HHRNewbie

Hi Everyone,

I'm so excited to have found this forum! I've perused through some posts, and have learned so much already ~ y'all rock! The hubby & I bought our '06 HHR LS, this past August, and so far I really, really like it ~ it's so different, from any car we've had, in the past (I think that's what drew me to it, in the first place lol!) ~ but, like so many of y'all, I'm just not happy with the original, stereo, that came with our car....I'm not at ALL good, with all the technical terms, that y'all use (but I'm trying to learn!!)...so please be patient with me lol...but, what I'm hoping we can do, is do some adjustments/additions, that are not overly expensive or too difficult to put in (we'd have to hire, someone, to do the work ~ that's a definite!), to make listening to our stereo, more pleasurable....I don't care to add a subwoofer at this point in time, maybe at some point, but not for now...I just would like better quality speakers, and a very efficient, way to also utulize, our iPod while driving ~
I totally can't stand, those FM radio type kits, you find for $50-$80 at BB, those things drive me crazy and IMO, are basically junk lol....any suggestions would be awesome!!! We had the stereo that came with our other car, an Alero, totally removed, and a new one put in (sorry, can't remember the brand), by the Geek Squad at BB, it also came with a pig tail (not sure that's the right term, HA!) attachment, that runs through the glove compartment, and you can run your iPod RIGHT THROUGH your car stereo, now that I LOVE (it's incredible!) ~ but, I'm really nervous about doing that, right now, with the HHR, and voiding out any left-over warranty, or for that matter, making some of the features of the Information panel, etc., no longer work, ugh!! Some "extra" features were affected, in the Alero, so I know that could happen with our HHR as well Thinking we might like to spend as much as $300-350 total (saying the hubby approves, lol!) ~ but would like to keep it as economical, as possible, for now. Not much, I know, but hoping it would get us going in the right direction, until we can add more.
Thanks again so much for any help/suggestions!! If there's ever an HHR gathering in the N.E. Ohio area soon, would love to know about that as well! :)

jeffs396

to the best place for anything fellow Ohioan! Please post in the introductions forum so members can welcome you! We're having our annual Cedar Point meet in June, see here:

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/mid-east-28/cedar-point-iii-june-12-14-2009-a-20385/

masterchief1112

as for the ipod. if you have the mini jack on the front just run a cable through that but since you ahve an ls i dont think you ahve that. also gm makes a connecor to run your ipod through the factory stereo but again i dont know if it will work with the base stereo.

twistrman

the PAL is the gm connector that masterchief is talking about, and i'd say skip it. A lot of people said that it is a PITA (pain in the a....) and that it doesn't really work correctly. Plus it costs 100-150 by itself plus install.

For car stereos crutchfield.com is a great place to go if you want to put an after market one in. You can choose your vehicle on there and they tell you what fits. Many stereos have the ipod cable feature or it ca be added on to the system. I have used crutchfield before and then installed them myself. The first time I did it being the first time i ever put a car stereo in. Piece of cake. They give great directions and make it super easy. Helps that hhr stereo can be removed in just a couple minutes with out taking the entire dash apart...

If you want to stay with the stock look you could go and talk to your dealer about the possibility of buying one of the head units from a new 09. They have a usb port on the front that you can plus your ipod into and it runs through the stereo and display and all that. This way you will be putting an hhr stereo back in and not loose an functionality that you are worried about.

From there since you're worried about sound, replace the speakers. Again crutchfield is great, but if you don't like taking your car apart you could have any car stereo company do it for you (In my opinion i would avid BB...half the time they really don;t know what they're doing, and the other half they are ripping you off...). I've done speaker replacement in a few cars without adding an amp or a sub and it went great.

If it was me doing this though i would check out putting the newer hhr radio back in and then replacing speakers. I used to do after market stereos and I just got tired of them. I've had my car broken in to, luckily i had the face plate off, but that gets annoying after awhile, taking it on and off. Since i only drive short distances around town, i eventually just left it off.

HHRNewbie

Thanks so much for your help everyone (and for the welcome!!)! I tried calling our dealership, and as always, sadly they weren't much help...I had asked about having an updated, stereo, in the HHR within a month of us getting it, but they just looked at me blankly (LOL!), and said that it wasn't done....
and suggested I just get a new pair of updated speakers, put in, by a reputable car stereo shop....ugh. I called again today, for the heck of it, hoping to get better assistance, but again not much luck....was told that I "could" check into, getting a newer model HHR stereo put in, but it all depends on whether or not, that stereo, was "available" (?) at the time, our HHR was manufactured?! HuH?! I'm guessing that an '09 stereo, wasn't in the equation, lol, at the time our '06 was manufactured, but that's just an educated guess...~sigh~
The only other suggestion they had, was to call the parts department tomorrow (apparently, it was closed by the time I called), and give them our VIN number, and that they could see what stereo options are available...but it all sounded very discouraging I'd love to be able to just go that route, of having one of the '09 stereos put in, rather than trying to get an after market, stereo ~ only because, I'm still worried what features might be disabled, after once a different model stereo is installed I'm so wanting a better, more updated way of using our iPod, so keeping fingers crossed!
I'm almost certain we have one of those mini jacks, on the front of our stereo ~ is there something we can literally run, through that, to make it so we can literally play, the iPod through our car stereo (so you can operate, the iPod, via your stereo, not the iPod)?
If nothing else, we'll def. look into getting better speakers!!
Hoping to find out better news when I call the parts dept. on Monday!!
Thanks again for everyone's thoughts/help!!

FlaHHROwner

I have an 07 LS that I replaced the stock radio for an aftermarket JVC unit that has a USB port on the front. By getting an adaptor wiring harness with the radio I lost no functionality of any warnings or chimes and it made the install really easy other than conecting the radio wiring harness to the adaptor harness... it helps if you know how to solder but crimp connectors will work too. the longest part of the install was soldering the two harnesses together as I didnt have any help holding the wires. with the USB port you can plug in your iPod just like you would to your computer and the radio will control it for playback. I havent yet changed any speakers but thats on the list. the new radio did make an improvement to sound quality even with the stock speakers.

twistrman

the AUX Port on the front fits a standard headphone cable. You get one that has the headphone jack on both ends (mini jack to mini jack) and this will allow you to play through the stereo. You will NOT be able to control your ipod through the stereo though. it's just a pass though, you'll still have to use the ipod to control it.

masterchief1112

yeah to control your ipod through the stereo you would need the pal connection. i don not have one i just use the mini jack. and ive hear the pals are sluggishly slow to use

FLBOIZ13

You might try searching on ebay or craigslist. I just did a quick search and found a few.. here's one

correct me if i am wrong, but it should plug right into the same connectors since is is still a stock head unit. and this one has a aux input jack on the front that you could plug your ipod into.

Another way to go about this is to get an aftermarket head unit with ipod connectivity and whatnot and then buy a steering wheel control adapter so you dont lose your buttons. This would be more expensive and difficult than replacing the stock unit, but could possibly have more features and would problobly make whatever speakers you end up getting sound better than the stock HU will.