2006 Chrysler PT Cruiser: sudden loss of power

Filed Sep 5, 2017 · 80,000 miles · TX

For about a year now,my car's dash lights will all illiminate on and off irratically and gaugues fluctuating up and down simultaneously. Often but not always,the car will stall and die when this happens. Other times I can feel a loss of power. In febuary I had my battery corrosion cleaned up,terminals replaced and tightened. For about four months afterwards it never happened again. It's almost as if the voltage is unstable..like it's being choked off. Car battery light sometimes is on..othertimes it's off and has been that way for years. Car has about 121,000 miles.

Filed Jun 24, 2016 · Acceleration, Engine · 70,000 miles · FL

Tl* the contact owns a 2006 chrysler pt cruiser. While driving various speeds, the vehicle lost power and multiple warning lights on the instrument cluster illuminated. The accelerator pedal was depressed, but the vehicle failed to accelerate. In addition, the vehicle previously stalled. The contact was able to restart the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to a dealer on multiple occasions, but it was unable to be diagnosed or repaired. The contact was unsure if the manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 70,000. The VIN was unavailable.

Filed Apr 1, 2016 · Electrical · 122,500 miles · PA

As I was driving my car all the gauges and warning lights came on,gas gauge needle went to e(tank was full), lost power as I was driving. Took the car to my mechanic they tried to duplicate the problem, of course they couldn't. Then the engine light came on. Put the car in the garage...again! A week later the problem returned. My job requires me to work across all 3 shifts, I am frighten to drive my car, I often have my grandchildren in the car with. They were in the car march 25,2016 when the car began bucking and jerking while we were driving home. I was on a street doing 45 MPH, when the cars speed dropped to 5 MPH. I was impeding traffic, and cars were passing me on curves! I was on another site and see 93 other complaints, for the same issue. I am thinking there will need to be a loss of life before chrysler corp. Does something to correct this serious problem.

Filed Sep 1, 2015 · Electrical, Engine · 165,000 miles · GA

All lights on instrument panel flashes on-off. Sometimes the gauges will zero-out and go back to normal position. Sometimes when the lights flash and gauges zero-out, there will be a quick power loss. Maybe 2-3% of the time power loss will be substantial almost needed to pull over. More often than not, it seems to happen more in the heat and possibly rain or day after a heavy rain.

Filed Jan 2, 2015 · Acceleration, Steering · 96,000 miles · OH

If my ignition switch is too far forward my car will lose power and what to stop I figured out if when I turn the car on and move the switch back the car will not do that but if I forget and leave it forward it will do this again all my lights come on and I lose power. I believe it should be part of this recall.

Filed Jul 27, 2014 · Electrical · 18,700 miles · GA

Initial incident stalled out waiting at stop light. After initial incident, vehicle would occasionally behave as if about to stall with all warning lights flashing. Then the condition would go away and car would operate normally for awhile and then occur again. Vehicle was taken to chrysler dealership but they were unable to reproduce the issue and car passed their test. The vehicle has stalled out several times since, while in motion. The last incident, vehicle was at approximately 45-50 MPH when all electrical warning lights flashed and vehicle stalled, losing all power steering, brake functions. The car has less than 28,000 miles on it at the current time. I feel it is unsafe to drive.

Filed May 4, 2014 · Electrical · 70,000 miles · TX

Dashlights came on and off gauges dropped and returned to normal.vehicle loss power.

