2007 pt cruiser window switch replacement

I've been to several salvage yards looking for good replacement parts for my little red 2001 PT Limited. But I've yet to find a good power window switch that works reliably and has all the lights in it burning.

So it was time to take matters into my own hands and fix the original switch the "Handy" way.

I went to Walmart and bought a 12 volt green LED light strand kit. This kit comes with two strands of lights and a little power supply. The lights on my dash appear to be green, but some other PT's may look blue. If you decide to try this, make sure the color matches your dash lights. Also, the power supply will be very useful when positioning the lights in the switch even though it will be removed later on in the process. I believe this kit was about $12.

Next, remove the switch from the car. You can just pry the switch out from the top. I used a non-scratching plastic pry-tool made for such things. After pried out, just unplug it. Then removed the switch buttons. They can just be pried out as shown.

To disassemble the switch, pry the cover off. There are two catches on each side.

After I dissembled the switch, I then filed all the contact points so the windows would go up and down reliably. To do this, gently spread the ears that hold each of the little clear rockers in place. When removing the rockers, make sure the spring loaded pins on the bottom don't come out and get lost. Then take a file and make each contact flat and shiny. Do this on both the switch board contacts and each of the floating contacts that sit below each rocker. Usually a bad contact point will be "cupped" and burnt looking. Once flat and shiny, they will usually work great again for a long time.

Now it was time to fix the lights. Each of the two strands of LED lights in the kit needs to be cut to half length. There is already a factory mark on the light strands showing where to cut. A pair of scissors will work fine.

Insert the two LED light strands into the switch board. One goes on each side as shown. I had to use a pair of tweezers to get them to fit between the electronics. I turned each strand at an angle best I could to shine light through the little holes onto clear rockers. This is where the little power supply comes in handy to light up the LED's while I worked.

Here's what the other side looks like. The light strands should come just to the end of the switch board without hanging out.

Next, I cut the LED's wires going to the power supply. Then I folded them over to the back side of the switch board. I soldered the two wires with white stripes to the base of pin #6 (top arrow in photo). And I soldered the two wires without white stripes to the base of pin #4 (bottom arrow in photo). This will power the LED's without having to run additional wires and without cutting into my PT's wiring harness.

If everything is right, the clear rockers should now shine green when pin #6 is given 12 volts and pine #4 is grounded.

Once the cover is back on, everything should be shining green.

And with the buttons in place, the words "Auto" should be lighted and the little dots on the bottom buttons should light up. Even though there is no LED light shining directly behind the little white window switch emblem, there is enough reflection from in the LED's inside the switch to make it light up.

And as you can see, it looks great. And the windows roll up and down nicely too.

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Last edited by Handy_Cruiser; 01 Dec 2013 at 09:56 am.