Patent ID: 7302935

Claim:
A method for operating an internal combustion engine, comprising: providing a fuel pressure accumulator in order to provide a fuel volume which must be injected, the fuel volume having a reference pressure and a pressure in the fuel pressure accumulator is generated via a high-pressure pump and the high-pressure pump is supplied with an adjustable fuel flow; adjusting from a control unit that is connected to a volume flow control valve upstream of the high-pressure pump the pressure in the fuel pressure accumulator in a first operating mode to the reference pressure by regulating the fuel flow of the fuel delivered to the high-pressure pump depending on the fuel volume which must be injected and the reference pressure; and separately adjusting from the control unit the pressure in the fuel pressure accumulator in a second operating mode to the reference pressure, adopted when the internal combustion engine is idling, by setting the pressure in the fuel pressure accumulator to the reference pressure by allowing fuel to escape from the fuel pressure accumulator in the event of a predetermined fuel flow.