METHOD FOR DETERMINING ENGINE OIL CONTAMINATION
First Claim
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1. A method for determining contamination of engine oil comprising the acts of:
- determining run time of an engine;
determining an oil temperature;
based on the oil temperature, increasing a cold event counter by one;
based on the oil temperature, setting a hot event duration value equal to the run time of the engine; and
at least partially based on the cold event counter value and the hot event duration value, sending a contamination signal to a warning device (20).
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Abstract
A method for determining engine oil contamination includes determining an engine run time and an oil temperature. Based on the oil temperature, a cold event counter is increased by one or a hot event duration value is set equal to the run time of the engine. The cold event counter and the hot event duration value is then used to predict when the engine oil has been contaminated by water and fuel.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method for determining contamination of engine oil comprising the acts of:
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determining run time of an engine;
determining an oil temperature;
based on the oil temperature, increasing a cold event counter by one;
based on the oil temperature, setting a hot event duration value equal to the run time of the engine; and
at least partially based on the cold event counter value and the hot event duration value, sending a contamination signal to a warning device (20). - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. An oil sensor apparatus, comprising:
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at least one oil condition sensor; and
at least one control module outputting a contamination signal based on a signal from the sensor or based on a default contamination determination based at least in part on cold engine starts. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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21. An oil sensor apparatus, comprising:
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at least one oil condition sensor;
at least one control module connected to the oil condition sensor, the control module having logic means for determining run time of an engine, logic means for determining an oil temperature, logic means for increasing a cold event counter by one based on the oil temperature, logic means for setting a hot event duration value equal to the run time of the engine based on the oil temperature, and logic means for outputting a contamination signal at least partially based on the cold event counter value and the hot event duration value. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
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Specification