raccoonjoe

I've been dreading this day since I bought the car, but honestly thought it would be the missus telling me (and in the middle of winter): "i hit something, and now the car's not right"

Hit a fairly large raccoon on a county road, just to the right of the centerline. Pulled over to investigate, saw that the lower grille is broken vertically in a few places, and it looks like the lower fiberglass has taken a knock too. No big deal, right? Wrong.

Get back on the road, and something just is feeling a little odd. Give it some throttle, and there is zero boost. Gauge won't even go to the 0 mark. My thought is "Damn, guess it got to the intercooler, too." Towards the end of the 10 mile trip back home, it starts to surge and buck under steady throttle. Throttle response is completely unpredictable from a stoplight, and the brakes are......also quite unpredictable.

Am I looking at something more than "just" an intercooler? I wont have the option to look under it till after work tomorrow.

Also, any ideas on source for parts? Stock 08 HHR SS, DD for my missus. I was looking at Crazy Steve for the intercooler, seemed to be the best bang for my limited buck. Also, need to source that lower grille, if anyone knows....

Grizzly old man

Hopefully its just loose plumbing from the turbo to the throttle body. I have a N/A HHR but recently we bought a PT Cruiser Turbo GT while waiting for my replacement engine to be installed in the HHR.

I had some problems with the Cruiser and ended up removing the intake to get the radiator out. There was a small leak that stop leak did not cure. A replacement radiator was around $60.00 so I ordered one.

I had been a radiator repair man for some years in my youth and knew I could not solder the aluminum radiator and all the shops around told me to just replace it because repairing it would cost more than a new one.

Anyway it turns out that removing the intake was not really necessary but I didn't know that. Once the new radiator was in I put everything else back where I thought I had taken it from.

The car did start and run but it would backfire something fierce when you got on it. I do not have a boost gauge in the car so I don't know for sure if it was getting the right boost or not. I could hear the turbo spool up because the previous owner had put one of those big air filters on and removed the original air cleaner box, it just did not run like before.

The car had overheated a few times while I was trouble shooting the loss of coolant. At first I did not see the radiator leaking, not sure why but there was never any coolant on the ground it seemed to be evaporating before it could make a puddle. I'd fill the cooling system when the heat gauge would get above the half way mark and everything would be fine for several days to a week then bam, I'd over heat again.

The car still went like a raped ape when it wasn't overheating but I thought I had done something really bad to the engine when it got hot. It only got hot enough to actually boil over once. The warning light and tone only came on that one time too.

Replacing the radiator cured all that but I kept getting the P2074 map sensor/throttle position correlation at load code. This is usually caused by a vacuum leak or over pressure problems.

After nearly two weeks of checking codes I finally took everything back apart cleaned the throttle body and did a better more meticulous reassembly.

I guess I had not put things together quite right the first time. So far, knock wood, the car is accelerating like it did when we got it again and has thrown no more codes.

firemangeorge

Most likely the intercooler is trashed. If you have a big enough leak(which it sounds like you do) they can "run like c***" so to speak. I had a leak at the lower Tmap after having the GMTU installed. It ran horrible and would barely accelerate to make it back to the dealer.
Now as far as the brakes acting up ? Not really sure on that one, unless the car was running so bad that you were losing vacuum to the brake booster.

And a FYI. The front end is plastic. No fiberglass.

Grizzly old man

This may be of interest to you.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CHEVROLET-HHR-06-11-BUMPER-COVER-FRONT-NEW-/291157139412?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Model%3AHHR%7CSubmodel%3ASS&hash=item43ca515fd4&vxp=mtr

firemangeorge

?????????????...That bumper ad is for the regular HHR. THe OP has a SS.

Grizzly old man

Not sure if this will work but its supposed to be the page on eBay where I entered the vehicle information using 2008 HHR SS

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CHEVROLET-HHR-06-11-BUMPER-COVER-FRONT-NEW-/291157139412?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Model%3AHHR%7CSubmodel%3ASS&hash=item43ca515fd4&vxp=mtr
no it just goes to the same thing i had before but if you go to that page and enter the year make model and put SS in then click on the GO box it says it is compatible with the SS.

I suppose in the most generic of terms it is compatible just not an exact replacement. the OP would have to send a message to the seller to ask if it is exact replacement for the SS or just the LT/LS

badassbowtie

My brother feels your pain....he went from a normal teal cobalt with nice paint to black primered parts in a week...no lie he hit 2 deer and a raccoon all within 8 days of each other.....he replaced the hood, on fender, the bumper, the ac condenser, the radiator, and a headlight. funny thing is the racoon made the car undriveable where the deer were cosmetic damage only


but anyway, you may have a refrigerant leak (air conditioning) and a coolant leak if you havent checked. My initial thought on the brakes is, if you lose the vacuum line for the power brakes, does that affect the braking?

Foop

I hit a racoon in my Trailblazer SS a few months back. Tried to center up on him best I could. had to replace front valance (bumper cover, lower grille, both fog lights, power steering cooler, radiator (broke lower tank), one trans cooler line. Just around 2200.00 Never in my life did I think one could do that much damage

FrugalAudio

I'd bet intercooler. I had a piece of debris kick up andpunchthrough the grill into the intercooler. Just a small leak, but enough to make boost and performance inconsistent for a week or so before i found the damage. The shop found a steel disc, 2"x3/4" laying inside the bumper.

JeramieJJ

zero boost, runs like cr@p.....intercooler or plumbing broke/separated is definitely a possibility. Or that lower sensor down there could be whacked also.

Few weeks back I was tuning and tweaking with HPTuners. Went out on logging runs and something went "boom".....was like o cr@p...this is my daily driver. Limped back home, as I was only a few blocks away and at night. Initial look under the hood revealed no leaking or visible damage.

Didn't sleep well that night....woke up in the am and it wouldn't start or if it did idled like crap and died like no engine pressure. Sweating it now. Popped hood and started checking everything again with daylight.

Found I broke a Hahn's T-Clamp, on inspection everything appeared fine, but I was able to pull up the pipe with a slight tug. Replaced clamp, battery disconnect....all better.

The tune is awesome.