Flashing/Flickering lights

[alien88]

So, for quite a while I had the typical issue of the lights flickering if you were to push the window button up when the windows were all the way up or if you hit the brakes. No big deal, it was annoying but not that annoying.

However, now I have the wonderful "hey, we're going to flicker all the time, interior lights and headlights" problem. It's quite a headache to drive my car at night. Of course, I took it to the dealer and they "couldn't reproduce it" (because they did it during the day, I bet) so no luck there.

It's a 2003 PT Cruiser Turbo with about 85k miles on it. I had the battery replaced earlier this year and the problem seems to have gotten worse after that, however, before the replacing of the battery it was still going on.

I've heard things about hypergrounding and replacing the multifunction switch.. given the fact that I'm not all that good when it comes to stuff like that, I'm wondering is it easy enough to do or should I just find a local place to take it to and ask them to do it.

I really, really can't stand to drive the car at night as a result of this.. and thanks to DST it gets dark at 5:30 now.

[CREWZIN]

Hyper-grounding might not work but it's pretty cheap and easy to do. A lot of did it a few years ago during a craze.

You can buy a kit for about $10 on eBay (like I did) and it starts with a ring from the ground at the battery and goes to all different points in the engine bay.

I went to a ground on the body of the car itself, another to the computer grounding point and a third to a grounding point on the engine block. You can just see all the extra wires, that I covered in chrome, going to the different places in the engine bay.

[SRG]

First thing you should do, is have the battery terminals cleaned and take apart the ground terminal on the car body and clean that too.

Between my wife & I, we've owned 4 PT's over 6 years, and still currently own an 07. As long as the battery terminals were kept clean, the system ground that the car came with is fine.

If that doesn't fix it, then it might be the multifunction switch, (actually, I've ran into more MFS problems then dirty ground problems). One way I could tell my MFS was gone was the foglights would go on and off whenever they felt like it, even with the car off and parked! Try just tapping the end of the stalk lightly with you finger.

There are some good threads on MFS replacement here, just do a forum search if you need to change it.

Hope this helps;
srg

[alien88]

Originally Posted by SRG

First thing you should do, is have the battery terminals cleaned and take apart the ground terminal on the car body and clean that too.

Between my wife & I, we've owned 4 PT's over 6 years, and still currently own an 07. As long as the battery terminals were kept clean, the system ground that the car came with is fine.

If that doesn't fix it, then it might be the multifunction switch, (actually, I've ran into more MFS problems then dirty ground problems). One way I could tell my MFS was gone was the foglights would go on and off whenever they felt like it, even with the car off and parked! Try just tapping the end of the stalk lightly with you finger.

There are some good threads on MFS replacement here, just do a forum search if you need to change it.

Hope this helps;
srg

Thanks.. I'm thinking its more likely a ground issue because I havent seen any weird behavior such as the fog lights or other things reported.. just the interior/exterior lights flashing.

I know the dealer did clean the battery terminal connections, but I doubt they did anything with the ground terminal. I guess that'll be the first thing I try.

[SRG]

Could be bad cables as well, I say "cables" because even if it is just the ground cable, the battery cables are part of a single harness, (I think around $70-80 at the dealers).

On my wife's 03 touring, it was the starter cable, so once in a while she went to start the car, it was D.O.A., except the interior lights worked, chimes, etc. Started out once in a great while it happened, then as the conductor got worse, it happened more and more.

You could have the same thing only on the ground cable. You could have someone check the cable with a continuity tester, while you flex (vibrate) the cable a bit.

Replacing the cable harness is like a 15min job, 20 if you take your time.

Let us know how you make out.
srg