This paper studies the problem of fault detection and estimation in nonlinear time-delayed systems with unknown inputs, where the time-delays are supposed to be constant but unknown. A new fault detection filter, which can estimate online the time-delays, is first introduced. Then, a reference residual model is proposed to formulate the robust fault detection filter design problem as an ∞ model-matching problem. Furthermore, by a novel robust adaptive fault estimation algorithm, the classical assumption that the time derivative of the output error should be known is removed. In addition, applying a robust ∞ optimization control technique, sufficient conditions for the existence of the fault detection filter (FDF) are derived in terms of linear matrix inequality (LMI). Finally, simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.