Too Shocking 4 Me

Front power windows just stopped working. Lockout doesn’t make any difference. Now, they work every 100th time even when just in the garage (spooky). Seems like electric short. How do I find fault? No fuse found. Someone told me to remove the door panel, see if the power switch is getting power - way beyond me! When I changed spark plugs many years ago, I cross threaded them!

There is no simple story there if you’re not willing to dig into it. You might just have corroded connections or a bad switch. These are generally pretty easy to fix but you’d have to be willing to figure out how to pull the switch out and check things out with an electrical meter. Sometimes you just pry the switch panel out without removing the door panel. Other times you have to pull the panel. Even so, if you find the switch is ok and that 12V is getting to the switch then you’d be needing to pull the panel.

“Just a fuse problem” would be nice. But it would never work if the fuse was blown (rather than 1/100). AND - more importantly - if a fuse blows it will just blow again unless you find out why it blew. So now you’d be back at square one.

I think that you’re just going to have to pay someone to look at it for you.

The switches for a PT Cruiser are in the center of the dash and the rear of the console.

“The switches for a PT Cruiser are in the center of the dash and the rear of the console.”

Switches mounted flat on the console are subject to a lot more dirt and grime than door mounted switches. One instance of a spilled soda pop could gum up all the switches.

Many times the console switch assembly is pressure fit into the console, and can be gently pried out to work on. You’ll want to use a good grade of electrical contact cleaner, and thoroughly spray the entire assembly.

In fact if you can’t get the assembly removed from the console, just spray the contact cleaner right into the switch when it’s still mounted. Use the little straw tube applicator that comes with the can and spray right into the switch, then work the switch up and down then spray again. I think this may very well fix it if it’s a dirty switch that’s the problem.

Other causes can be the motor amd it’s connections, or a small break in the harness as the bundle enters the door in its flexible tube. A wire break (short) here can be quite common.