fdv101

Hi Everyone,

I've been looking at posts similar to the issues I've had but haven't found any posts with all the issues I experienced today. I apologize in advance if there is a post covering this.

Earlier today I made a 10 mile round trip, the HHR drove fine to where I was heading. The car was parked for about 90 minutes, and then I drove it home. On the way home I noticed that the car seemed to be shaking a little but then a louder rumbling sound started while I was stopped at a traffic light.

When I pulled away, the car shifted very rough, banging into gear (I never went above 25-30mph). I noticed the dreaded Power Steering message on the DIC but I was having no noticeable issues with the steering.

ABout 10 seconds later as I was going about 10mph, the speedometer starting bouncing between 10 and 20mph, back and forth, continuing even when the car was stopped. When I noticed the speedometer jumping, there were 3 "clicks" that came from the shifter area and these 3 clicks happened twice within about 90 seconds.

I'm guessing the clicks could be a relay in the BCM but I have no idea which relay it was. Overall it seemed like the car was struggling to accelerate, I would call it sluggish. I had no issues braking or steering and no check engine light or other message was present other than Power Steering.

The battery I have in the car is 2.5 years old and is a NAPA brand battery. If I didn't see the gauge issue and the power steering message, I would think it was a trans issue based on how it would bang into gear when it shifted but I'm thinking more on the electrical side.

I read the recommendations on having the battery tested, checking for loose grounds, etc, but would that cause the car to shake? The only other pertinent information I could think of is I did drive over a small pile of snow yesterday. I could tell that the snow scraped the underneath of the car, so I don't know if that could have loosened something, but again, when I first drove the car about 5 miles this morning there was no issue.

Thanks for the help and recommendations.

2006 HHR LS

J W Davis

The first thing I would do is open the fuse box under the hood and make sure all fuses and relay were seated in their sockets. I have not had the same trouble as you described but on several occasions weird stuff was fixed by checking the fuse boxes, all of them.

whopper

Edited the original post to ease the reading for us old guys

You say you read the recommendations on getting the battery tested - did you get the battery tested yet? that would be my first step.

The hard shifting is a by-product of a problem other than the transmission.

Did the check engine light come on?

Giving some details as to the engine and the mileage would also help with the diagnosis.

fdv101

Thanks J W, I will check all the fuses

fdv101

whopper,

sorry for the length, I knew it was long!

The battery hasn't been tested. It literally happened a couple hours before I posted the message yesterday and the car has been parked since (other obligations kept me away from spending time on the car).

I do agree that it seems like the hard shifting is not actually the transmission, but basically something not controlling it correctly.

There was no check engine light, which I thought was very odd. The only light/message was the Power Steering message in the DIC

It's an 06 LS with a 2.2L engine with 134K on it and I've owned it 2.5 years without any issues like this.

I know some people have mentioned similar issues when something like this would happen and their radio would go off and on. Just to clarify, I never lost radio power, just had erratic behavior with the speedometer.

There was that clicking coming from the shifter area. I thought it might have been a relay, but I read on another post that it could have been the shift interlock.

I'm hoping to get time soon to start with the fuses and then get the battery tested and go from there.

firemangeorge

Just because there was no CEL showing does not mean there were no trouble codes stored. You need to pull the codes and see if there could be any that didn't activate the CEL.

As far as the trans. shifting. Certain codes can make the car go into a power reduced or "limp" mode. This will usually result in those harsh shifts.

Check the battery 1st. Also check all the battery connections and grounds. I would suggest to look at the positive battery connection at the underhood fuse box. Several folks have reported loose or corroded connections there.

donbrew

There is indeed a wire connection to the transmission that could have been compromised by that snow bank. It is the Vehicle Speed Sensor!

Oldblue

Have your battery load tested, your charging system tested
Check your fuse panel halves are tight that your fuses and relays are pressed into their positions nice and tight

fdv101

Thanks everyone for the info and suggestions. Hoping to get the battery tested this weekend, check the fuses and if need be get under the car to check the vss. I'll post whatever I find and hopefully the solution (if I have one). Thanks again!

Oldblue

Check grounds whilst your dirty!

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/how-...cations-56504/