A method and apparatus are disclosed for cooling damping fluid in a vehicle suspension damper unit. A damping unit includes a piston mounted in a fluid cylinder. A bypass fluid circuit having an integrated cooling assembly disposed therein is fluidly coupled to the fluid cylinder at axial locations that, at least at one point in the piston stroke, are located on opposite sides of the piston. The cooling assembly may include a cylinder having cooling fins thermally coupled to an exterior surface of the cylinder and made of a thermally conductive material. The bypass channel may include a check valve that permits fluid flow in only one direction through the bypass channel. The check valve may be remotely operated, either manually or automatically by an electronic controller. A vehicle suspension system may implement one or more damper units throughout the vehicle, controlled separately or collectively, automatically or manually.

An electronically controller external damper reservoir assembly (eRESI) can be connected to a passive damper and/or substituted for an existing external reservoir to provide semi-active damping control. The eRESI includes a reservoir and a variable base valve assembly actuated by an actuator. A controller is in communication with the actuator and a sensor providing input signal indicative of vehicle movement and is programmed to generate a damping control signal to the actuator based on the input signal, to dynamically control the damping force outputted by a passive damper hydraulically connected to the eRESI. A P/T sensor can be installed to a gas chamber of a vehicle damper to generate a P/T signal indicative of the pressure and temperature of the gas. The controller is programmed to determine a damper position of the damper based on the P/T signal.

An electronically controller external damper reservoir assembly (eRESI) can be connected to a passive damper and/or substituted for an existing external reservoir to provide semi-active damping control. The eRESI includes a reservoir and a variable base valve assembly actuated by an actuator. A controller is in communication with the actuator and a sensor providing input signal indicative of vehicle movement and is programmed to generate a damping control signal to the actuator based on the input signal, to dynamically control the damping force outputted by a passive damper hydraulically connected to the eRESI. A P/T sensor can be installed to a gas chamber of a vehicle damper to generate a P/T signal indicative of the pressure and temperature of the gas. The controller is programmed to determine a damper position of the damper based on the P/T signal.

A system for testing a suspension system of a vehicle includes an inertial measurement module and a suspension fault detection module. The inertial measurement module is configured to, while the vehicle is not moving, collect sensor data from one or more inertial measurement sensors for different states of the suspension system. The sensor data is indicative of inertial states of the vehicle while the suspension system is in each of the different states. The suspension fault detection module is configured to, based on the sensor data and a set of thresholds, determine whether a fault exists with the suspension system, isolate and identify the fault, and perform a countermeasure based on the detection of the fault.

An embodiment of the present invention allows for application of an assist torque or reaction torque which causes a driver to feel less discomfort. An ECU (600) includes a rack shaft axial force estimating section (620) configured to estimate a rack shaft axial force with reference to a roll rate of a vehicle body.

Methods and systems are provided for enabling a vehicle for which a jet pump that functions to transfer fuel from a passive side to an active side of a saddle fuel tank is degraded, to reach a desired destination by the taking of mitigating action. The mitigating action includes conducting a driving maneuver in response to an indication that the jet pump is degraded, the driving maneuver conducted in order to transfer a desired amount of fuel from the passive side to the active side. In this way, a vehicle may reach a desired destination even under circumstances where the vehicle may otherwise be unable to reach the desired destination.

In various embodiments, methods, systems, and vehicles are provided for determining a fault in a suspension system of a vehicle. In an exemplary embodiment, sensor data is obtained via one or more vehicle sensors during operation of the vehicle; a one or more first coefficients for the vehicle are calculated via a processor using a pitch model with the sensor data; one or more second coefficients for the vehicle are calculated via the processor using a roll model with the sensor data; and a fault in the suspension system is determined via the processor using the first coefficients and the second coefficients.

A method of producing an anti-roll moment distribution module for a vehicle comprises determining understeer characteristics of the vehicle, determining a maximum lateral acceleration of the vehicle, adjusting understeer characteristics of the vehicle based on the maximum lateral acceleration, determining reference understeer characteristics, determining a plurality of reference yaw rates based on (i) the maximum lateral acceleration and (ii) the reference understeer characteristics using a non-linear quasi static vehicle model, storing the plurality of reference yaw rates in a first look up table in the anti-roll moment distribution module, determining a plurality of feedforward contributions using the non-linear quasi static model of the vehicle. Each feedforward contribution of the plurality of feedforward contributions can be used to determine a front to total anti-roll moment distribution for the vehicle. The plurality of feedforward contributions are stored in a second look up table in the anti-roll moment distribution module.

A steering control device which applies an assist torque or a reaction torque to a steering member operated by a driver, includes: a torque loss estimation unit which estimates torque loss; and a correction amount calculation unit which calculates a correction amount according to a rack axial force estimation value calculated based on a roll rate when the torque loss estimation unit estimates the torque loss.

A system for controlling a suspension of a vehicle includes a plurality of sensors, an anti-roll moment module configured to determine a front-to-total anti-roll moment distribution based on at least a first operating parameter of the vehicle, at least one suspension actuator, and a suspension control module configured to control the at least one suspension actuator based on the determined front-to-total anti-roll moment distribution. A method of producing an anti-roll moment distribution module for a vehicle includes determining understeer characteristics of the vehicle, determining a maximum lateral acceleration of the vehicle, adjusting the understeer characteristics based on the determined maximum lateral acceleration, determining reference understeer characteristics, determining a plurality of reference yaw rates and a plurality of feedforward contributions using a non-linear quasi-static model of the vehicle, storing the reference yaw rates in a first look-up table, and storing the feedforward contributions in a second look-up table.