Patent ID: 9422880
Filing Date: 2016-08-23
CPC Classification: B60W,F02D,F02P,F16H,Y10T

Claim Text:
1. A method of operating a vehicle having an internal combustion engine and a powertrain, wherein the powertrain includes an engine-decoupling friction interface and has one or more resonant frequencies of concern, the method comprising: operating the engine in a skip-fire manner to supply motive power to move the vehicle; transferring the engine motive power through the friction interface; while the engine is operating in the skip-fine manner, automatically determining whether current skip-fire operating conditions are suitable for locking-up the friction interface, wherein the friction interface lock-up determination is based at least in part on current engine speed and current skip-fire firing fraction and is arranged to ensure that a current combustion frequency does not incite any of the one or more resonant frequencies of concern; and locking-up the friction interface during operation in the skip-fire manner when it is determined that current skip fire operating conditions are suitable for locking-up the friction interface.