Hello.
Got myself a 2004 PT Cruiser 2.2 CRD (89kw)
It has this odd problem. When i take off the battery lead for about 30 minutes and reconnect battery, my Spedometer and interior lights and everything work. Sometimes for 5 minutes and sometimes for 2 hours. Then at random time my Spedo (whole instrument cluster), all interior light )expect the ones i can manually turn on and off not from steering column) stop working. I cant turn on interior light from the **** on steering column, no ding ding sound, no backlight of any buttons and ***** (rear wipers, heater and a/c ****) all is dark. And it stays like this. 3 weeks ago it was like this - while driving sometimes it went all out and came back. Now when it goes i have to pull off battery. Oh, and i noticed when the Instrument cluster goes dark the motor itself starts to work i bit rougher. idle is on normal speed but it starts shaking so bad my rear wiper is dancing around. BUT from positive side car starts to go faster It means lot of black smoke from muffler but it's like there is no turbo lag anymore. When Instrument panel is working then when i go flat on throttle it starts pulling about 1800rpm, but when IC is out and go flat on throttle it pulls right away no matter rpm. I had it under PC and MAP sensor reads fine even when IC is out.
I have changed out the ignition switch base. Cleaned the contacts of that switch and bent the contacts like suggested in other forums. Checked and cleaned Fuses in dash and under the hood. Have not tested relays.