The common-rail fuel injection system is becoming a common technology for High Speed Direct Injection(HSDI) diesel engines. The injection timing and rate are important factors for combustion control and pollutants formation mechanisms during engine operation. This paper introduces an estimation methodology of the injection timing and rate of a common-rail injector for HSDI diesel engines. A sliding mode observer that is based on the nonlinear mathematical model of the common-rail injector is designed to overcome the model uncertainties. The injector model and the estimator we verified by relevant injection experiments in an injector test bench. The simulation and the experimental results show that the proposed sliding mode observer can effectively estimate the injection rate of the common-rail injector.