Engine light

[ejstith]

Well after almost a year without a problem with my PT I have a strange situation. Wife stopped at the store the other day and when she got ready to go PT wouldn't start. Turned over but no start. After a bit it started but ran bad at every stop light. It was sort of like it was in "limp mode". She got it home & parked it. I was out of town but when I got back I started it up. I took it around the hood and although it didn't run perfect it did run pretty good but a little shaky at idle. I have an OBII reader hooked up all of the time and when I hooked it to my PC it showed nothing! I cleared the light and put it back in the car and cranked it back up. The check engine light blinked a couple of times and was on steady again. Repeated process and again nothing on my PC regarding the trouble code but the light is still on. This is the first time I've ever had a check engine light and the code reader didn't say what it was. Any ideas?

[CREWZIN]

Take the negative battery cable off for about 10 minutes. You'd be surprised how that fixes a lot of problems.

[ejstith]

Thanks Cruzin, I'll try that .. Sure won't hurt anything ..

[ejstith]

Boy Cruwzin, there for a minute I thought you were an absolute genius! I took that cable off for about a half hour and put it back on. NO LIGHT! I went for a spin and it ran like a fine Swiss watch. I stopped a couple of places with no incident. I was convinced it was a fixed deal. THEN .... I stopped for gas and when I got ready to go I didn't think it was going to start and the engine light was on again. It finally started and as I was coming home it really ran funny. It would not go over 2500 RPM. It would jump & buck and carry on like a buckin' bronco. As long as it was not jumpin' and buckin' it ran fine just going down the road until ya mashed on the gas, even slightly. So .... back to the drawin' board. I just don't know why it doesn't show up on my OBII reader? But thanks anyway, you was a genius for a little bit ... LOL

[CREWZIN]

Ahhhhh, felt good there for a minute.

With the new engine light on, did you try your scanner again to see if there were any codes. If you can't go above 2500 RPM's then the computer put you in LIMP MODE. It does that so you can get home (slowly) and not hurt anything till you find the problem and fix it.

[ejstith]

Yeah I cleared the scanner and plugged it in with it screwing up. Still no code. I called Discount Auto Parts and they have a scanner. I don't know if theirs will show anything or not. I can imagine what Chrysler will charge me to fix this. Funny, the cooler it gets the higher it will rev. It's down to about half normal now and will rev (in neutral) to over 3 grand then goes to poppin' and bangin'. It backfires coming back down too... Something just isn't right here, ya know? Thanks Crewzin ..

[CREWZIN]

It's not supposed to rev any higher than that in neutral. The computer shuts down the injectors so you can't over rev it. It's a built-in safety feature.

[bobdole369]

Wondering why you didn't use the "built-in to the PT cruiser" engine trouble read out feature? Look up "key dance" you don't need a code reader.

[ejstith]

Well Bob, I did that. The code is 0016 and the list I got off of this forum doesn't go that low. I also got an 0339 which relates to "slow response bank 1(?) but that may be because of 0016? I don't have a clue.

[CREWZIN]

Try this for your P0016 code:

code p0016

Error Code P0016?