Patent ID: 6752743
Filing Date: 2004-06-22
Classification: B60W,F16D,Y02T,Y10S,Y10T

Abstract:
A method of diagnosing a malfunction of a clutch actuator that actuates the engagement and disengagement of a clutch of a motor vehicle with a transmission and a control unit, comprising the steps of:a) feeding an input command signal representing a desired amount of clutch engagement from the control unit to the clutch actuator; b) measuring the clutch-actuator position and generating an actual position signal corresponding to the actually measured clutch-actuator position; c) feeding the actual position signal to a processor unit for the function of the clutch and a dynamic behavior of an engine, which generates an actual rpm signal based on an rpm-sensor input, representing a measured engine rpm-rate; d) simultaneously with step c), feeding the actual position signal to a calculator unit which calculates a theoretically estimated engine rpm-rate based on the estimated position signal and a current engine torque and generates an estimated rpm signal representing the theoretically estimated engine rpm-rate; e) feeding the actual rpm signal and the estimated rpm signal to a comparator unit which, in turn, generates a comparison signal representing the result of a comparison of actual and estimated rpm signals; f) based on said comparison signal, making a conclusion about the condition of the clutch.