The invention discloses a remote fault diagnosis system based on an expert system. The remote fault diagnosis system comprises a gateway and server part and the expert system part. The expert system is the core of the remote fault diagnosis system and comprises a network interface, a man-machine interface, a knowledge base, a database, an explanation machine and an inference machine, wherein the network interface receives and converts data transmitted by a server, the man-machine interface is used for conducting information interaction between a user and various modules of the expert system, the knowledge base is connected with the inference machine, the explanation machine and the like and used for storing facts and rules, the database is connected with the explanation machine, the inference machine and the interface and used for storing the inference procedure, information records and the like, the explanation machine explains the faults through the method shown through the inferencepath based on rule inference, and the inference machine diagnoses the faults through inference due to fusion of two mechanisms including the neural network and the rule-based inference.