Patent ID: 8150576

Claim:
A motor vehicle comprising: an internal combustion engine that has one or more glow plugs for aiding combustion of fuel in combustion chambers of the engine when the engine is cold and a switch is operated to crank and fuel the engine; a processor for initiating operation of the one or more glow plugs in advance of cranking and fueling the engine during a cold start and for using data from a crankshaft rotation sensor associated with a crankshaft of the engine to indicate under- or non-performance of the one or more glow plugs once the engine has been cranked, fueled, and commenced running under its own power after the cold start, wherein the processor comprises an algorithm that during execution processes data from the crankshaft rotation sensor disclosing aberrations in engine speed potentially indicative of under- or non-performance of the one or more glow plugs and data for excluding potential causes of the disclosed aberrations other than the one or more glow plugs, and that gives a signal indicating under- or non-performance of the one or more glow plugs upon the excluding other potential causes as causes of the disclosed aberrations.