WYWendinger

Thanks for the tip on fixing the handle. My drivers side handle works but the lock refuses to come up more times than I can use it. I figured the panel would be the easy part to remove and w/o looking inside figured it was the rod. Hubby hasn't come around to the annoyance factor on it, but I bet the sight of his dang wife is sitting with car parts and tools around her will!

tooter1

My fix has held up since I posted the pictures, hope this repair lasts....

goddog333

i cant seem to find any other posts relating to this , but ive recently come across a problem with the lift gate handle on my '07.
at first i noticed that when i pushed the exterior button it made a squishy sound like it was full of water under the rubber finger pad.
a few days later it stopped opening the door all together.
i need some advice on how to access it, from the inside or out, and if there is a preventative measure i can take to stop this from happening again.
ive found the switch for around $20 but am scared to dissassemble the whole interior door to find its only accessable from the other side or vise versa.
thanks in advance.

Lee3333

Add me to the list - again! My drivers side handle broke a few years ago while the car was under warranty, and the dealer told me they had to replace the entire door panel. About a week after my warranty ended, the arm rest cracked. And this morning the handle broke off again. So, although I really do need a whole new door panel, the price is crazy. I am going to check junk yards first. The parts man told me that you can not buy just the handle, so it is not a matter of your dealer stocking it.

On a similar note, the power windows on my wifes 99 Saturn broke. It was just a small plastic piece that cracked. But we had to buy the entire assembly-motor, steel arms, gears, everything. Several hundred bucks for a 50 cent plastic piece.

And back to our HHR's-what about the sunroof. One of the plastic pieces that pop up the deflector broke and it is part of the whole assembly, not available separately. The whole frame has to be replaced. I just removed it and bought a plastic deflector.

tooter1

Well, since i posted the second repair pictures...it has held up very well. No repairs since and, it's been almost a year.

WOOHOO!

Sonoma GT

Funny that you posted an update on the same day that the drivers side handle broke on my wife's 2006. Took it apart to fix it but I need to get some good plastic epoxy.

87silver

My neighbor has a plastic welder. He uses it for the plastics on his dirt bikes. I wonder if it's worth the investment for HHR owners, since so many vital plastic parts seem to be integral to main assemblies.

http://plasticweldingandtools.com/plasticwelders.html

jimgusto

Yes. My inside passenger door handle broke this morning. Doggone it. I had no idea that little bugger would be costing me over $300 to fix. I've got a year and a half to go before I've got positive equity in my car loan on this thing so I can trade 'er in. If I live that long. I've had the front brakes redone twice already. I'm just a hair over 40K miles on her. The drivers side window always freezes up in the wintertime so you've got to open your door and try to reach around at toll booths and hope your coins land in the tray. Fun fun fun. I do love it despite its little faults, but I beginning to believe this'll be the last Mexican-made car I'm buying. And I've been a Chevy man since my first new Camaro in 1969. That one was made in the states here (as far as I know).

Franco Fanfuria

I live in Irving! I will volunteer my HHR, with a broken front passenger handle, to be fixed and I will take as many pictures as neede!

steven&cat

They make things this way on purpose. They cant make any money on a little piece of plastic. They pay engineers good money to design things in a way that big bucks can be made on replacement parts. Remember the days when you could get an air filter for a few bucks? How many other parts can you remember that used to be dirt cheap? Those days are gone.