Control apparatus for a vehicle engine equipped with an automatic transmission

Claim 2

A control apparatus for a vehicle equipped with an automatic transmission having a lockup unit which is disposed between an output shaft of a vehicle engine and an input shaft of the automatic transmission and is activated at a speed larger than a lockup release speed at which said lockup unit is brought into a non-lockup position and which is set when the vehicle engine is decelerated, said control apparatus comprising: means for detecting an operating engine speed of said vehicle engine; means for calculating a deceleration rate of said operating vehicle engine; means for setting said lockup release speed based on said deceleration rate in such a way that said lockup release speed becomes higher as said deceleration rate increases; means for cutting off injection of fuel sprayed into a cylinder of said vehicle engine when said vehicle engine is decelerated; means for resuming said injection of fuel when said operating engine speed reaches a fuel injection recovery speed which is set lower than said lockup release speed; and means for increasingly correcting said lockup release speed according to said deceleration rate in such a way that the difference between said lockup release and fuel injection recovery speeds becomes larger as said deceleration rate increases.

Claim 3

A control apparatus for a vehicle equipped with an automatic transmission having a lockup unit which is disposed between an output shaft of a vehicle engine and an input shaft of the automatic transmission and is activated at a speed larger than a lockup release speed at which said lockup unit is brought into a non-lockup position and which is set when the vehicle engine is decelerated, said control apparatus comprising: means for detecting an operating engine speed of said vehicle engine; means for calculating a deceleration rate of said operating vehicle engine; means for setting said lockup release speed based on said deceleration rate in such a way that said lockup release speed becomes higher as said deceleration rate increases, means for cutting off injection of fuel sprayed into a cylinder of said vehicle engine when said vehicle engine is decelerated; means for resuming said injection of fuel when said operating engine speed reaches a fuel injection recovery speed which is set lower than said lockup release speed; means for increasingly correcting said lockup release speed according to said deceleration rate in such a way that the difference between said lockup release and fuel injection recovery speeds becomes larger as said deceleration rate increases; and means for increasingly correcting an amount of fuel injected upon said recovery of fuel injection in such a way that said corrected amount of fuel is made larger as said deceleration rate becomes larger while said automatic transmission is in said lockup position.

Claim 4

A control apparatus for a vehicle equipped with an automatic transmission having a lockup unit which is disposed between an output shaft of a vehicle engine and an input shaft of the automatic transmission and is activated at a speed larger than a lockup release speed at which said lockup unit is brought into a non-lockup position and which is set when the vehicle engine is decelerated, said control apparatus comprising: means for detecting an operating engine speed of said vehicle engine; means for calculating a deceleration rate of said operating vehicle engine; means for setting said lockup release speed based on said deceleration rate in such a way that said lockup release speed becomes higher as said deceleration rate increases, means for cutting off injection of fuel sprayed into a cylinder of said vehicle engine when said vehicle engine is decelerated; means for resuming said injection of fuel when said operating engine speed reaches a fuel injection recovery speed which is set lower than said lockup release speed; means for increasingly correcting said lockup release speed according to said deceleration rate in such a way that the difference between said lockup release and fuel injection recovery speeds becomes larger as said deceleration rate increases; and means for increasingly correcting an amount of fuel injected upon said recovery of fuel injection in such a way that said corrected amount of fuel is made larger as said deceleration rate becomes larger while said automatic transmission is in said lockup position.

Claim 5

A control apparatus defined in claim 2, further comprising: operating drive range detecting means for detecting an operating drive range of said automatic transmission; and fuel injection recovery speed correcting means for increasingly correcting said fuel injection recovery speed to become higher as said operating drive range detecting means detects a higher operating drive range.

Claim 6

A control apparatus as defined in claim 2, further comprising: operating range detecting means for detecting an operating drive range of said automatic transmission; and lockup release speed correction means for increasingly correcting said lockup release speed to become higher as said operating drive range detecting means detects a higher operating drive range.