This paper presents the process of the needle lift estimation ova common-rail injector fur HSDI(High Speed Direct Injection) diesel engines. A nonlinear mathematical model of dynamic behaviors of common-rail injector is established at first. Based on the mathematical model of the common-rail injector, the methodology of estimating the injector needle lift is introduced. A sliding mode observer is applied to overcome the model uncertainties. The common-rail injector model and the needle lift estimator are verified by simulations and experiments. The simulation and experimental results indicate that the model outputs are in a good agreement with experimental data, and the proposed nonlinear sliding observer can effectively estimate the needle lift.