[dana44]

deedee, on Nov 23 2004, 08:09 PM, said:

No ..... it does not matter if I move the steering wheel or not .... if I reach into the car say ... in the morning when it is now dark and put the key in and not even sit in the car and just turn the key ...... once the car is started ..... I have flicker .. and I can really see it in the interior lites against the black outside ..... then when I'm driving in the dark ... I see a faint flicker on my headlites ....... It almost gives me stigmatism for a brief second ...."U know"I thought one of the Diodes was leaking in the Alternator to cause the ac ripple but they changed the Alternator (so they say) The parts guy at one of the Chrysler dearlerships has a PT like mine and his flickers too ..... he says ..." ya I know it does that .... but it doesn't bother me " It is wierd as some have it and some don't .
Thanks deedee

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry deedee, misunderstood when it was doing it. Has anyone looked at the voltage regulator itself? It is (I assume) internal and in the PCM. I would think there would be some way to check the output power and the stability of the power through the voltage regulator. I know there is a way to wire an external voltage regulator, since a friend of mine had one go out (shorted alternator) and the electrical shop was able to wire one into the system without having to replace the PCM in his Lebaron.

[powerglide]

Ya know,If there was a short I think you would be smelling some cooked wires by now.I think you have a faulty internal regulator in your alternator that wasn't changed out ...Ya might put a volt meter at the battery and note what the voltage is peaking and dipping to .if its peaking at much over 14 Id sure have that alternator checked out again.Just a gut feeling....good luck

[indago]

When you applied the brakes, that added an extra load to the circuit and the bad connections at the battery were put under an added stress. I have made it a habit every spring to check the battery connections and have found the "green stuff" there. I take the connections off and use a portable roto tool with a small wire wheel to clean the cable connectors and the batter posts and then put them back together again. I don't have a problem with these connections anymore because of this maintenance procedure every spring.

[DUSTRBD]

At our dealership, we have not ran into this problem, but we saw it on our parts managers PT. We performed all kinds of daig. on it and still came up with the same concern. finally we installed a higher grade battery, I beleive it was a Interstate brand, I cannot remeber the CCA etc.... but it was alot more than the
OEM. The district manager for Chrysler here approved the fix. The cars lights no longer flicker and has been fine ever since.

maybe thats your problem too.......however there are alot of other possiblilities.
just a thought!

_DUSTRBD

[lzuckett]

I have the same problem on my 2003 GT. The flicker is just a slight dimming of the headlights on mine. Just one additional issue for the dealer to look at!

[tkyoshi]

I have the same problem with my SX 2.0!

Though it does it on startup to (the DRL's and Dash flicker) but it's not so noticable in the daylight.

Dealer just always says, Cannot Duplicate. Replacing the battery sound like the solution?

[dana44]

I know we all get kind of finicky with new cars and things, but think about it. In the old days, car lights would routinely flicker, and actually dim at low rpms and at idle with the number of accessories turned on, and we lived with it as being rather normal. Two things: one, as long as the battery isn't going bad or running out of juice then things are most likely OK, as long as two, the electrical wiring has been determined to be OK, as in connections OK, wires are not pinched or crimped, or melted, alternator, regulator and associated items fine.

Does the dimming of the lights alter the performance or operation of the car in any way?

[hergy916]

I have fixed two PT's with similar problems when I worked on them in my shop. I installed an alarm in the first one and noticed the battery had a lot of corrosion build up on it, so I fixed it when I reconnected the battery. The customer asked me what I did because he had been trying to fix it for weeks. The second one had the same problem (flickering lights) and got a similar response from her. I recently purchased my own PT and in the process of shopping for one, I noticed that the corrosion problem seems to be quite common on them. I looked at an 04' with 6700 miles that had corrosion and even the 01' I ended up with has some. My interior lights seem to flicker a little as well. I will be upgrading all the battery cables this week and I believe this will solve the problem.

