First, After having them in my garage for almost 2 years, I finally put the GoldLines on Marie's HHR. The adjustable coilovers were cool but I just didn't like the way they felt. So I got everything put together and took it out for a drive for everything to settle. You've never heard the amount of popping and creaking that were coming from the front springs! I know people have gotten noise from the rear but this is from the front. After driving about 5 miles it kinda settled down... until I parked the car and came out later to drive it again. Then it started all over. At first I thought this was just a natural part of the spring seating itself but now I don't think so. Anyone else had a problem like this and if so, what did you do about it.

Second, I've always had the problem with the shaking while braking. It got worse after I put the new wheels on a few months back. Lately it was so bad that it felt like the car was going to fly apart. So I put all new brakes on and torqued everything to 100lbs and figured I was in for a smooth ride. No such luck. It is not bad but there is still a distinct shake when applying the brakes. I went to a couple of tire shops to get opinions. I thought maybe I needed an alignment. Both shops said alignment wouldn't cause this problem. They both said that the only thing that would cause this was a warped rotor. But the rotors are brand new. One of the shops said they had an HHR in there not all that long ago that about drove them crazy trying to get a shake out of it. The customer finally took it to the dealer but they never heard back to see what the problem was. Anyone got any ideas before I take this to the dealer. I'm afraid they would try to not cover it under warranty because of the GoldLines, even though they wouldn't have anything to do with it.

Looking for any input here. Marie's tired of the bumpy ride! Thanks.

 

With the wheel problem, did you remove the star washers (on the lug studs) that hold the rotors and drums? Factory wheels have a recessed area they fit in, aftermarket doesn't.

 

Yeah, I removed them when I changed the rotors. But that was recent and I changed the wheels a long time ago. You think maybe the wheels weren't seated right until I removed the washers?

 

Well, the HHR is in the shop this morning trying to get the problem fixed. I didn't like all the noise and shaking. Seems to dangerous to let my wife and little girl drive around like that. Hopefully they can figure it out without breaking me.

 

Those star washers are only there for factory assembly.They're not needed afterwards so they're tossed at the first rotor change/rear shoe replacement.

 

Well, got the spring problem fixed anyway. Turns out that when my coilovers were built, some of the stock strut parts were not needed. So when the GoldLines were put on, not all of the parts were there. The springs were shifting around causing all the noise. It cost me $500 bucks to get the missing parts and have them installed but it rides good and quiet now. Well, now it rides quiet enough that I can hear the back springs clunking anyway!

I still have the problem with the slight vibration when braking but it is not all that noticable now. Best I can figure it has to be something in the hub at this point since the rotors are brand new and have been torqued correctly.

 

What kind of coilovers did you have?

 

A buddy of mine has a custom shop and he built them for me. He was planning to get into the HHR aftermarket and then he got sick and was hospitalized for quite a long time. We never were able to get back together on the other stuff we had in the works.

Here's his website: http://www.westcoastfiero.com/

They do a lot of stuff for Fieros, big custom boats, and Harleys. He and his guys are very talented.