Patent ID: 7139657

Claim:
A method for adapting an injection valve characteristic, the injection valve characteristic representing a reference injection behavior, of a triggered fuel injection valve of an internal combustion engine to aging-related changes or manufacturing-related variations of an actual injection behavior, which comprises the steps of: a) during an operating state of the internal combustion engine, the operating state not requiring a fuel injection, triggering an injection valve intermittently in accordance with a trigger duration, while otherwise no fuel injection occurs, such that at least one work cycle with triggering follows or precedes at least one work cycle without triggering of the injection valve; b) detecting a rotational-speed value or a value of a rotational-speed-dependent variable of the internal combustion engine in each case for the work cycle with triggering and for at least one of the work cycles without triggering; and c) establishing a difference between detected values and a correction of the injection valve characteristic being effected thereupon.