[DaveAdmin]

I just had the same problem. I guess I can look at the battery and clean the cables. It's very sporadic and occured on the highway to both headlighits and inner lights while going straight. I have noticed when starting in the morning that the doome light often flickers.

[DaveAdmin]

Checked my battery terminals.

NO sign of any corrosion at all!

Other ideas?

[Grim1]

Just bought a 2001 PT Limited..on startup my gauges don't work (No tach movement, no speed) until I have driven a block or two, then all my warning lights go haywire, even interior light flashes on and off for 10 seconds....then stops and all gauges work again. Bizarre. I will have to see if same problem occurs if vehicle is started then just sits...I suspect column related.

[DaveAdmin]

Perhaps column related, or perhaps a bad ground. In your case I would definitely check the instrument panel to body ground wire. Assuming there is one. The other thing I'd check is wiring harness tightness and, ifi there is one, connection to the body computer.

Mine has also done it on startup now that I thinkn of it. I will show the dealer. Doubt anything will happen.

Yes, it does matter, because these electronic components (including the stereo) are presumably not designed to work on sine-curve power, and because there's a presumption something worse will eventually happen. You wouldn't want to drive all the time with the inside and head-lights flickering like that.

Seems like there's a design or assembly flaw slowly emerging. Wonder what it will be.

[DaveAdmin]

Dealer can't reproduce. No error code is set but it's happening more and more - to both the headlighits and interior lights. Quite the wave pattern, lasts for about five seconds. NO corrosion on the battery at all. Anyone have any ideas?

[Bob Hohn]

I can't say that I have heard of any solution Dave, but I am going to have to check out both my PT and my mom's PT because starting to notice the lights dim alot when braking. Wierd thing is that I didn't seem to notice it till it started getting real cold here. I have not checked the connections by removing the terminals, but a quick visual is NO corrosion on the terminals. When I get around to actually cleaning them I will let you know what I find out. Mine only has 13,700 miles and mom's has 11,000.

[dana44]

DaveAdmin, on Dec 8 2005, 04:28 PM, said:

Dealer can't reproduce. No error code is set but it's happening more and more - to both the headlighits and interior lights. Quite the wave pattern, lasts for about five seconds. NO corrosion on the battery at all. Anyone have any ideas?

That makes it sound like a voltage regulator, located in the computer.

[DaveAdmin]

Agreed but the dealer won't replace it until they see it.

[Bob Hohn]

Checked the terminals. Even though they appeared perfectly clean, when I removed the negative there was in fact some slight corrosion. Also, you may want to check the negative cable that goes to the left inner fender as mine has a slight amount there also. I went thru all this and the problem is still there, but is is somewhat reduced :D . Almost wondering if it is the infamous Mopar battery starting to give warning signs that it may not be long for the world :angry: ?

[DaveAdmin]

Hmmmmm.... I don't think it's the battery. Also, it ONLY seems to affect the lights, not the stereo and not the compass/thermometer. Strange and surprisingly common.

Big question - does your dome light flicker the same way each time you start the PT? That was really my first indication but I didn't know anything was wrong then.

And how do you get Chrysler/a dealer to admit there's a problem?

[Bob Hohn]

Almost every fuel injected Chrysler Product I have owned (78 vehicles and counting)has done the "flickering" at idle. Just seems more noticable on the PT's for some reason. I cleaned the terminals on mom's battery today. Interesting, same deal as with mine, slightly reduced the problem. I actually put a voltmeter on there to see if you could measure any change when the lights do their thing. When you hit the brake pedal, the volts go UP about a 1/4 volt, then stabillize again. Wierd. I am pretty impressed with the alternator, even will ALL the accessories on, still would hold 14 volts at idle. Something my Neons never could do hardly even nothing turned on. I also tried seeing how far the battery would draw down when trying to start. I held my foot to the floor to prevent the start, and cranked. Came in at right around 10.5 volts, which is probably on the lower side of acceptable. I am betting both cruisers will be getting new batteries in the coming year.