1

11/13/2020
AT 17701 – Engine& Vehicle
Management System
SESSION 40
 2

11/13/2020
Unit V – Fault Diagnosis
System
SESSION 9
 3
Secondary air monitor

 The secondary air monitor is responsible for determining the serviceability of the secondary air system
components.
 Most strategies monitor the electrical components and ensure the system pumps air when requested by
the ECU.
 To check the airflow, the ECU observes the response of the exhaust gas oxygen sensor after it
commands the fuel control system to enter open-loop control and force the AFR to become rich.
 The secondary air pump is then commanded on and the ECU determines the time taken for the exhaust
gas oxygen sensor to indicate a lean AFR. If this time exceeds a calibrated threshold, a DTC is stored

11/13/2020
 4

Secondary airflow diagnostic monitoring

11/13/2020
 5
Monitors and readiness flags

 An important part of any OBD system is the system monitors and associated readiness
flags. These readiness flags indicate when a monitor is active.
 Certain monitors are continuous, for example, misfire and fuel system monitors.
 Monitor status (ready/not ready) indicates if a monitor has completed its self-evaluation
sequence.
 System monitors are set to ‘not ready’ if cleared by scan tool and/or the battery is
disconnected.

11/13/2020
 6
Monitors and readiness flags

 Some of the monitors must test their components under specific, appropriate
preconditions:
 The evaporative system monitor has temperature and fuel fill level constraints.
 The misfire monitor may ignore input on rough road surfaces to prevent false triggers.
 The oxygen sensor heater must monitor from a cold start.

11/13/2020
 7

System monitors (marked as ‘Complete’) and live data shown in scan tool
11/13/2020
 8
Misfire detection

 When an engine endures a period of misfire, at best tailpipe emissions will increase and at worst catalyst
damage and even destruction can occur.
 When misfire occurs, the unburned fuel and air is discharged direct to the exhaust system where it passes
directly through the catalyst.
 The misfire monitor is responsible for determining when misfire has occurred, calculating the rate of
engine misfire and then initiating some kind of protective action in order to prevent catalyst damage.
 The misfire monitor is in operation continuously within a ‘calibrateable’ engine speed/load window
defined by the legislation.
 The United States requires misfire monitoring throughout the revs range but European legislation requires
monitoring only up to 4500 rpm.

11/13/2020
 The misfire monitor must be able to detect two types of misfire:
 Type A misfire 9
 A type A misfire is defined as that rate of misfire, which causes catalyst damage.
 When this occurs, the MI will flash at a rate of 1 Hz and is allowed to stop flashing
should the misfire disappear.
 The MI will stay on steady state should the misfire reoccur on a subsequent drive and
the engine operating conditions are ‘similar’, that is, engine speed is within 375 rpm,
engine load is within 20% and the engine’s warm-up status is the same as that under
which the malfunction was first detected (and no new malfunctions have been
detected).
 Type B misfire.
 A type B misfire is defined as that rate of misfire which will cause the tailpipe
emissions to exceed legislated levels.
 This varies from vehicle to vehicle and is dependent upon catalyst package. MI
operation is the same as for standard DTCs.

11/13/2020
10

11/13/2020
 11

End of session 40

11/13/2020