I have that same exact experience in mine. It would be nice to see if that's a "normal thing" or a hiccup of some sort.

Later
Allex

 

I think that is fairly normal; Mine has been acting much worse than that. And the temporary repair that the dealer did didn't last long. It's back to running poorly again and the check engine light is on. I called the dealer for an update on the parts Friday and just as I feared, one of them is backordered. Hopefully next week they can give me a date as to when it will arrive... because I really don't like limping around without the turbo working right... I paid for a performance car and I'd like my performance back!

 

Don't believe anything the dealers tell you when it comes to the Stage 1 upgrade.

Mine did the same thing and they said it was the Acuator which was on backorder forever. I called 20 dealers and couldn't find one and they all had the same reply.

Finally I pulled out all of the tsb's on installing the upgrade, on the web, along with information from this site, opened a case with GM/Chevrolet, raised holy hell with everyone, documented everything everyone said, (which was some very, very uninformed replies) and it turned out it was just a cracked tube that the dealer first fixed with glue then just ordered the tube.

Spoke to a nice gentlman at Hahn and he said he'd never heard of an Actuator breaking, it could happen but that would be the last thing he would check and he was right.

The 3rd party tuner people know a lot more about this car than GM.

In other words the very first thing the dealer tries to do is just say it's a broken part without ever really checking if they did the installation properly.

GM is a mess right now, the tech rep that handled my call knew nothing about cars (any cars) and until I begin sending out documentation nothing really happened.

In fact I'm positive had I just waited this car would never have been fixed.

This is just my opinion, but i have the feeling that GM just doesn't care about the hhr or any soon to be discontinued vehicles (or any performance vehicles) and seems to have parts, service problems up and down the supply chain.

You must document everything and be business like but raise hell, even if it means going up the food chain to someone that will listen and I can promise you it takes a long time to get someone to listen.

I love this car, it's a great car and the performance (when it runs) is off the scale, but if I have one more service issue I'm going to sell it and buy something that actually runs reliably. (no not a Toyota).

Not to go off topic but I also own an EVO 8 and the dealer knows everything about this car and can do ANYTHING to it. They can take it to 400 hp in a week and stand behind the work and let's be honest Mitsubishi isn't really setting the world on fire when it comes to sales, so if an underperforming company with no government aid can do it Chevrolet should also be able to do it.

When I bought the HHR SS I also bought a new SS Trailblazer and the Trailblazer is bullet proof, though I get the feeling that GM knows how to make a truck . . . cars . . . I'm not so sure anymore.

I have this fear that the days of a performance chevy are just about over. Maybe the corvette will hang around because it's a Halo car, but everything else will be some kind of politically correct Hybrid.

Once again, IMO.

If you want all the information I have on this car PM me and I will send you a pdf of my experience along with phone numbers of who to contact.

 

Russ, I will keep your experience in mind... but in this case a different dealer installed the stage kit than this one and the kit worked fine for almost a whole year. The dealer that is working on it now opened a tech case with GM to come to the conclusion that this hose connection was damaged... and their diagnosis makes sense since it is definitely loosing boost somewhere. In addition, their temporary fix DID return the boost to normal, albeit for a short time. For those reasons, I think they have found the problem. I will be raising a stink though with GM customer service if they can't get me the parts in a timely fashion.

 

Pitbull76, I printed this thread up to your post about the nipple and temporary fix and gave it to the dealer who has had my SS for a week. The service writer and tech thought things through and ordered the replacement parts. I'm leaving for a week so the car's with Chevy until next Monday. I'll post results when I get back. Fingers crossed. Thanks for the updates.

 

Just another update. I am STILL waiting for the parts to arrive. It's 2 weeks now, and still the dealer doesn't even have an estimated date for delivery. They claim to have escalated it as far as they can. I am starting to get upset over the lack of parts. It does stink to have a performance car with impaired performance.

 

Must be contagous....after a couple days this week where it sorta felt like a power drop off in the morning under load I finally nailed it down after work today. It starts out fine then falls on its face, gage goes to zero,,let off for a sec, get back in and all normal. Did this several times on way home..never set a code..no weird noises...drives like a normally aspirated car during power loss( non turboed)...I got it to do it from a stop light and at 60mph....I suspect it has to do with eng movement....it does it under load. Even did it under normal drive off. Kinda scarey, you try to jump into heavy traffic and it falls flat....anyways, no code, that would help, otherwise gonna have to do this the hard way....start poking and prodding........

 

If it has to do with the IC piping why not just go aftermarket....if it broke once it may just break again unless theres a design change....warrenty? If it never breaks again whats the difference...?keep changing it under warrenty? Sure, if you like taking your car in for days at atime.... just a thought

 

I bet if you drive it hard again the next couple times you drive it, it will set the check eng light. It probably already set the code; it needs to see it a certain number of times before the CEL comes on, at least that's how it worked with mine. After the first time in for repair, when they thought they had fixed it, I went and had the turbo die again. I took it back immediately to the dealer, and they verified that even though the CEL wasn't on yet, it had set the code and their reader saw it. The CEL didn't come on till the next morning, about the third start after they had reset the light.

 

Yeah.. I was waiting for the dreaded light... I know the problem is there now and know what to look for now so I'll play the hide and seek game with it till I know for sure....don't want to let the dealer( who wasn't very good to start with but that was over a year ago)play with it without hard evidence. and besides, my truck is still buried under a snow pile .....sigh, come on spring!!
I'll run by AZone here the next couple a days and run a scan....