Filed Oct 15, 2012 · Electrical, Engine · 21,000 miles · MI

My wife and I obtained a 2006 pt cruiser from her father in 2008 with 12,980 miles on the odometer. In 4 years we've added about 12,000 miles. Starting last winter, both while being driven at city speeds (30-45 MPH) and while idling, this 2006 pt cruiser has periodically had a problem with the lights and gauges on the instrument panel. The needles all simultaneously switch back and forth rapidly, then go to the off position. The panel lights turn off at the same time, then after a few seconds to a few minutes, the panel returns to normal. Prior to last friday, 10/12/2012, these incidents had not presented a danger or interfered with driving. However, on friday, my wife was driving the car in heavy traffic, and this time the panel went haywire as described before, but the car suddenly lost all engine power. The car would not respond to her pressing the accelerator, and she was forced to coast to a slow roll in the 40 MPH traffic! Then, the engine reengaged suddenly and the car surged forward when she wasn't expecting it. She refuses to drive it again. Our local chrysler service tech seemed to be completely unfamiliar with this problem when I described it to him, and a call to chrysler corp llc proved useless. A cursory investigation online turns up dozens of this exact complaint over the past 5 or 6 years, and virtually all of them indicate a number of attempted solutions, including replacing the battery, the vacuum hoses, the wiring harness, the fuses, or the instrument cluster, and none of these apparently eliminate the problem. Is this as common a complaint as it appears to be? If so, how can it be resolved?

Filed Aug 17, 2011 · Electrical · 60,000 miles · NC

2006 with less than 60,000 miles on it started hard time cranking, jerking, skipping and losing power down to about 25 MPH. Replaced plugs, wires, battery and crank sensor nothing seemed to fix it. I went online to see if this was a regular problem with the pt cruiser and on several websites found it was a continual problem here is the result of one of the searches: I ran into that problem with a customer's pt cruiser the same year as yours. What I found by accident during diagnosis was the connectors terminals that plug into the front control module lose terminal tension causing intermittent electrical concerns. The way I found it was by wiggling the wiring harnesses that go up underneath the module which caused the problem to show up. I had to dissemble the connectors and re tension the terminals. The terminals are kind of dinky on those and it wouldn't take many plugging and un-plugging of the connectors to cause the terminal to lose tension. No fix is listed on the chrysler website or anywhere yet there a numerous complaints. I bought this car for my 16yr old (now 17) never had a problem with it until now. When going down the interstate it went from 65 to 25 and she was scared senseless. This could have been a tragic accident. Now the car does it we push the plugs back in runs fine then when the car is ran for any length of time it does it again. Push the plugs back in runs fine so I do know if it is this part I hope for a fix before someone gets really hurt from the loss of power so abruptly. Websites I referred to: carjunkie.com, ask.com, chrysler.com, google.com sear for 2006 chrysler pt cruiser.

Filed Jul 15, 2011 · Electrical · 34,000 miles · NH

Tl* the contact owns a 2006 chrysler pt cruiser. While driving at various speeds, the reading of all the instrument panel gauges began to fluctuate and the vehicle lost power. The failure recurred intermittently and with time, progressed and became constant. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic for diagnostics. The mechanic performed a software update but to no avail. The mechanic was contacted and advised that the instrument panel needed to be repaired. The contact was then referred to the dealer. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 34,000.

Filed Dec 9, 2007 · Electrical, Engine · 12,000 miles · FL · crash

Starting around nov of 2006 while driving at any speed, the instrument cluster indicator lights turn on; all the gauges go dead I.e. The speedometer, the tachometer, the gas gauge all go to zero. The warning sounds beep constantly. The 2006 pt cruiser will lose power and/or severely hesitates, power steering will fail, the brakes will fail, I have had to use the hand brake one to many times to slow the car down. I have had several near misses with other vehicles on the roads. I curb the car twice, damaging my tires once, so as to not hit other drivers. This has been happening for over a year now. I have taking it massey-yardley where I bought the pt, to have looked at over a dozen maybe even more I have lost count, I have tried to lemon the car, chrysler stated that there is nothing wrong with the car because the dealership has not reproduce the problem. I have taking the pt to other dealerships with the same result. Just recently I took the car in again to massey-yardley for poor gas mileage and the same power problem, this time with a check engine light active, in nov of 2007, the dealership said it was a bad instrument cluster and a bad oxygen sensor, which they replaced. I am still having the above stated problem, the dealership stated on nov 16 of 2007 they know something is wrong but since they cannot reproduce the error to trouble shoot it they will not fix it. The dealership also said since I'm not happy with the results I should go to another dealership to have it looked at! I'm going to do that but it's hard when you have to work! Plus massey-yardley will not give me a statement to that fact of unknown defect in writing.