Everything was fixed, except the red "brake" was illuminated on the dash. Then it was discovered that it was on because the parking brake was set. Case closed.

 

Mind reader? I hate text speak. I didn't get any of that from reading the post. Too old, I guess.

 

it means that the dash board is reporting "BRAKE" (light) because I pulled up the parking brake lever which has nothing to do with OBD codes.....

 

For the good of the order P1142 is not a generic code. It’s manufacturer specific.

I didn’t find P1142 in the list of codes for 2008-2010 HHR within these forums.

For GM, P1142 seems to mean the voltage is indicating excessive oxygen at the downstream O2 sensor. In my estimation, that could be a problem with wiring or the sensor itself. Or, it could actually be excessive oxygen, due either to an excessively lean condition, or to unburned fuel, leaving of course unused oxygen, so therefore possibly a cat problem, but I would think those two issues would show other codes, too.