I knew something was wrong the moment I opened the box

My younger son's PT Cruiser has been misfiring badly, so I've lent him our Santa Fe while I try to sort out the issue. I had Auto Zone pull the codes and found it was misfiring on two cylinders. So the first thing I tried was to replace the plugs and wires (it was time anyway). Initially I thought that was going to fix the issue because it was running smooth right after that and the check engine light went out. So I took the car back to my son and thought all was good. The next day he calls and tells me the car is doing the same thing again. So I took it back to AZ to check the codes - same codes - same cylinders. Ah ha! I't must be the coil pack going bad I thought, so I replaced the coil pack last night. No joy - same issue. After some internet sleuthing I am now leaning towards the likely culprit being a bad intake manifold gasket. Several people on forums described the same issue and that turned out to be the problem. (If not, my next option is the PCM - which I really hope is NOT the issue)

So today, I drove with the wife into town to do some errands, and went to NAPA and bought an intake gasket set for an 04 PT Cruiser. After driving home, I opened the box and saw 6 intake holes! Ok, this can't be right since the PT is a 4 cyl. I called NAPA and explained the issue and they looked up my invoice. I had paid for the correct gasket, but they gave my a gasket with the last two numbers "98" instead of "68". It was a gasket for a Honda!

Luckily by this time, my wife had driven back into town for a meeting with her ladies' group and she agreed to stop by the NAPA store and get the correct part (which they agreed to just give her on my promise to later bring back the Honda part.

Now for the fun part - I'm off to the garage!

Yes... now the "fun" part. :wink-new:

When I was doing the interior of my TR6 I ordered everything from a supplier on the other side of the pond. When I opened the box for the door panels I knew immediately that they were for the wrong year.
The supplier admitted their mistake and told me they would ship out the correct ones and to just keep the wrong ones since it was too costly to send them back. I ended up selling them on ebay and donated the money to a charity.

My Grandson has a PT Cruiser and it will just stop running on the Freeway for example. A little scarry. It seems to be a PT Cruiser problem as I have seen other PT's with same problem on other forums. Any advice would be appreciated as to what the problem might be.

59diamond said:

My Grandson has a PT Cruiser and it will just stop running on the Freeway for example. A little scarry. It seems to be a PT Cruiser problem as I have seen other PT's with same problem on other forums. Any advice would be appreciated as to what the problem might be.

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I now have the intake manifold off and am changing the gaskets today. (new plugs, wires and coil pack did not fix). By the way, removing the intake manifold on the 2.4 Turbo version is a Pain!

I am also going to swap full injectors around and, if new intake gaskets don't fix, see if problem moves to different cylinder. If so, will replace injectors. If none of this pans out, the only other possibilities I can think of would be possible faulty Crank Sensor (although no codes indicate that specifically) or, worst case would be the PCM (Program Control Module), but again, no codes indicate that as an issue.

Your son needs to have an older LBC, something with no stinking electronic stuff, so it can be repaired.

A lot of the forums say the crankshaft sensor

Grandson took the car and had the crankshaft sensor replaced and another sensor cleaneed and so far so good. The check engine light is still on so he is going to see if they will turn it off.

59diamond said:

A lot of the forums say the crankshaft sensor

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Also heard the cam shaft sensor can cause these symptoms. None of the codes point to either specifically. The cam sensor is easier to change so may try that next. The crank sensor on this car is a huge pain to change.

You should read some of the stuff about PT Cruisers stalling. Apparently it was a big problem for a long time and Chrysler never never did any recalls on it.

59diamond said:

You should read some of the stuff about PT Cruisers stalling. Apparently it was a big problem for a long time and Chrysler never never did any recalls on it.

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Oddly enough it isn’t stalling, just running rough (missing on two cylinders). Last night I swapped two of the injectors around and plan to see if the codes change as to which cylinders are missing.

