Abstract:
A reliable an convenient alternative method of diagnosing misfire or partial combustion conditions in an internal combustion engine without using a phonic wheel and a relative diagnosis unit that implements the method have been found. The combustion conditions are discriminated with soft-computing techniques directly exploiting a combustion pressure signal generated by a common pressure sensor installed in the cylinder. There exists an exploitably close correlation between the instantaneous values of the internal cylinder pressure and the occurrence of misfire or partial combustion conditions, and thus the cylinder pressure signal may be reliably used for diagnosing misfires or partial combustions in any functioning condition of the engine.