MoTeC Global Forum

Hello,
I have been running a Motec M4 on my 1967 Mini Cooper S for about seven years now, and it's never had a problem (a fact I brag about whenever I get a chance). Yesterday when stopped at a traffic light, the motor just died all of a sudden. Fortunately, the car weighs next to nothing, so I pushed it through the intersection into a parking garage. The diagnostics said NO SYNC. After being towed home, I replaced the Hall Effect sensor for the sync signal, but that had no effect. I traced the wires back through the harness, and they are fine. The settings of the ECU seem fine as well. Just to be sure, I reloaded the current config file from my PC, reset the ECU, and tried starting it again. As before, it cranks but shows no sign of starting. This time, the diagnostics say "NO REF". Is it possible I've had a failure of the ECU itself, and if so, what do I do?

Thanks,
Kurt

kurtd wrote:Is it possible I've had a failure of the ECU itself, and if so, what do I do?

If the ecu is still comunicating and reporting errors then it is unlikely there is anything wrong with it. Most likely one of the sensors (cam/distributor or crank) or the trigger wheel(s), maybe a damged tooth or bad wiring.
No Ref and No Sync errors are tightly related so it could be either sensor that is causing the issue but from your symtoms I suspect it is most likely your sync sensor.
You really need to scope the sensor outputs to get to the bottom of it.