Thermostat device for motor vehicle cooling system, cooling system equipped with such a thermostat device and method of controlling a heating module

Abstract

A thermostat device for a motor vehicle cooling system includes a valve, a heat-sensitive component to induce opening of the valve when the temperature of the sensitive component exceeds a temperature threshold, and a heating module controlled by the sensitive component. The heating module delivers at most a maximum heating power. The heating module includes a regulating module to determine a gross useful voltage based on a measured temperature and of a temperature setpoint, and a correcting module including an electrical resistor connected to an electrode. The correcting module controls the heating module either to limit the heating power delivered by the heating module to a heating power strictly lower than the maximum heating power and sufficient to induce complete opening of the valve, or so that the heating module delivers non-zero heating power that is not sufficient to induce opening of the valve.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.