Internal-combustion engines – Charge forming device – Fuel flow regulation between the pump and the charge-forming...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-15
2001-06-05
Miller, Carl S. (Department: 3747)
Internal-combustion engines
Charge forming device
Fuel flow regulation between the pump and the charge-forming...
C123S1980DA
Reexamination Certificate
active
06240908
ABSTRACT:
INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE
The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. HEI 10-174716 filed on Jun. 22, 1998, including the specification, drawings and abstract, is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel tank diagnostic apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
If there is a space above the surface of liquid fuel in a fuel tank, fuel evaporates into the space, and fuel vapor may escape from the fuel tank into the atmosphere. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 7-132738 discloses a fuel tank equipped with an expandable-shrinkable air bag that is expanded or shrunk in accordance with changes in the level of the surface of liquid fuel in the fuel tank so that the air bag always remains in close contact with the surface of liquid fuel.
In the fuel tank disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 7-132738, the interior space of the air bag is in communication with a fuel vapor adsorbing canister so that fuel vapor allowed to permeate through the air bag sheet will not escape to the atmosphere.
If the air bag in the fuel tank as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 7-132738 repeatedly expands and shrinks, a hole may be formed in the air bag material, or the air bag material may come to swell with fuel or may come to allow passage of fuel therethrough. If such an undesired event happens, it is necessary to detect that the fuel tank has a failure. However, the aforementioned conventional fuel tank does not have a function to detect a fault or failure in the fuel tank.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to diagnose whether there is a fault in a partition dividing the interior space of a fuel storage device into a fuel chamber and an air chamber.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a fuel storage device diagnostic apparatus includes a gas introducing passage that introduces gas from a fuel storage device into an intake passage of an internal combustion engine, a shutoff valve that shuts the gas introducing passage, a fuel component amount detecting device for detecting an amount of a fuel component supplied to the internal combustion engine when the shutoff valve is in at least one of an open state and a closed state, and a diagnostic device for detecting a fuel component in the gas introduced into the intake passage on the basis of the amount of the fuel component detected by the fuel component amount detecting device, and for diagnosing that the fuel storage device has a fault upon detection of the presence of a predetermined fuel component in the gas. Therefore, the fuel storage device diagnostic apparatus is able to detect whether there is a fuel component in the fuel storage device on the basis of the amount of fuel component introduced into the internal combustion engine when the shutoff valve is in at least one of the open state and the closed state. Hence, if the presence of a fuel component is detected in the fuel storage device when the shutoff valve is in the open state or the closed state, the fuel storage device diagnostic apparatus diagnoses that the fuel storage device has a fault.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a fuel storage device diagnostic apparatus includes a fuel storage device having a partition that divides a space in the fuel storage device into a fuel chamber and an air chamber, the partition being deformable in accordance with an amount of fuel present in the fuel chamber, a gas introducing passage that introduces gas from the air chamber into an intake passage of an internal combustion engine, a shutoff valve that shuts the gas introducing passage, a fuel component amount detecting device for detecting an amount of a fuel component supplied to the internal combustion engine when the shutoff valve is in at least one of an open state and a closed state, and a diagnostic device for detecting a fuel component in the gas introduced into the intake passage on the basis of the amount of the fuel component detected by the fuel component amount detecting device, and for diagnosing that the partition has a fault upon detection of the presence of a fuel component in the gas. Therefore, the fuel storage device diagnostic apparatus in accordance with this aspect of the invention diagnoses whether the partition has a fault on the basis of the amount of the fuel component present in the internal combustion engine after the shutoff valve has been opened or closed.
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Hyodo Yoshihiko
Matsuoka Takuya
Sasaki Hidekazu
Takagi Naoya
Kenyon & Kenyon
Miller Carl S.
Toyota Jidosha & Kabushiki Kaisha
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