Patent ID: 8881707

Claim:
A fail-safe controller for a direct injection engine, the direct injection engine including: a feed pump pumping up a fuel in a fuel tank; a high-pressure pump pressurizing the fuel pumped up by the feed pump, the high-pressure pump introducing the pressurized fuel into a delivery pipe; a fuel pressure sensor detecting a fuel pressure in the delivery pipe; and a fuel injector directly injecting the fuel accumulated in the delivery pipe into a cylinder of the direct injection engine, the fail-safe controller comprising: a malfunction detecting means for detecting a malfunction in the fuel pressure sensor by comparing a detection value of the fuel pressure sensor with a first threshold, and for detecting a malfunction in the high-pressure pump by comparing the detection value of the fuel pressure sensor with a second threshold which is greater than the first threshold; and a fail-safe control means for executing a first fail-safe control in which the direct injection engine is kept running when the malfunction detecting means detects malfunction in the fuel pressure sensor, and for executing a second fail-safe control in which the direct injection engine is turned off when the malfunction detecting means detects a malfunction in the high-pressure pump.