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Well, I took Herman to IL for this I.T. project training.
Made it up here all right, but a few things started happening on the way up.
One, the suspension got kinda noisy. This is a known issue, but still kinda annoying when going from the south to colder climes.
Two, the blower motor stopped working entirely. I think there's still power going there, so not a fuse. When I put the blower dial on high, the headlights dim a little. The temperature being well below zero, F, might have something to do with this.
Three, after sitting outside all night last night, and all day today, it won't start. There's still enough juice to unlock the doors and the lights come on when I unlock it, but not enough to start. I think I bought a new battery shortly after I bought the car, but that was maybe 7 years ago. So... the cold seems to have kicked my old battery's butt.
So... emotionally, it's tempting to just go to a dealer and take one of the "push, pull, drag" trade in deals, but Herman's been so reliable over the years, and I feel like I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of this little car.
Still pulls strong, handles nice and tight... stereo still sounds good.
I think I could probably do a sort of 'refurb" far cheaper than buying another car.
So, addressing these issues.
Looks like the suspension, though it may mostly just be the extreme cold, could probably use a good going-over, with some fresh bushings and any other wear bits. I'm not sure how far I need to go with this, and whether it's entirely do-able in my garage, and how much I'd be better off farming out to a shop.
The blower.... I know it's gotten wet a few times, though I did patch the butyl hole. I probably need to go ahead and replace the blower, then work my way back to the resistor (changed it a while back, with no change... still only worked on high) and the harness back to the control panel (which I also replaced, as the switch was toast) I can do all this, just need to use a thin, strong knife to get the old blower motor out. Also, if doing a Herman-refresh, would take my butyl patch job apart, and cut a proper piece of aluminum for a more durable cover.
The battery... I have a jump starter I brought into my hotel room (to keep it warm) and will use in the morning to start the car. If I have time before I have to be at the training center, I may go ahead and get a new battery before heading up there. If not, we're only working for 4 hours before knocking off and heading home, so I can hope that (along with the slightly warmer weather), Herman will start again and I can get home on the current battery. The jump starter probably will have plenty of juice left if I need to use it again. If I do, then I'll want to get a battery before I start heading home.
I'm going to rely heavily on this car over the next 4 months or so, driving a lot to different towns to work on this project. So, I'll probably need to space out some of this work (paychecks to afford them) on the weekends, but when the project is done, and if I've done all of the above, I'll want to look into even more to extend the life of this car, including even some paint chip corrections and the like.
Also would have a mechanic give it a once-over to see if anything else might be coming up to bite me in the tail.
Suspension noise normal in cold weather, 7 year old battery, get a new battery, it’s time!
that shines paint, the MPG, the comfort and cargo space! How can you replace that?
We looked at a few new cars over the years, but wow they are expensive.
I always look at other vehicles, it is just something i do. (Wife calls it gear-head OCD) There is nothing that really draws me to it, saying I have to have one of those..
I will say, your ride is sharp looking. I have seem several members drift away to different vehicles & quite a few have returned either hunting another HHR or having one.
OK, I'm off my soap-box now. PS: winter time I'm making noises as well..
S'true... where I live, and having a garage, it's easy to keep a clean, rust free car.
I keep looking at other cars to do the same job, but can't see spending five figures if Herman can still pull his weight (but not much more, according to factory tow ratings. )
Then I think about later model HHRs, but by now even the newest one can have a few years of hidden neglect, and I'm approaching 200k miles with this one, and know it pretty well.
I'm pretty sure after all those miles, some squishy bits could stand to be replaced under there, but that shouldn't be too big a deal. The hardest thing I probably have to do is the blower, and that's not too bad.
I don't care for electrical troubleshooting (used to be an airplane mechanic... those things were so much simpler than cars!), but if I can get my car back to fully functional I'd be plumb tickled.
I need to go dive in and see how close some members are. I miss my old off road club's wrenching parties. Seemed like, no matter what you needed to do, someone knew how. I didn't specialize in anything, but I did enjoy helping folks too.
One other thing.... I see so much apparent hatred toward this model, on Youtube and otherwise, and love the idea of having a nice, shiny, high-mile example of a car some of these jerks swear will just explode in the driveway if I look at it funny.
I wouldn't say good mpg. My 2.4 have never been "good". If I get 27 mpg at 75 mph, I have a tailwind. It has always been that way, even after new injectors.
I actually sold my '09 LS to my daughter and bought a new jeep renegade ( what a toilet ) sold it after a year and bought a '09 SS. My wife will ask me now again what you going to do when you can't find any low mile HHR's to buy.
I say fix it
Every time I have elected to "kill" I have regretted.
I am always tickled by the "this is a common fault" statements. I have been active here for 10 years an have never heard of most of them. The more common *****ing is about easy things that bozo mechanics can't figure out because they are stuck somewhere in the 80's. Replace the computer! Blame the passive coil of wire encased in epoxy! Scary computers telling you the title of a test it fails instead of what to do to fix it. Shoot the messenger!
I regret that I let my Dad trade my Citation in for next to nothing. It wasn't the greatest car, but in retrospect the only problem with it was a cv joint. He didn't know how to fix it, and I was a wet behind the ears kid.
I liked my Fairmont Futura, but don't regret that because I traded it straight across for my '74 K10, which was a rust bucket, but I had it from '87 until 2000. I sold it for $800, and wish I had it back.
When I got out of the cold, and it was near 70 here in Alabama today, the suspension quieted back down. I also passed 200,000 miles this afternoon taking the family for some gelato and a walk in the park.
The battery, being a good 7 years old, and a cheap one at that, needs replacement, but in "normal" weather, is still starting fine now, so I'll wait until my first paycheck from this project and get a new one.
The blower also freed up, I suspect partially because I tried to show the problem to my wife. I turned the dial over to "high", and instead of bogging and throwing a DIC error, it just blew air. She said "So? It's been like that for a while now." ---Murphy has a twisted sense of humor.
I call this "demo mode". When any of my cars made weird noises, when I was a kid, the noises always seemed to cease when I tried to demonstrate them to Dad.
I digress... I'm pretty sure there's gunk in the old blower from the butyl patch leak(s) from before, and it could probably stand a new one anyway.
I've replaced the resistor, and it still only works on "high". I've also replaced the control panel (when it went bad... the contacts were just worn out), but not the harness as of yet.
Anyone else have any input on that, it'd be welcome. I'll also do another search through the forum for more on that subject.
Really, the only other problems I have are the door mounted mirror control switch (I have the replacement, just need to get the door panel off and plug it in), and a slight leak in the leading edge seal on the sunroof glass.
The deflector was disconnected and clamped down before I bought the car, but I'm not too worried about that.
01-31-2019, 07:07 PM
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