My New "until" Car

[Sethodine]

So, the car I've been commuting in (whilst waiting for my Elio) is in perfectly good shape. Old, noisy, but good.

However, it's a manual, and my wife cannot drive it. We needed something she can drive, for the rare occasions that she needs to drive further than the Leaf can take her.

So we picked up this beauty on craigslist

2002 PT Cruiser, Touring Edition, with 124k, all for a cool grand. And it looks just as nice on the inside! Only problem is an intermittent overheating issue at low speeds (its fine on the highway) that the sellers mechanic said was a blown head gasket (it's not). Common problem for PTs at this age, and it's almost never the head gasket. Usually it's a $5-$20 part like the radiator cap or the coolant temperature sensor. For $700 under blue book, I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Oh, and it's got a second horn. Dual-tone compressed air horn that sounds like a little train. I'll probably put it into my Elio in the future!

 

[Norahsbed]

Nice, once upon a time We wanted a PT but the dealers were jacking up the retail price. We got a truck instead. Happy cruising!

 

[Ty]

I drove one of those as a rental once. It didn't drive bad. Not my cup of tea but not too shabby! Congrats!

 

[CompTrex]

I had one of these. Bought it new in 2002, I believe. A convertible. I wasn't thrilled with it. I liked the turbo on it, it was fairly quick. It started to cost me money after a few years, and was told that things were about to get expensive so I ditched it for my 2001 Solera.
Fun car. Sounds like you got a great deal.

 

[Maurtis]

Nice, I like those PT cruisers. Grats! I had a similar Stebel Nautilus compact air horn on both my last motorcycle and on my 2006 Kia Rio. It was a real attention grabber. I have been meaning to put a similar setup on my current motorcycle and car, and definitely one on the Elio.

It very well may be a faulty radiator cap since they do have to hold pressure to keep the boiling put up. Or if it is low speed only issue then I would look to see if the fan is coming on, it might not be and that would mean little airflow through the radiator.

 

[Sethodine]

Aside from the overheating (which usually hits these around 80k, so mine is a late-bloomer), the other big problem with PTs is a malfunctioning multi-function switch due to bad wiring for the fog lights. I tested the switch thoroughly during my test drive, but the car clearly has already had the problem addressed; the fog lights are hard-wired to a seperate toggle switch installed in a blank spot on the center console.

It very well may be a faulty radiator cap since they do have to hold pressure to keep the boiling put up. Or if it is low speed only issue then I would look to see if the fan is coming on, it might not be and that would mean little airflow through the radiator.

Yeah, I got a radiator cap, a thermostat, and a coolant temperature sensor coming in the mail sometime next week. I separated the AC condenser from the radiator just enough to shine a flashlight between them, and was able to ascertain that there isn't a blockage between the two (another common issue).

I idled the car up to operating temperature yesterday and it didn't overheat--I heard the low-speed fan come on, and then the high-speed fan when I turned on the AC. Even with the AC at max it didn't try to overheat that time, but I wasn't driving it around either. But that verifies that the fan relays and the AC Pressure Switch are all working just fine.

When I was test driving it around town, it started to heat past the middle line, but dropped right back down to normal when I cranked up the cabin heat. I was glad to know that the overheating is manageable if necessary, but that also reduces the chance that the problem is air in the lines (which would have been an easy fix, but all well). After I swap out the thermostat/temperature sensor/cap, then I'll bleed the system and see how it all runs.

 

[Ty]

Nice, I like those PT cruisers. Grats! I had a similar Stebel Nautilus compact air horn on both my last motorcycle and on my 2006 Kia Rio. It was a real attention grabber. I have been meaning to put a similar setup on my current motorcycle and car, and definitely one on the Elio.

It very well may be a faulty radiator cap since they do have to hold pressure to keep the boiling put up. Or if it is low speed only issue then I would look to see if the fan is coming on, it might not be and that would mean little airflow through the radiator.

If the problem is the fan not coming on soon enough, that's a relatively simple fix. Same with the cap, of course. I used to simply remove the thermostat to make sure it wasn't the problem but that has an emissions penalty as it doesn't allow the car to heat up as fast) You can easily tell if it's a blown head gasket with no special tools or anything. Crank it up, take off the oil fill cap. Turn off the car. Was there a lot of air blowing out the cap? No? Then the pressure isn't getting past the rings too much OR going through a gap in the head gasket. Is there white paste on the fill cap? When water mixes with oil at high pressure/temperature, it makes a white paste that is horrible for everything. Everything fine there? Is the coolant level going down? If so, the coolant is either going into the oil (which it mustn't as you don't have the white paste), out the exhaust (hold a hand over the exhaust tip and see if it gets really wet. A little moisture is expected unless you live in a zero humidity area), or onto the ground. I had one vehicle that leaked coolant very slowly out the weep hole of the water pump. But, that is easy enough to check as is a leak onto the driveway (not to be confused with air conditioner drainage which is normal... Unsure? Taste it. I know - gross. Don't swallow any, of course, but if it tastes like plain old water, it probably is from the AC but if it tastes sweet or just plain wrong, it's from the coolant system.

Wow, sorry about the "word diarrhea" there.

 

[Maurtis]

Wow, sorry about the "word diarrhea" there.

No apology needed, that was great advice. I usually check older used cars by changing the oil to look for coolant residue, your tips are even easier. An oil change should be done anyway, but your steps can be done on a test drive before purchase.

 

[Critter]

Friend of mine has pt cruiser. Same problem until he used a radiator flush to clean out the calcium.

 

[Maurtis]

When I was test driving it around town, it started to heat past the middle line, but dropped right back down to normal when I cranked up the cabin heat. I was glad to know that the overheating is manageable if necessary, but that also reduces the chance that the problem is air in the lines (which would have been an easy fix, but all well). After I swap out the thermostat/temperature sensor/cap, then I'll bleed the system and see how it all runs.

It sounds like a cheapo bluetooth OBD2 dongle and Torque-style app would be good to get actual coolant temp numbers since those needles can be pretty misleading. On the Miata, the needle position between not-ready-to-be-wailed-on and properly warmed up is about the same. The good thing about the dongle and app is that you can use it on any modern car, not only for diagnosing issues and reading/clearing codes but for extra gauges as well. For example in the Elio