i'm running at 92 excel sprint and Recently the past 3-4 days the CHECK ENGINE light kept on.. i wasn't 2 sure what i might but as i had to get to work and back, i ignored it and this morning the car suddenly cut off and died. i quickly push it onto the side as i was blocking peak morning traffic so after i check under the hood. Everything looks fine. no leaks, everything all full. i tried starting the car and it struggles but it just wont start. and the starting noise sounds more dull than normal.

iv'e had a full serivice, new spark plugs, timing belt, water pump, new radiator hose, fuel filter and all. it has power and petrol is all good.

Has anyone have any ideas??

atm it's stuck a few suburbs away from my house, hopefully no one will knock it off.

Oh btw, i don't know why but the car has to be clutch started.

This could be one of so many things, but try checking the battery, it might be a bit discharged if anything. Other than that, I don't know... I'm not a mechanic :thumbsup:

hi,
it sounds like it could be a sensor, if the ecu can't get a signal from a sensor i think it just shuts down, take it to a fuel injection place and they'll do a diagnostic to check all the sensors and all that. just explain your problem to them. hopefully it's a quick and easy fix. let me know how you go, cheers

hey thanks for the advice. ur right, turns out the ecu is faulty. it's not getting any pulse reading, so the ecu isn't sending any signals to the dizzy to fire up the engine. we squerted fuel straight into the manifold and it worked so now it's a ecu replacement.
i wonder how an ecu can stuff up anywayz? or is this a common problem with excels.

Glad to here you sorted it out. this happened to my X2, just randomly died one day. replaced the dizzy and coil pack and various other things to no avail. it finally occured to me that it might be the ecu so i ripped it out and popped it open and sure enough there were melted capacitors and resin and s**t everywhere. my guess is that something shorted out and it overheated. picked up a second hand unit from the wreckers for $80 and its been sweet ever since.

p.s. the clutch start is a safety feature to make sure you dont start it in first gear and leap forward into someones mercedes.

This post has been edited by HarvsXL: Sep 12 2007, 09:13 PM

I've been having a similar problem, maybe even the same. I was riding my car and suddenly it went off. After that it never went on again. First I thought it was the alternator, so I took it out and tested it. It was faulty so I changed it, but the car wouldn't start. A few days ago I took it to the mechanic and he said it was the computer. I took it out and checked it to find out it had a burnt component. Some friends took care of ot and fixed it, but after trying it it would still ot go on.

My question is, do you think it is possible that the ECU is still damaged, would it be better to replace it? The other issue is that I can't find a 1992 ECU. Do yo think I could use a '91?

Yes the ECUs die on early X2 because the large electrolytic capacitors leak the electrolyte all over the circuit board. This liquid is very corrosive and eats the copper from the fibreglass board resulting in open circuit tracks and damaged components. The only way to fix is for someone experienced to desolder the offending caps, repair the tracks and fit new electrolytic caps. If this is too hard, get one from a breaker. The 91 and 92 excel should have the same ecu. The 91/92 model has the round aircleaner. The 93/94 X2 has the rectangular aircleaner.

Hope this helps.