tucsondivots

I have been experiencing battery drain issues for nearly a year. The issue is the battery drains unless the HHR is started daily. One day not started causes slow turn over of engine. Three days and it is dead. In between it will sometimes trigger power steering or service air bag messages. I tried all the good suggestions on the forum (check fuses, connections, etc) and in June of this year replaced the battery. I gave this HHR to my daughter in August thinking all was well but the battery has drained twice. I have seen some other research online that 2009 HHRs had some battery drain issues caused by the power steering motor. This 2010 has a recall for the power steering motor that still needs to be done. Has anyone else had this problem and had it tied to the power steering motor? We will be taking it to an auto electric shop or the dealer, but I always appreciate th input from this forum.

donbrew

Mine turned out to be a bad battery (3 months old) that seemed to test okay, but drained with my cellphone charger in 15 minutes.

You also need to check the alternator diodes. If one is bad the alternator thinks it is a motor when the engine is off.

A seeking Throttle Position sensor can do it.

LED lights can do it.

I am skeptical about the EPS being a problem.

whopper

x2

Have you had the battery tested with a load tester? I know it was replaced in June, but even new batteries can fail (and it seemed ok between the install of the new one thru August).

If anyone is leaving a cell charger or GPS plugged into the dash, that too can drain it pretty good. And a member or two has encountered similar issues due to an aftermarket stereo system being incorrectly installed.

firemangeorge

X3 on the above.

Also, do you have ANY electrical mods(no matter how simple) that could be the source of this drain ?

843de

X4, an average HHR will have a parasitic drain of about 50 milliamps. That's for various memory "keep alive" functions, and things like the keyless entry/remote start receiving module, plus the factory security system.

Given months upon months, it'll drain the battery, but not overnight. Get thee to a load tester and I think you'll find that your battery is kaput.

tucsondivots

Thanks for the input, will figure out how to check the alternator diodes and throttle sensor. Two new batteries in less than a year. First one was 6 months old and did fail load test so thought that was the problem. Second new one is only 4 months old. Has gone dead twice and passed load test after full charge (Autozone checked and these are Autozone batteries). Nothing plugged in to cause drain. No chargers, stock radio, nothing aftermarket.

Snoopy

If, the battery again passes approval in the load tests, I would remove the battery and charge it on a 4 stage charger (should take 8-10 hours for a complete charge), wait about 8 hours more and test it with a multimeter.....obviously disconnected from the charger. On a 4 stage charger generally, you will see something like 12.75 volts or higher. Again wait about 3-4 days, whatever you believe is the drain/no start time period and then test it again. If it is NOT 12.5 volts or higher you probably do have a bad battery. If the battery does retain voltage, then you in fact do have a parasitic drain causing the problem.

All this needs to be done with the battery totally disconnected from the vehicle. A bit of a nuisance if no alternate transportation is available.

I'm told, and I'm not absolutely sure this is correct, but the vehicle needs 12.3 volts to start.

Just me....but that's what I would do at this point.

firemangeorge

Just to point out Mike's quote above(in red), I pulled this partial bit of info from the HHR repair manual:
18. Example: If a battery has a reserve capacity of 100 minutes, (60 A/H) the current drain should not exceed 25 mA.

843de

Yes you are correct George, I double checked my FSM's and the 50 milliamp figure was spurious. I do apologize.

Still, even assuming a 25 milliamp draw, a fully charged and healthy battery could take 3-4 months to go flat at a 60 degree median temperature.

I'm still laying odds that tucson's current battery isn't up to snuff, or that his charging system is deficient.

tucsondivots

Quick update on this issue. Battery was recharged and passes load test. My son-in-law did a parasitic leak test and with everything off, the drain is 1.5 amps. He is currently pulling each fuse and testing to see where the drain is. So far the biggest drains are OnStar and the factory Sirius radio, both at 80 milliamperes. He found something that said you need to wait 5 hours to measure to get true value (not sure why) but that still is not the big drain. All that is known for sure is there is something causing the battery to drain. I will keep this thread updated with anything that is found. Thanks for the input.