METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR REDUCING THE TIME REQUIRED TO POWER DOWN ENGINE CONTROLLER WITH FAULTY EEPROM

摘要

A method of limiting engine control delays in an internal combustion engine having an electronic engine controller with an electronically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) for storing data. A timer (32) and/or a counter may be used to limit re-attempts to write data (34) to the EEPROM upon engine shutdown. If a predetermined time set (36) by the timer (32) for writing to the EEPROM has been exceeded, the system terminates the engine shutdown data write and allows the controller to switch to its low power mode (48). The counter (42) counts the number of unsuccessful attempts to write to the EEPROM. If the number of unsuccessful attempts to write to the EEPROM exceeds the predetermined number of attempts, the system indicates that there has been a gross failure of the EEPROM and allows the engine control module to be switched to the low power mode (48). Both a timer and counter may be employed in the system.