| 摘要 |
A cylinder-to-cylinder air/fuel ratio imbalance determination system obtains an imbalance determination parameter that increases or decreases as a difference between the air/fuel ratios of different cylinders increases, based on output values of an air/fuel ratio sensor, and makes a cylinder-to-cylinder A/F imbalance determination, based on the result of comparison between the imbalance determination parameter and a threshold value for imbalance determination. The determination system changes the amount of fuel injected into one or more of the cylinders so as to create a forced imbalance condition in which the air/fuel ratio of a particular cylinder deviates from the air/fuel ratio of the remaining cylinders, and obtains an air/fuel ratio sensor evaluation parameter (e.g., rate of change &Dgr;AF of the detected air/fuel ratio) in this condition. Then, the determination system determines whether the air/fuel ratio sensor is adequate for making a cylinder-to-cylinder A/F imbalance determination, by comparing the evaluation parameter with a reference parameter (an evaluation parameter obtained based on output values of a reference air/fuel ratio sensor in the same forced imbalance condition).
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