Hydraulic system, reservoir and pump suction enhancer for motor vehicle

摘要

A hydraulic system for a motor vehicle is provided with a pump suction enhancer (40) for boosting the suction of operating oil into a suction port of an oil pump. The pump suction enhancer (40) is composed of a body section for defining a side chamber (40a), a venturi tube passage (45) exposed to the side chamber at an inner end thereof and connected to the suction port of the oil pump, and a nozzle (43) protruding into the side chamber to face the inner end of the venturi tube passage with a space relative to the venturi tube passage in axial alignment with the same for ejecting the operating oil returned from a flow divider into the venturi tube passage thereby to plunge the operating oil from the side chamber into the venturi tube passage. The flow divider divides the operating oil discharged from the oil pump into a return flow to the pump suction enhancer (40) and into a supply flow which passes through a power steering device to return to an oil reservoir. In a first embodiment, the pump suction enhancer (40) is integrally formed with the oil reservoir (10) with the small chamber (40a) opening to a reservoir chamber (14) defined in the oil reservoir. In a second embodiment, the pump suction enhancer is provided as a discrete component separated from the oil reservoir, oil pump and the flow divider.