Patent ID: 7874154

Claim:
A method of cooling an internal combustion engine of a vehicle having a charge air feed and a coolant throughput, the method comprising: charging the internal combustion engine with charge air via a charge air feed; circulating a coolant in a first and a second cooling loop, wherein said first cooling loop includes said internal combustion engine; operating the first cooling loop at a higher temperature than the second cooling loop; providing the charge air feed with at least one intercooling unit for transferring heat from the charge air to the second cooling loop in which said coolant throughput is controllable by a control unit; and shutting down the coolant throughput in the second cooling loop during the operation of the internal combustion engine as a function of one of an operating parameter of a vehicle component by the control unit, a state change of a vehicle component and an influencing variable being recorded by at least one sensor coupled to the control unit.