Patent ID: 8554432

Claim:
A power transfer mechanism control device that controls a power transfer mechanism which is mounted on a vehicle including an automatically stoppable and automatically startable motor and which transfers power from the motor to an axle side via a friction engagement element actuated by a fluid pressure from a fluid pressure actuator, the fluid pressure actuator comprising: i) a first pump actuated by the power from the motor to generate a fluid pressure, ii) a pressure regulator that regulates the fluid pressure from the first pump to supply the regulated fluid pressure to a fluid pressure servo for the friction engagement element, iii) a second pump actuated by supply of electric power to generate a fluid pressure and to supply the generated fluid pressure to he fluid pressure servo for the friction engagement element, and iv) a switch that is actuated by a fluid pressure from the first pump to selectively switch between a) a first state in which connection is established between an output port of the pressure regulator and a fluid pressure servo of the friction engagement element and b) a second state in which connection is established between a discharge port of the second pump and the fluid pressure servo of the friction engagement element, wherein: during neutral control performed while the motor is in operation, a neutral control amount, which is a control amount for causing the friction engagement element to stand by in a neutral state with pressure lower than a complete engagement pressure, is set on the basis of a power transfer state of the power transfer mechanism to control the fluid pressure actuator, and learned, while the motor is automatically stopped, the fluid pressure actuator is controlled using the learned neutral control amount such that the friction engagement element stands by in the neutral state, and during the neutral control, the neutral control amount is set such that the friction engagement element stands by in the neutral state to control the pressure regulator, and while the motor is automatically stopped, the second pump is controlled using the learned neutral control amount such that the friction engagement element stands by in the neutral state.