OK. Just a 3:00 am guess here, but could it possibly be a shifter cable problem? Since it's only a 1st and 2nd gear issue I'm thinking that one cable being "off" could cause this.

 

73K on mine and it still shifts as good as the day I bought it.

 

I think at 69000 miles the warranty is over.

I had an email conversation with my GM parts guy today. Seems the 1 and 2 synchros are different than the 3,4,5 and R synchros.

Anyone know what the difference is?

 

Hmmm...
I had not considered a 1-2 shift cable problem. I should look into that before I go and pull the gearbox.

Thanks.

 

No 5 yr / 100K powertrain warranty ?

 

I'm not where the car is right now. I thought the warranty was 5/50000 but if it's 5/100000, I'm a lucky guy.

I'll check tomorrow when I'm back were the car is.

 

Hib-

nope, 5 yrs or 100K Powertrain only.. 3yr/36K was the bumper to bumper.

This link lists all that is covered. AFAIK..

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/problems-service-repairs-42/07-09-10-11-powertrain-parts-coverage-list-22231/

 

Hib... Any update on this problem. Just curious.

 

I was having a problem with downshifting from 3rd to 2nd gear in my '07 HHR LS that started at about the 45K mile mark. 2 or 3 times out of 10, I would get some gear crunching that did not make sense to me - I have had a driver's license for 46 years and have owned dozens of manual transmission vehicles. So I decided that I would not downshift into 2nd gear until it became a virtual necessity. The 2.2L EcoTec has enough torque to keep the HHR LS moving in 3rd gear at 20 MPH or so without "lugging".
This technique has virtually eliminated the 3rd to 2nd gear downshift gear grinding that I experienced. If I am driving along at 35MPH or so with no reason to slow down or change gears and I depress the clutch pedal and try to move the shift lever from 3rd to second slowly, I can detect the gear grinding going on. The input shaft has not slowed down enough for the for the output shaft gears to mesh. Whether the 2nd gear synchro ring is defective or simply inadequate by design is a question that sort of haunts me. In any case, I bought my HHR LS to use in a relaxed manner.
Incidentally, the owner's manual states that these Getrag manual gearboxes can often experience difficulty shifting into 1st gear from a dead stop. The remedy is to put the shifter into neutral, let out the clutch, and then depress the clutch and shift into 1st. No doubt, it has something to do with "rev matching" the input and output shafts.

I will be following this thread with considerable interest.

 

I'm happy to report with just a change in lubricant, from Red Line Superlight Shockproof Gear Lubricant to Red Line MTL, the gear grind problem went away. Interestingly, it took about 500 miles with new lube to for the grinding to stop, but the shift quality is now the same as it was before. I attribute that slow change to the design of the trans case–you can't drain the trans dry, so the new lube had to fully mix with the old and may have had to "work" its way into the synchro assemblies.

I'm going to change the lube a second time to further increase the ratio of new lube to old.

But the bottom line it was not a clutch, shifter or shift cable issue.