Recently, in view of reducing exhaust gas from vehicles in addition to improvement of fuel efficiency of vehicles, there have been put to practical use vehicles that perform what is called idle stop (IS) control for automatically stopping the engine at the time of idling to wait for the traffic light, for example. Similarly, in view of improvement of fuel efficiency of vehicles, there have been put to practical use vehicles that perform what is called idle neutral (IN) control for putting the input clutch (connector/disconnector) of the transmission into a semi-engagement state at the time of a halt of the vehicle in a forward travel range of the transmission. Moreover, as described in patent document 1, for example, there have been put to practical use vehicles that perform both the idle neutral control and the idle stop control.
In a conventional technique disclosed in patent document 1, while performing the idle neutral control, a vehicle may have line pressure of the oil pressure circuit higher than proof pressure of the electric oil pump. In a situation where the vehicle performs the idle stop and the idle neutral at the same time, overload of the electric oil pump may occur to unfortunately induce malfunction. In view of this, when idle neutral shift conditions are satisfied, the shift to the idle neutral is delayed for a predetermined period of time. When idle stop conditions are not satisfied during this delay time, control is performed to shift to the idle neutral.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds