Please help: 1995 Cielo (Nexia) won't start

[tom_sawyer]

Please help if you can - this seems like an issue that comes up with this model. However, I have so far seen similar questions asked several times on the web and various forums, but never answered.

The car:
1995 Daewoo Cielo / Nexia / Super Racer GLX, manual, 1.5L DOHC engine.

The symptoms:
Car loses power while driving, stops and won't start. First time it happened, the car started after about half hour of fruitless fiddling, and ran fine for a few weeks. Now it has stalled again and won't start. Every once in a while it tries to start and dies, but mostly just cranks.

So far I have replaced the distributor cap and rotor and spark plug wires. Took out each spark plug, they all give spark when cranking. The plugs smell of petrol, and when I disconnected the fuel filter petrol squirted out. The fuel pump buzzes for a while when ignition is turned on. Compression seems OK, though low on one cylinder. (Measured 150, 120, 60, 120 psi left to right , will double check) When the car ran, it had plenty of power and low consumption, so the 60 psi seems suspicious. Took off the top engine cover, timing belt seems OK - no cracks, not missing any teeth. Not sure how to take off the side cover to check the alignment of timing marks - It looks like I need to take of the water pump pulley?

Really I am lost as to what might be the cause of this problem. If the issue was with compression in one cylinder, the engine would presumably just run very rough, but still start, wouldn't it? If timing slipped, wouldn't there be visible damage on the belt? Since the last time the problem somehow "fixed itself", I'm guessing it could be something electrical, like a bad contact or sensor. Since I've got spark, I have no idea what to look for.

Any help is much appreciated!

[tom_sawyer]

I checked the compression again today, and all 4 cylinders get 120 psi. Don't know what happened the other day, why the readings were off. The car still won't start, however. Fuel positively does reach the chambers. Spark OK. I'm truly, totally out of any ideas. Is there a way to check that the plugs fire when the cylinder is compressed? I have a timing strobe gun, but not sure there is a place on this engine I can point it at to check - especially when the engine only cranks. What else could possibly be missing? Are there any sensors that can prevent the car from starting if malfunctioning?

[benzino]

It's more than likely to be one of the sensors throwing everything off.


you'll just have to go round and check each sensor. If you have a workshop manual for the car that will tell you the correct voltages (quite cheap on ebay)

also, I didn't realise the 1.5 came in DOHC... I guess you learn something everyday

[Robot]

i had the same problem on my car. We changed the distributor and it fixed the problem. It ran perfectly for months. Now it has intermittent starting with the starter motor, but can start if we push it ?????? We think its a wiring issue now from the distributor to the ecu