Patent ID: 8235855

Claim:
A hydraulic control apparatus for an automatic transmission, the apparatus comprising: a hydraulic pump that is driven by an engine; a regulator valve configured to regulate a line pressure serving as a base pressure for actuating a plurality of frictional engagement elements by using a fluid pressure supplied from the hydraulic pump; a plurality of linear solenoid valves each configured to control the line pressure regulated by the regulator valve in accordance with an electromagnetic force of a solenoid, each of the linear solenoid valves comprising a spool and being controlled under a normal hydraulic control mode and a current consumption decrease mode, the spool being actuated in accordance with the electromagnetic force of the solenoid, an output fluid pressure being controlled to be a maximum output fluid pressure from a minimum output fluid pressure with the spool which is at a balanced position under the normal hydraulic control mode, a current consumption for generating the electromagnetic force being decreased under the current consumption decrease mode so that the fluid pressure is controlled to be equal to or lower than the minimum output fluid pressure under the normal hydraulic control mode and the fluid pressure is held within a range corresponding to the balanced position of the spool, the frictional engagement elements being selectively engaged and disengaged by using fluid pressures supplied from the linear solenoid valves to establish a plurality of speed stages; a control state acquiring device configured to acquire a control state of the automatic transmission; and a linear solenoid mode changing device configured to change an operating mode of the linear solenoid valves between the normal hydraulic control mode and the current consumption decrease mode based on the control state of the automatic transmission acquired by the control state acquiring device.