General Code light decoded - still won't Start!

[Lytescary]

The other day I went out to go to work in my '96 90 ELX Cabrio and the code light was on constantly and it wouldn't start! It had been playing up on times before and usually just turning the ignition off and back on again would solve it. But no this didnt work! I thought that perhaps the ECU was wet, even though it's placed in the footwell so the heater would leak on it. So I dried it out and it still didnt work! I took the ECU to a garage that we know and they sent it off to be decoded. Got it back the other day and the car still won't start. The place that decoded the ECU tested it and said that everything is working perfectly on it. So far I have spent £130 to test the ECU and decode it and it hasnt seemed to make any difference!
The garage said that it may be some sort of sensor? But why would the code light stay on immobilising the car if it was just a sensor?
So I towed the car to the garage last night for them to hook it up with the diagnostic machine to see what is wrong with the car. I was wondering whether anyone on here had any ideas as to what could be wrong so I can pass it on to the garage if they cant find anything wrong with it?
Trust this to all happen just before it was meant to be going in for its MOT! lol
Thanks, Lytescary

 

[Lytescary]

The garage has just told me that its to do with the code box. They already have a car that they can change the code box over from. They say that just changing the code box with the decoded ecu may work, but if not they will be changing the ignition barrell and everything. Is this right? I dnt really know what it all means so any help would be helpfull.

 

[NumanR]

If you had the ecu decoded you should have disconnected the code ecu and it should have started.

 

[Lytescary]

Yeh we had the code box disconnected before the decoded ecu was reconnected. The garage at the time said that they thought that it should start, they were pretty baffled as to why it didnt start.

 

[Lytescary]

I was wondering whether anyone had any ideas about this. The garage has since changed the ecu, ignition and code box from another car and the it still won't start. They have now got out a specialist and he tells me that he doesn't really know this system on the 1.6 that well. It is now coming up to 4 weeks being at the garage and it looks like it will cost me a fortune. Now that I have spent all of this money on it (including new exhaust before it went wrong) I can't really afford to stop now, even though it may have been cheaper to buy another Cabrio.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Ben.

 

[Lytescary]

Sorry they hadnt changed over the ECU from the donor car but used my old one after being decoded.

 

[gimmiemorefiats]

Did it all work out in the end? I'm having the same problem with a 2001 Punto HGT and if you could give me any info as to the eventual cause of the problem, that would be much appreciated!

Cheers,
T