A process for feedback of states of an electrical component to an engine control unit of an internal combustion engine

It is known to draw for transmitting an error, a signal line between an engine control unit and a control unit of an electrical component connected to ground. A transfer from actual conditions or a fault diagnosis via the signal line is not known. According to the invention it is now proposed to utilize the duration of the ground connection of the signal line to the engine control unit to identify the error. At the same time, this can also be used for feedback of an actual value of the electrical component. The errors are subdivided according to their severity in groups 7, 12, 14 having different errors 8-11, 13, 15-18, so that the heavier the error is, the longer maintain the ground connection. This can achieve with minimal extra effort a failure diagnosis and actual status feedback.