Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Jianping Zhang

Bradley Dean Riedle

Stephen Michael Cicala

Kendrick Morrison

Cory Benson Laroche

Kurt Howard Nickerson

Cory Benson LaRoche

Charles William Suter

Michael Simon

Jesse D L Brunais

Jaewon Choi

Kenneth Edward Sovel

Joseph F Kucharski

Paul Hollar

James Thomas Gooden

Markian Oleh Diakiw

Steve Michael Cicala

Brad Warren Probert

David H Schmitt

Eric Frank Banners

Nicholas Joseph Witte

David Spuller

Daniel T Lin

Mehran Namazkar

Steven Keith Plumb

David M Dillon

Michael J O'Day

Leonard Dziubinschi

A method is proposed to complete a power-on upshift while a vehicle encounters wheel slip conditions such as driving in loose sand. The wheels slip conditions may be detected based on a maximum rate of change of an output shaft exceeding a threshold. In response to the wheel slip conditions, one or more shift parameters may be adjusted to bias the shift toward a tie-up and decrease the chance of a flare. These modified shift parameters may include an increased stroke pressure, a delayed off-going clutch release timing, and an increased ratio change capacity.

Wheel slip flare controller using clutch control

A vehicle includes an engine and a transmission coupled to the engine. A vehicle controller is programmed to, in response to a shift of the transmission with the vehicle being in a sport mode or other precondition being present, command the engine to skip one or more fuel injector events of the engine during an inertia phase of the shift.

Engine controls during transmission shift

A vehicle includes an engine, a transmission, and a controller. The engine is configured to generate power. The transmission is configured to transfer power from the engine to at least one drive wheel to propel the vehicle. The controller is programmed to, in response to a command to shift the transmission and a corresponding command to decrease a torque of the engine to less than a threshold corresponding to a spark retard limit during the shift, (i) increase the pressure of an oncoming clutch to engage the oncoming clutch, (ii) retard an engine spark at the spark retard limit to reduce the torque of the engine to the threshold during the engagement of the oncoming clutch, and (iii) shutdown at least one cylinder of the engine to further reduce the torque of the engine to less than the threshold during the engagement of the oncoming clutch.

Powertrain torque control during a transmission shift

A vehicle includes an engine, a transmission, and a controller. The transmission is configured to transfer power from the engine to at least one drive wheel to propel the vehicle. The controller programmed to, in response to a command to shift the transmission, reduce a torque of the engine from a desired engine torque to a reduced value based on a flare at an input to the transmission during the shift. The controller is further programmed to, in response to the reduced value exceeding a threshold, retard an engine spark and maintain operation of all cylinders of the engine to reduce the torque of the engine during the shift. The controller is further programmed to, in response to the reduced value being less than the threshold, retard the engine spark and shutdown at least one cylinder of the engine to reduce the torque of the engine during the shift.

A method for downshifting a vehicle having an automatic transmission is described. In one example, the method determines whether or not conditions are met for a power matching downshift. If conditions are met for a power matching downshift, output power of a powertrain propulsion torque source at an end of the power matching downshift is adjusted to an output power of the powertrain propulsion torque source at the beginning of the power matching downshift plus an offset power.

Method and system for power matching during a downshift

Systems and methods for operating a vehicle that includes an engine and an electric machine are described. In one example, an actual total number of transmission gear downshifts are counted to determine whether or not a transmission clutch characterization is immature. The transmission clutch characterization may be adjusted if it is determined to be immature.

Methods and system for adapting operation of a transmission clutch

In a transmission hydraulic control system, a gain control valve may be used to switch between a low gain and a high gain based on line pressure. Line pressure may be controlled as a function of turbine torque. If the gain of a holding element or oncoming element changes during a shift as a result of changing turbine torque, shift quality may degrade. If the gain is set low at the beginning of the shift, the controller limits engine torque to ensure that the line pressure is not increased beyond a level that would cause a gain switch. If the gain is set high at the beginning of a shift, the controller maintains the line pressure high enough to prevent a switch to low gain, even if turbine torque drops.

Transmission control to avoid gain switch during shift

A controller commands an engine torque level in response to a driver demanded torque based on an accelerator pedal position. If the driver demanded torque decreases rapidly during or just prior to a torque phase of a shift, the controller commands the engine to temporarily generate torque exceeding the driver demand. The controller sets a nominal engine torque equal to the driver demand torque before the rapid decrease, slowly decreases the nominal engine torque during the torque phase, and decreases the nominal torque at progressively faster rates during the inertia phase to bring the nominal torque back into agreement with the driver demanded torque. The commanded engine torque is based on the nominal torque, but may be less than the nominal torque during the inertia phase to permit the engine speed to decrease faster.

Input torque control during transmission shift

A vehicle powertrain includes an engine and a transmission, each controlled by controllers that communicate with one another. When the vehicle is coasting in certain gears, a one-way clutch over-runs. When the driver depresses the accelerator pedal (tips in), the transmission controller adjusts a transmission torque demand limit which is communicated to the engine controller. In response, the engine controller adjusts the engine torque, resulting in a smooth re-engagement of the one-way clutch.

Vehicle control during tip-in

A method for controlling a vehicle driveline includes determining, for current vehicle operating conditions, an initial engine output torque, at which the driveline meets predetermined structural criteria, establishing a factor that varies with torque converter slip, determining an engine torque limit by multiplying the factor corresponding to a current torque converter slip by the initial engine output torque, and limiting torque produced by an engine connected to the driveline to the engine torque limit.

Control of vehicle driveline torque

A method for controlling the temperature of transmission fluid in a motor vehicle includes operating in an automatic transmission fluid cooling mode, a heater priority mode entered by disabling automatic transmission fluid heating, and an automatic transmission fluid heating mode which includes sending hot engine coolant to a heat exchanger for heating the automatic transmission fluid by transferring heat from the hot engine coolant to the automatic transmission fluid. The method switches to from a heater priority mode to a transmission heating mode base on a number of sensed conditions including sensed automatic fluid transmission temperature. The method also includes an automatic transmission fluid temperature regulating mode including measuring an automatic transmission fluid temperature and switching between the cooling mode and the heating mode based measured temperature.

Transmission fluid warming and cooling method

A method for controlling wheel-hop in a vehicle driveline includes detecting that a wheel-hop condition occurs upon determining an amplitude and frequency of speed oscillations of a component that transmits power to wheels of the driveline, engaging a transmission friction clutch that transmits torque in the driveline between an engine and the wheels, and modulating requested engine torque.

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Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America

Jianping Zhang