Patent ID: 7377239

Claim:
A method for operating an internal combustion engine, comprising: supplying air and fuel to a cylinder of the internal combustion engine via a plurality of intake valves, the air and the fuel supplied to the cylinder via a shared duct that opens into separate ducts for respective intake valves of the cylinder, the separate ducts having a same volume; resuming the fuel supply to the cylinder after an interruption of the fuel supply; wherein, starting at a first point in time of the resumption of the fuel supply, a fuel quantity at least partially supplied to at least one of the separate ducts is ascertained assuming a permanently closed, associated intake valve, a second point in time since the resumption of the fuel supply, at which point in time the separate duct would be completely filled with fuel for a first time in the event of a permanently closed, associated intake valve, is ascertained from the ascertained fuel quantity, a check is performed of whether the cylinder has relatively more combustion misses between the first point in time and the second point in time than after the second point in time, and in this instance, an erroneously closed intake valve of the cylinder is inferred.