2002 Chrysler PT Cruiser Steering Problems

“I had just put fuel in my car and was driving across a parking lot. I proceeded to park my car and noticed smoke rising out of my steering wheel and a burning smell. My lower set of lights ( fog lights) had turned on by themselves, which is odd since they haven't been working for at least two years. In order to stop the smoking in the steering wheel, I had to remove fuse #8. Same set of lights have turned on before a few years back draining my battery since I couldn't turn them off with their switch. …”

“..on my 2002 Pt Cruiser the front suspension cross member has rotted so bad that it broke in a few places causing the lower a arm to move in such a way as to cause the steering wheel to pull out of your hands all the way to the left and or right,the car could not be driven more then 15 MPH,..and that was while holding the wheel tightly....if this cross member was to break while driving 65 MPH there would be a very bad crash,..I suggest any one that has a pt cruise have it checked for the cross member rotting before a crash takes place,,,I was able to buy a new cross member and the cheapest…”

“Driving down highway oil light came on and the car began to slow down, had to pull over. When checking under the hood there was oil on the cap. Just had an oil change a couple of days ago, car had been running fine.....before this incident my power steering fluid was leaking, took my car to the dealership because there was a recall dealing with the power steering and the hose, they said that it was something else. I took my car to another person he put my car on the lift and there it was fluid leaking from the hose something that should have been fixed by the dealer but wasn't.”

“10-18-2011 I just bought my car last month (09-26-2011) and my control arms and bushing have already went bad. Now 2 nights ago (10-16-2011) my headlights stopped working. I took it into the dealership to have everything checked and was told that the wiring under the dash is messed up. I see that there are a lot of recalls for that happening to the 2002 pt cruisers and now the dealer I bought the car from will not fix it (even though I'm still within my 30 day warranty) I do not understand why I should have to come out of pocket to fix this problem. …”

“I have had to replace or repair the front and rear wheel bearings several times: front-april of 2005 at 64690 miles, front-april 2006 at 89223 miles, front-may 2006 at 91750 miles, front wheel bearing-july 2009 at 153048 miles, front wheel bearing-april 2011 at 182684 miles, rear wheel bearing-october 2011 at 191072 miles. I have replaced or repaired the suspension parts: front bushing control arm, ball joint lower control arm-march 2006 at 86643 miles, left inner tie rod had excessive play-january 2007 at 107087 miles, two outer tie rods replaced-january 2008 at 127121 miles.”