Problems I've had in my 2.5 years of ownership

[2207 of 7500]

The 1st problem I encountered was last March,'04.... which was almost 2 years since I purchased the car, and had about 30k miles on it.
The steering started binding when crankin the wheel to the right when pulling out of a parking space or something slow like that. The left strut would emit a noise so I figured the strut went bad.
The night before my scheduled appointment at Chrysler service, my power doorlocks decided it wanted to lock themselves, continuously all night long.(don't worry-I took the batteries out of my remote controls just in case your figuring that the batteries in the remotes were just going dead and was making the remote go crazy), and still-it continued to attempt to lock all the doors, even though they were already locked.
.....So I get to the dealership and tell them what my doorlocks and front-left strut is doing and they check it out. They inform me that the relay in the tailgate latch went bad, and that is what caused it to go crazy..... part ordered- cool. They then tell me that the noise I'm hearing is actually comming from the rear sway bar-and the upper-right bushing is bad. I told them that that was a different noise that's been there since day-one with me and I thought nothing of it.... it was the noise in the front that was bothering me, especially if you went over a speed-bump at low speed and heard the strut compress and decompress.
Turns out I did have a bad bushing since day-one and was pleasantly surprized when they replaced it and the noise was gone. Yet - a couple of days later.....the noise in the front-left strut was back. I took it back in where the suspension specialist took a test drive with me and confirmed something was wrong with the front-end.
Further investigation of the front suspension revieled that the whole rack & pinion had gone bad, and needed replacing... free of charge thank God!!!!
Then, just three days ago, my doorlocks went bizurk again.... it was attempting to do the same thing as before, only it was averaging about 3 attempted locks per second......that's right, in ONE minute, it tried to lock itself approx. 90 times. It drove me so insane that I called the service dept., scheduled another appt., and asked them what I could do about the situation until my appt.,which was scheduled two days later, since in a 12 hr. period, the doorlocks had attempted to lock themselves approx. 500 times.... that's is the honest to god truth!!!! They told me to pull a fuse until the service. Sure enough, the tailgate relay went bad again and had to be replaced-only they had the part in-stock!!! Apparently, Chrysler is having a big problem with these relays going bad and now the dealership has them in their inventory...that's bad!!!!
O.K...... end of story....... what's gone wrong with yours????[xx(]

[RallyDRock]

Ive had my cruiser for a little longer. Since December 2000, and have replaced many parts. Front wheel bearings and hubs, rear center suspension link bearing, control arm bushings, ball joints and boots, left front axle, had a caliper seize up and wipe out the pads and rotor, small clips fall off of rear brake pads causing a chattering noise over cracks and sharp bumps, clockspring in steering wheel hub, and now my steering is acting up too. It will pull to the left sometimes but if i turn the wheel all the way to the right then back straight it will drive fine. I suspect the inner tie rods but since Chrysler doesn't have the part the dealer would suggest rack replacement. Good thing NAPA has them.

All of these problems are a bit disapointing but I still love my cruiser despite the lack of power and poor economy. As of recent I have decided to toss the economy and go with more power, the turbo is on the way!

[CREWZIN]

I bought mine Sept 2000. Just coming up to 61,000 miles. The only thing that failed was the power steering pump. It went without any warning and almost caused me to crash the car. I was told there was a national back-order for the pump, but my dealer found one at another dealer about 100 miles away and I was back on the road in 3 days.

[quicksilverdon]

Just passed 76,000 miles. NEVER been back to dealer. had an ignition miss I cured with Crane wires (platinum plugs didn't cure it). That's it.
Mave Michelins now when Good-for-a-years went, Raybestos ceramic pads I did myself.
Change oil (synthetic) & K&N filter every 5,000 miles - use no oil.

I did have to replace a wheel and tire and get an alignment after hitting a HUGE pothole, and it was in the body shop from a deer collision, but I don't regard those as faults of the car.[?]

[MX-5]

2001 PT came home on Nov. 13th, 2000 and has never needed service other than general maintenance.

2002 Dream Cruiser was delivered in March 2002 and has never needed anything other than oil changes.

I service over 2 dozen PTs from local owners. The most popular work is brakes and spark plugs/tune-up.
In 4 years, I have only seen 2 EGR solenoids, 2 peeling chrome wheels, and 1 leaking trans solenoid pack gasket. That's not bad for over 500,000 collective miles.

[nhrapt]

I got my cruiser 3\02 and haven't had any problems so far [ knock on wood] as a matter of fact its been the best car I've owned, so far.[^]

[DrData]

Well, I guess I'll reply and probably jinx myself

I got my 2004 GT in January of '03. About 30K miles since then, all I've done is change the oil every 3K. I've had no problems with my Goodyear Eagle tires. Everything continues to run smoothly and no odd ticks, grunts or squeeks.

I've had a wide variety of cars and SUVs and the Cruiser is one of the best I've had (so far). Worst was a Saab 900s...virtually everything on it broke within the warranty period. Tire problems folks report are not unusual. I've had speed rated tires from several mfgs (including Goodyear) all have had problems...I think it is the nature of them.

[2207 of 7500]

Thanks to all who replied .... I'm still very happy to own my Cruiser, but it's good to hear other people share their problems or no problems so to look out for things and don't feel like your the only owner who experiences problems .... Thanks[^]

[ijoe]

I had to replace the passenger side ball joint after previous owner ramped a curb, explained the noise upfront and luckily that was under warranty, the water pump was not... argh. That and some work on my power steering ran up $700 or so in charges, then the AC went out, a high pressure switch or something. If I buy used again, I'm going to think hard about that extended warranty...

[CHROMEDCRUISER]

I've got two PT Cruisers, the first, a 2001 LE, 45K on it, and the only problem has been one of the front rotors going bad. I also have a 2003 TE, and have had to replace the window switches (lights didn't work on them), and now have a leak detection pump failure, BUT I can still drive the car with the bad ldp until the dealer gets the part in. These are awesome cars, consumer reports rate them one of the best used car buys, and, of course, a good pick as a new car.