New to the Pt world..

[02ltdpt]

bought a 2002 limited edition pt cruiser fully loaded. I got the car extremely cheap due to lack of maintenance and cosmetic problems. my mother owned a base model back in 2002 she bought new so i was somewhat familiar with the car. There are a few things i have questions about, im getting the p1604 error code which is for a faulty input i was wondering if that could be caused by a bad ground? this car was beat up pretty bad and im working on getting it back to tip top shape i just want peoples opinions and whatever you may have to help me out.. i hope i have this in the right thread this is my first post.. there is 93,000 miles on it and was wondering what will need to be done soon and what can be put off. Things i have already replaced and what im about to do..

all the brakes and rotors and all brake hardware
sway bar links
new bell crank along with the arms that attach to it
rims and tires
lug studs, all
front bumper
interior was gutted and cleaned (guy was a heavy smoker)


I plan on doing shocks and struts soon enough. along with an alignment..

the reason i asked if a bad ground would cause the input problem is because there are two ground wires in each of the front wheel wells and they are both cut. i have looked it up on mitchell ondemand5 and i would like to hear from anyone else that may have had an issue.. i havent gotten around to fixing the wires as i dont drive the car yet and its at my school waiting for me to finish working on it..

Ok i know i dragged this on so ill stop.. so let me know what i should do. and any other problems i may run into!

[Hooligan]

02ltdpt, Welcome to the Forum. Seeing that you are at 96K miles, change the timing belt, water pump, belt tensioner etc. while you are at it. Everyone recommends doing that by or at 100K as it seems like they deteriorate and or stretch and jump a tooth about them. It sounds as if you are basically rebuilding it anyway. Good Luck!!!

[soonercruiser]

...plugs & wires..
and tranny flush & "4" fluid replacement, if it's auto tranny.

[02ltdpt]

thank you both, im pretty excited to see how this car turns out! i will post pics when i have it back home

[02ltdpt]

ok so today i put all the new brakes and hardware anddd front lug studs since the wheel fell off the other day.. lol thankfully i was almost to a stop when it happened and the only thing damaged was the fender and of course the studs which were all gone.. the caliper bracket on the passenger side was all messed up so i have to get a new one from the junk yard.. im also looking for new shocks and struts so if anyone has some new or newer ones for cheap let me know!!

[quicksilverdon]

Whenever I buy a used car, I always change the oil immediately with synthetic oil - you have no idea what's in there or how long it's been in - change it and then you know.
The others and your own plans have the rest covered.

[02ltdpt]

yeah thanks! it has just been a nightmare with this car so far everything is soo rusted stuff braking!! but its a good learning experience!! if anyone knows where i could get a door latch for the rear passenger door that would be great as of now the seat belt is holding it shut..

[quicksilverdon]

PARTING OUT 2001 PT Cruiser

[CREWZIN]

02ltdpt,

You mentioned the wire on each side in the brake area. Ive read where that wire is a ground strap and it protects the bearings from a build up of static electricity. That sounds strange and it hasn't been a well publicized fact and I can't find it written anywhere, it was from a mechanic on the Internet while I was doing a search. Somehow the static electricity can cause the front wheel bearing to burn out.

Myself, I have the straps clearly connected and have 96,000 and the bearing are fine. Others on this and other forums have had to replace the bearings, sometimes more than once but I'm not sure if they have the ground strap or not.

I looked up your code and found that usually things like guage readings go haywire because of faulty wiring. It won't hurt anything so I'd go ahead and reconnect the wires in the wheel wells. You can disconnect the battery for a few minutes, that will clear the codes and if it doesn't come back you'll know it was the ground straps.

[02ltdpt]

Hey thanks a lot, this forum is just fantastic. I'm a member on a forum for my focus and people there are total jerks. I reconnected the straps the other day while putting in all new brakes i did run into a few problems which i expected since this car hadn't had any maintenance done on it since it rolled off of the assembly line but all is looking good and I'm extremely excited to take her out for a spin once shes in tip top shape!