A control unit is provided for a vehicle having an internal combustion engine with a shaft, which can be coupled to an electric machine or decoupled from the electric machine. The control unit is designed to couple the electric machine to the internal combustion engine during an engine stop of the internal combustion engine. The control unit causes the electric machine to guide the shaft of the internal combustion engine. The control unit determines that a speed of the guided shaft is equal to or less than a speed threshold value and, in response thereto, decouples the electric machine from the internal combustion engine, such that the internal combustion engine stops without being guided by the electric machine.

Systems and methods for operating a vehicle that includes a starter motor are described. In one example, the starter motor may engage a flywheel of an engine and rotate the engine without starting the engine in response to a request to move the vehicle without starting the engine. The starter motor may provide the propulsive force to move the vehicle a short distance.

There is provided an engine starting device, including: a motor generator coupled to a crankshaft of an engine; and a starter including a pinion provided in a detachable manner from a ring gear provided on the crankshaft, and configured to mesh with the ring gear when the engine is started, wherein the engine is cranked through simultaneous cranking by both of the motor generator and the starter when a condition set in advance is satisfied, and wherein, in the simultaneous cranking, the starter starts rotating after the motor generator starts rotating.

An engine start control device includes an pass determination section that performs a pass determination process of determining, based on a rotation state of the engine output shaft, whether a piston in a cylinder of the engine can pass over a compression top dead center for a rotation drop period in response to an occurrence of the start request. The engine start control device also includes a start control section that when it is determined that the piston cannot pass over the compression top dead center, starts driving of the motor in a low reaction force period to start the engine, the low reaction force period being a period in which a reaction force applied to the piston by a cylinder internal pressure in the cylinder is a predetermined value or less.

The invention relates to a method for actuating a starter device (10), wherein the starter device (10) comprises a starting pinion (22) which is to be meshed with a toothed ring (25) of an internal combustion engine (210), the internal combustion engine (210) having a drive shaft (222). The invention is characterized in that a) first a rotational speed (n, n1, n2, n3) of the drive shaft (222) is determined, b) said rotational speed (n, n1, n2, n3) is then compared to a predefined rotational speed value (nG), and c) in the case that the rotational speed (n, n1, n2, n3) is less than or equal to the predefined rotational speed value (nG), the starting pinion (22) is toed in the direction of the toothed ring (25).

A restart control system includes a rotational angle estimation unit that estimates a rotating electrical machine's rotational angle in a state wherein an internal-combustion engine's rotational speed detected by a rotational speed detection unit is higher than an estimation threshold and configured not to estimate rotating electrical machine's rotational angle in a state wherein internal-combustion engine's rotational speed is lower than estimation threshold; a rotating electrical machine control unit increases internal-combustion engine's rotational speed by rotating electrical machine under condition where predetermined restart conditions are satisfied and rotating electrical machine's rotational angle is estimated by rotational angle estimation unit, thereby restarting the internal-combustion engine; and a starter motor control unit starts driving of a starter motor under a condition where predetermined restart conditions are satisfied and internal-combustion engine's rotational speed falls below a predetermined rotational speed set lower than estimation threshold, thereby increasing internal-combustion engine's rotational speed to estimation threshold.

A number of variations may include a solenoid assembly comprising: a shaft; a pinion-plunger operatively attached to the shaft and having a first end comprising a plurality of teeth; a plurality of iron cores surrounding at least a portion of the pinion-plunger and the shaft; at least one solenoid coil winding and at least one spool surrounding each of the plurality of iron cores; a stop adjacent a first end of the plurality of iron cores; a guide adjacent a second end of the plurality of iron cores opposite of the stop; a biasing member in operative communication with the first end the pinion-plunger; and wherein the solenoid assembly is constructed and arranged so that when the solenoid assembly is activated the pinion-plunger is magnetically drawn toward the stop.

The invention relates mainly to a starter (11) for a motor vehicle combustion engine, comprising: an electric motor (15), a drive pinion (60), a pinion body (61) on which said drive pinion (60) is mounted, a drive shaft (12) able to transmit a torque derived from the electric motor (15) to the drive pinion (60) via the pinion body, the pinion body (61) being mounted with the ability to slide axially with respect to the drive shaft (12), and in which, with there being a chamber (86) delimited notably by one end of the drive shaft (12) and one end of the pinion body (61) opposite the end of the drive shaft (12), the chamber (86) is vented via a through-opening (85) made in an annular wall of the drive shaft (12) or of the pinion body (61).

A starter includes a three-phase switched reluctance electric motor including a rotor and a stator, a pinion gear, a power inverter that is connected to the stator, and a rotational position sensor. The rotor includes a quantity of rotor poles that is between 6 and 16, and the stator includes a quantity of stator poles that is between 8 and 24. An outer diameter of the electric motor is less than 85 mm. An active length of the motor is less than 50 mm. An airgap distance between the rotor and the stator is between 0.1 mm and 0.5 mm. A ratio between a rotor pole arc and a stator pole arc is at least 1.0:1. A ratio between a stator diameter and a rotor diameter is at least 2.0:1, and a ratio between a stator pole height and a rotor pole height is at least 2.5:1.

Systems and methods for improving operation of an engine are presented. In one example, a position of a throttle is adjusted along with other actuators to improve engine starting.