Hi guys, I have a 1996 hyundai excel x3 automatic which won't start whenever the gear shift is set to P (parking brake) Anyone knows y? Apparently it can only be started when first i step on the footbrake to shift the gearshift to "N" (neutral) and then turn on the ignition key.

Another thing is that once the car is running and i shift the gearshift back to "P", the car will just stall. There is a red led light near the ignition which also began flashing since i encountered this problem. Not sure what it is though..can it be a malfunction indicator light?

before this whole drama happened i realised that my RHS and LHS indicator lights went bonkers whenever i shifted the gearshit from "P" to "D" (i'm guessing it's either a transmission problem or electrical problem) my OD switch on the gearshift won't work too.. anyone knows why?

your inputs are much appreciated. cheers!

Wow thats quite a strange problem. Is that blinking light near the ignition key next to the foglight button? It's on the plastic area that "faces" you. Hard to describe lol.

If it is, it sounds like an electronic problem. That flashing light indicates the immobiliser is on. If it turns itself on when you shift to Park then theres some sort of conflict, maybe in the fuses. Did you change any fuses recently?

The Excel has a "safety" feature that automatically switches on the immobiliser when you remove fuses to prevent tampering by thieves. (I was caught out by this when my car wouldn't start, I checked my fuses, and my immobiliser came on, but none of my immobiliser remotes had any batteries!).

Try turning off the immobiliser when it comes on, and see if it stays off when you go back into Park later. But it's quite strange that it would turn itself on when you change gears. No idea on the lack of OD, but it could be related.

You might have to take it to an autoelectrician, but they're expensive.

Hope that helps.

Hi Sagi, thanks for the input. Hmm now that you mention it, i didn't know if my car has an immobiliser.. cos i bought it a year ago second hand. I used to think it was either an alarm system which now did not work or it was a LED to indicate some malfunction.

I've included an image as an attachment below to reconfirm it's the red dot next to the (fog/demister ?) switch. You probably can't see it flashing cos i took it with a flash.

i was thinking of bringing it to a mechanic tdy but it's Easter monday so maybe tomorrow. Any idea how much would it cost to fix the problem? i don't wanna get ripped off heh.

thanks for the advice man cheers!

Yea, that's the immobiliser light, all right. For some reason, it's turning on. The problem is that the immobiliser is highly effective. When it is on, you can't change the gear, start the car, and I don't think you can even take off the handbrake.

Autoelectricians charge big bucks per hour. The one I went to for a "check engine" light problem was over $60 an hour!

Have you taken it to an autoelectrician since?

Sorry for the delay for replying.

yep i brought it to my general mechanic...at first he couldn't find out what's the problem..cos even though i asked him if my car had an immoboliser he said he could not find the receiver... THEN...we found the immobiliser remote in the glove box and he started presing around with it. and then it worked!

you were right about the immoboliser but strangely, i could still move the car even though the immobiliser was on (see first post) I guess maybe it's kinda messed up when i bought it. Who knows how many owners the car had b4 i got it.

thanks for your input though. another mystery solved!

cheers