RBodeman

I have a 2010 HHR SS with the 5 speed manual. I got the car in June of this year with 11,000 miles.

The car runs great and I love it with one huge exception. The annoying clunking coming from the transmission when changing gears. I hear it all the time during driving from anywhere from slow to normal driving. I near it most when changing from 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd.

I can even get it to clunk when feathering the clutch at low speeds. It sure sounds like backlash to me.

But the 2 dealers I took it too said its normal. They heard the noise but both said its normal.

Is it? There are very few SS manuals near me so the dealers never have anything to compare it to.

firemangeorge

I have a 2010 SS 5spd also. Yes it does appear that this is "normal". Mine does the same things as you describe. The worst part for me is when I'm backing up. If I have to engage/disengage the clutch more than once on a long backup it drives me crazy.
FWIW. I have the TTR upper mount and that didn't change this particular clunk noise. The backlash,slop or whatever, appears to be a transmission internal issue. Bad design maybe?

Tominator

Mine 'clunks' as well. I can changed the noise by shifting either faster or more slowly. It's not very loud and I'm not to worried about it unless it gets worse.
Not sure how 'normal' that is?

hhrfreek

Found a thread on the CSS forums for you guys:

http://www.cobaltss.net/forums/2-0l-...-noise-197626/

Sounds like it is "normal".

RBodeman

The clunking is actually worst under light or less than normal acceleration.

I do this because I like to save on gas because it does not make me feel so bad about heavy "fun" acceleration that sucks up the gas.

Anyways.....on the lighter acceleration I can do away with the clunk completely if I dont lift off the gas pedal when clutching and changing gears. Because Im only doing light acceleration there is no reving of the engine.

As a result Im assuming Im perfectly match engine speed with real speed and the gears just mesh right.

But lets get real, we dont change gears like this all the time and therefore I get the clunking most of the time as a result.

As mentioned by another poster, I dont get the clunking under heavy acceleration and Im guessing here its also because the engine does not have time to drop too much in revs from the quick gear changes and therefore the engine and actually speed are matching for nice gear changes.

Nether the less, clunking to me in any transmission cant be a good thing! Has anyone ever been to a dealer about this?

johnsHHRSS

I complained to the dealer and they told me it was normal. Then I got so bad that agreed there was a problem. They took the trans apart and found a loose carrier. Waited several weeks for a new part and they finally just replaced the transmission. The new one was worse. it not only clunked it had a bad gear whine in it. I complained to Chevrolet and they had me take it to another dealer. They agreed that it was not normal. They replaced the ring and pinion as well as adding several shims to remove some of the backlash.
The whine has gone away except for first gear but the clunking is still there.
I am going to call Chevrolet again.
If you have this problem I would call Chevrolet (not the dealer)and complain, maybe with enough complaints they will investigate and come up with a repair.

prod

Could it be the engine rocking back and forth? The mounts are quite soft and there is a lot of engine movement. As the mouints age it gets worse.

johnsHHRSS

I doubt it is a mount. In reverse the DS axle shudders when pushing the clutch in and out. There is a lash issue in the trans that Chev should address.

RBodeman

Im am so sick and tired of this clunking. It makes me tense just driving this car. I seriously avoid driving it at times. Ive only had it for 16 months and Im seriously thinking of getting rid of this hung of Chevy junk. I usually own cars for 7 or 8 years. So if I want to get rid of something this quick you know its bad.

I have had it into Chevey 3 times for the clunking transmission. They keep tellng me its normal. Well I got news for you, if this is normal to Chevy, then I will NEVER buy another Chevy or GM product again.

I complained to Chevy Customer Serive about this. Do you know what they did? They called the two dealerships I had taken the car to, to ask them what the situation was. The dealerships naturally said the car/transmission was operating within specs and there is nothing wrong. So the Customer Service Rep told me the the Dealership said there is no problem with the car so there must be no probelm.

Ah Hello? That is why I contacted you because I seriously think they are just passing the buck here. If I really thought all you would do is just ask them and say okay everything is fine, I would not have wasted my time.

The car has 20,000 miles on it and it clunks and raddles more than my 100,000 mile Mazda. What the??

Tominator

Wasn't there another thread that pointed to the blocks behind the lower dash panel where all the cables connected. The blocks were plastic and a little loose in the housing and that movement caused a 'clunk' when shifting. If I recall the member secured the blocks with a couple of screws....

Anyone remember this?