressure decreases.

A control device according to an embodiment includes a storage, a determining unit, and a driving unit. The storage stores therein information on a hysteresis area of an actuator. The determining unit determines, based on a control mode, a target current value according to the hysteresis area whose information is stored in the storage. The driving unit supplies a driving current according to the target current value determined by the determining unit to the actuator.

Methods and systems are provided for leveraging the pressure dependency of an oxygen sensor for estimating an engine ambient pressure. An intake or exhaust oxygen sensor is used for ambient pressure estimation by applying a reference voltage to the sensor while the engine is being pulled-down in a hybrid vehicle, and correcting an output of the sensor for dilution effects due to ambient humidity. The estimated ambient pressure is used to correct or confirm pressure estimated by other sources, such as other pressure sensors or a pressure model, as well as to tune the performance of the engine.

A method for actuating a fuel injector having a magnetic coil drive for an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle is disclosed. The fuel injector has a first terminal and a second terminal, where the first terminal is connectable via a switch element to ground and the second terminal is connected to ground. The method includes the following: actuating the switch element to connect the first terminal to ground, acquiring a time curve of the current strength of a current flowing through the magnetic coil drive, and applying a voltage pulse to the magnetic coil drive to initiate an opening procedure of the fuel injection. A duration of the voltage pulse is established as a function of the acquired time curve of the current strength. Furthermore, an engine controller and a computer program are described.

At least after off of an injection pulse of partial lift injection, a difference between a first filtered voltage being a negative terminal voltage of a fuel injection valve filtered by a first low-pass filter and a second filtered voltage being the terminal voltage filtered by a second low-pass filter is calculated, and time from a predetermined reference timing to a timing when the difference between the filtered voltages has an inflection point is calculated as voltage inflection time. Subsequently, an injection quantity corresponding to current voltage inflection time is estimated for each of injection pulse widths with a relationship between the voltage inflection time and the injection quantity, the relationship being beforehand stored for each of the injection pulse widths. A map defining the relationship between the injection pulse width and the injection quantity is created based on a result of such estimation, and a required injection pulse width corresponding to a required injection quantity is calculated using the map.

After off of an injection pulse of partial lift injection, a first filtered voltage Vsm1 being a negative terminal voltage of a fuel injection valve filtered by a first low-pass filter and a second filtered voltage Vsm2 being the negative terminal voltage of the fuel injection valve filtered by a second low-pass filter are calculated, and time from a predetermined reference timing to a timing when a difference Vdiff (=Vsm1Vsm2) between the filtered voltages has an inflection point is calculated as voltage inflection time Tdiff. An averaged value Tdiff.ave of a predetermined frequency of data of the voltage inflection time Tdiff is obtained as a learning value of the voltage inflection time, and the injection pulse of the partial lift injection is corrected based on the learning value Tdiff.ave of the voltage inflection time.