Back to results
US 10,208,650 B2Granted
Monitoring engine coolant
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorCarl Stephen Newman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An engine coolant temperature sensor configured to earth through the engine coolant such that an alarm will trigger when coolant is absent.
Claims18
An engine coolant temperature sensor comprising:
- an earth wire configured to earth through engine coolant in a coolant conduit and trigger an alarm when coolant is absent in the coolant conduit, wherein the only connection of the earth wire within the temperature sensor is to a housing.
An engine system comprising:
- an engine coolant temperature sensor including,
- a plurality of temperature sensing wires enclosed in a housing,
- an earth wire enclosed in the housing and spaced away from the plurality of temperature sensing wires, and
- a controller receiving signals from the earth wire and signals from the plurality of temperature sensing wires and determining if a coolant level in a coolant conduit in which the engine coolant temperature sensor is positioned is below a threshold level based on the signals from the earth wire.
1 more element
A method for operating an engine system comprising:
- determining an engine temperature based on signals from a plurality of temperature sensing wires in an engine coolant temperature sensor;
- and
- determining if the engine coolant temperature sensor is grounded based on signals from an earth wire in the engine coolant temperature sensor, wherein the earth wire is not connected to the plurality of temperature sensing wires.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.