I have had the issue of my 2010 HHR ls where I am driving or ill start the car and it wont have any of the gauges showing anything, and no power steering etc. I believe the code is the no communication code. Sometimes the car will randomly not start or crank but will have battery power from what I can tell.

Ive searched and found a few different threads about this but those threads also seem to have many different answers and some with no solutions.
Is a loose ground somewhere under the hood, being its random. Maybe a bad relay? Harness?

Otherwise the car has around 225k miles and I love driving it, but this is getting tired real fast.

Any help is appreciated, thanks

 

Take it to the nearest auto parts store, for a free battery load test. Ask for a printout of the results, post it up here. They'll check the charging system for free also.

 

After that I would open the hood and look at the fuse box; the large red wire attached to the front corner is the main power directly from the battery. The nut sometimes loosens or corrosion sets in.

Then look at the ground wire attachment on the top of the transmission near the oil filter. Then the ground attachment on the radiator support on the driver side, Then the ground attachment point near the driver side strut tower.

 

Thanks for both of your advice. I will get a load test as soon as I can and report back with results. It is a 3 month old battery or so, brand new. I will also check those locations for a loose ground or terminals as well.

thank you

 

Now that you have given that bit of info you might also check the terminals on the battery. People unfamiliar with the clamps don't always tighten them good enough.

 

and you refer to a CODE - "code is the no communication code" - what exactly is the code? The alpha/numeric code if that is what you are referring to - the actual code is needed, not a verbal description.

 

Ill have to check the code tomorrow, Im sorry I forget the alphanumeric code number off the top of my head, ill get all that tomorrow and report back

 

That type of code generally is power problem, they sometimes can narrow the are to look at.

 

I haven't check the charging system at oreilleys yet but I did gather some codes.

U0101 lost communication
p0700 and p0700 with the pd symbol after it

also like an idiot when I torque the positive cable going into the fuse box I arced the wrench to what i think is a cooling line for a second. hopefully that didn't cause more issues and cause the p0700 code to pop up?!

then I started it back up and it seems to run normally as of now but the frequency of this problem is basically daily now.

not to mention when I closed the hood the bowtie fell off the grill...signs of things to come of hope not.

 

U0101 indicates the module that is losing comm is the TCM' P0700 indicates a general unspecified problem with the TCM.
Neither indicate "replace the TCM"!!!!!!!!!! More likely a loose wire or a bad battery/charging.

What is "the pd symbol"?