PT Cruiser repaired and back on the road

It's official! My PT Cruiser is repaired and back on the road. This has been a long haul folks. It was May when the check engine light flashed on. I took it into the auto parts store for a quick check. The code was for a cylinder misfire. Hubby and a mechanic friend broke the engine down to fix the problem with the PT Cruiser.

She needed a bit of engine work, but wasn't anything the guys couldn't handle. They put her all back together, phoned me to bring a car to my husband and started her up. And started her up. And cranked.

That's when the oxygen sensor code flashed on. No problem, they said. The repair should be finished that afternoon, they said. Hubby picked up the sensor a few days later. They dutifully changed it out and started her up - or tried to. Again.

Back to the car repair drawing board. They checked everything from roof to wheels before deciding the PCM had given up the ghost. We let that $1,000+ car repair go until after we got back from the Alaska mission trip. We thought it would be as easy as getting the part, towing the car to the dealership, installing and programming it.

Nothing doing. Nothing changed except we were a couple paychecks lighter and more frustrated.

More checking told us that the wiring harness had shorted (probably) and taken out the PCM along with it. The harness was going to set us back another $1,000+. A tow to the scrap yard was would net us a couple hundred bucks. Hmmm.

Then Hubby and friend checked the salvage yard. They picked up a used wiring harness for a whopping $12.50 and installed it in an afternoon. (Actually, my husband's friend installed it while he and my husband talked. )

Vroom! Vroom! Soon led to "zoom zoom" and a spin around the block! My PT Cruiser was back on the road after sitting from May to November. The purring engine was music to my ears.

Then the bad news. Neither the odometer nor speedometer were working.

We took the car back to the dealership the next morning. That car repair set me back another $100. They called it a "relearn". I called it frustrating.  Whatever you want to call the repair is fine with me. It worked and that, and the bill, are all I cared about.

This was at  348,211. My PT Cruiser is now just under 350,000 miles and purrs like a kitten. Folks, a road trip is in my future. Where, oh where shall we go?