Well, I'm making some progress. Yesterday I had the codes pulled again and it was showing Misfire on Cyl 3 and 4 but also "Control Circuit Open" on Fuel injector #3. So, based on some research I replaced the upper and lower intake manifold gaskets (one of them had a chunk missing). But also, I pulled the fuel rail and replaced the o-rings on the injectors. I then swapped injector #3 with #2 on the theory that if it was a bad injector the problem would move to #2. I pulled the codes this AM and found that I had no misfire codes, but still have the "Open Circuit" issue on FI #3. Since the problem stayed on FI 3 even though I swapped the injectors, then the issue must be the signal going to the injector itself. There are several possibilities, but at least I know it's not a bad injector.

UPDATE: As pointed out in previous post, when I swapped injector #3 with #2 the problem did not move. So, I wen to Auto Zone and rented a set of "Noid" lights. This is a little light with special pins made for a specific injector connection. When I connected the noid light to a known good injector circuit, the light flashed at a steady, consistent rate and brightness. However, when I plugged it into the suspect connector, the light was very intermittent; sometimes flashing normal and sometimes very dim and sometimes not at all. Ok, so now I'm sure there is an issue with the injector circuit. Firs I'm going to try the easy thing - changing the connector itself. If that doesn't work, I'll look at the connections on the PCM and make sure they look good. Last resort will be to change the PCM. The dealer wants $1600 to change but I found a place online that sells them for $300 give or take.

UPDATE #2: Well, changing the #3 injector connection didn't solve the issue, so it must be something else. I suppose it still could be something like the Crank or Cam position sensor or bad wiring somewhere else. Most case will be the PCM needs replacing. The weird thing is, I'm not getting an other codes except for that one bad injector circuit. I'd think that if the Cracnk Position sensor or cam sensor )or TPM) were bad there would be a code that would show this.

Before I change the PCM (they're expensive) I'mm taking it to Jeff at Gasoline Ally Monday and have him look at it and tell me if it's the PCM or not.

Frustrating!

Basil - indeed you have *patience*!

Say, is your son following all this? Hopefully he's learned from you how to troubleshoot and repair cars!

TM

While I certainly understand the noblesse oblige, there are certain things I will politely decline to get involved in. Doing any troubleshooting and attempting repair on most "domestics" built after 1979 is on the list now. I've a fine list of reputable shops who get recommendations from me for such matters. :wink:

The final straw was with a 1981 Pontiac Sunbird, a neighbor and decades-long friend has. A long list of minor components turned into an engine and gearbox (5-speed manual) swap for crate units. A nine month process and the crate engine grenaded after a couple months! That went to a "Certified NAPA" shop and I was out of the equation. The scars healed nicely. I've left out many of the lurid details about hunting parts and time intervals, but suffice it to say; NEVER AGAIN!

Doc - I'm feeling the same about helping folks with their digital devices. So much complexity, a murky history, and who knows what they've done (and where they've gone) in their internet adventures.

If you can fix the problems, you're the go-to guy for all their digital problems for eternity.

How can I change the screen color?

Where is my email password?

My hard drive crashed. I need my $2000 worth of downloaded mp3 files back!

et cetera
et cetera

Sounds like you might have a "Radiator Cap" vehicle -
Take off the radiator cap,& replace everything not connected to it.

When my Grandsons PT stopped running the Check Engine light went on. When we checked for the codes it said"DONE" meaning there were no codes.So just because it says no codes doesn't mean there isn't a problem.He had the cam shaft sensor replaced and the crankshaft sensor cleaned and now it is running fine and the check engine light is off. So I would recommend you check these two sensors before you replace the PCM.

Ms Triss hasn't been running well for a while - in part I think because I haven't drivien enough. Was talking with my mechanic and he handed me a can of Mopar Combustian Chamber cleaner. He swears by it - and, particularly talked about working on K cars - he said he would get cars that couldn't hold and idle and were running crazy rough - he said a can of this and often he didn't even need to do any more. I can't believe the difference it made on the MG - it runs smoother and certainly seems more powerful - even SWMBO noticed that it sounded better.

It might be worth stepping back and just running some serious cleaner through it.