Hello fellow HHR owners. New to the forum. I'll start out by saying I love the HHR more and more every year that I own it. I've hauled tree girth to many Rubbermaid bins and probably do more utility stuff than the average American does with their 4-door 5-ft bed 60K truck. Yeehaw!
My HHR is an '08 with 165K.

I've swapped out the HHR headlights a few months ago with a clearance out Walmart online purchase. The bulbs weren't a name brand but they have worked fine until recently We noticed the front right bulb was dimmer then the left. I figured it had to do with maybe me touching the bulb without gloves and getting oil on it. A few months pass and the lights went out altogether for a day, low and high beam. The lights came back on and I figured it was a fluke. I had an extra set of those bulbs so I swapped out the front right and then the left bulb dimmed immediately. A few car start ups and both lights were normal. Yesterday though we used the remote start and boom both lights out again, low and high. I've checked the fuses and swapped relays with no change. The horn still blows so I know it can't be a relay. We were next to and Advance Auto when this happened and they let us try a new relay just for s&g's. Definitely not the relay.

From what I gathered I need to use a multi meter to see if I'm getting current to the light bulb plugs as the next step or check the ground. I try to do a lot on my own but without studying the ground spec, I feel like it's something I'll struggle with. The headlight ground is somewhere under the left fender? Some posts say this can be a bad turn signal stalk and it's not that hard to replace. My Auto Zone has the AC Delco for $60. My turn signal hasn't cancelled itself in years, it's been a manual process. Some reported replacing the stalk may fix the turn signal going back to the off position. Maybe I kill 2 birds with 1 stone, maybe I'm just playing the guessing game.

Could cheap lousy bulbs be the cause? I don't mind throwing the $60 for the stalk vs. getting under the wheel wells again trying to use the multimeter or using different bulbs. Some posts say a bad stalk can definitely be the culprit of the issue but my turn signals work.

Any insight is much appreciated!

 

Could be cheap bulbs, there were problems back in the day with Sylvania . A new turn signal multi switch may fix the issue, so could a bad ground wire connection. Then again a bad headlight harness can be melted.

https://fuse-box.info/chevrolet/chev...uses-and-relay


The horn relay is separate.

 

Thanks for the quick response and feedback.

 

You’re welcome, here’s a link to ground locations

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/how-...cations-56504/

 

Man, it ended up being both headlight sockets burned up. Maybe because I didn't use bulb grease. Trying to track down the color coding as the wires coming from the car are different colors then the kit from AutoZone.

 

Harness schematics in this linc

https://charm.li/

 

Did the sockets look like this?
https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/prob...80/#post955264

 

Dorman 84785 I see lots on Amazon here in Canada try searching that number in your eBay



Cut and splice one wire at a time .

 

Yes, both did. Reviewing that thread, are yours good to go once replaced? No additional burned out sockets?

 

I see this part on Amazon and the colors probably match what's OEM, I'll have to check but the tradeoff is the Auto Zone parts come with the shrink tubing and connectors.