Vehicular power transmitting system

A power transmitting system of a vehicle, comprising:

• an oil pump of an internal contact gear type having a driving gear rotated about its axis by an engine, an annular driven gear having internal teeth meshing with external teeth of the driving gear and rotatable by the driving gear about an eccentric axis eccentric with respect to the axis of the driving gear, and a housing having a pump chamber accommodating the driving gear and the driven gear, and a high-pressure discharge passage and a low-pressure discharge passage which are open in a side surface of the pump chamber to discharge a working oil from the pump chamber such that the high-pressure discharge passage and the low-pressure discharge passage one after another communicate with a plurality of pressure chambers in the process of decrease of volume of each of the pressure chambers while the pressure chambers are moved in a direction of rotation of the driving and driven gears, the plurality of pressure chambers being formed between mutually meshing surfaces of the external and internal teeth such that the pressure chambers are spaced apart from each other in a circumferential direction of the driving and driven gears, the oil pump being operated such that a pressure of the working oil to be discharged from the low-pressure discharge passage is kept at a predetermined low level that is lower than a pressure of the working oil discharged from the high-pressure discharge passage by a predetermined amount, when an amount of consumption of the working oil of a relatively high pressure can be afforded by only an amount of discharge of the working oil from the high-pressure discharge passage;
• and a continuously variable transmission operable with at least a portion of the working oil of said relatively high pressure:
• said amount of discharge of the working oil from said high-pressure discharge passage being determined such that the amount of consumption of the working oil of said relatively high pressure can be afforded by the amount of discharge of the working oil from said high-pressure discharge passage, during a steady-state running of the vehicle wherein an input shaft speed of said continuously variable transmission is not lower than a lowest target value predetermined for shifting control of the continuously variable transmission.