Hey y'all. 2006 HHR 177k miles.

Just got it back from the shop doing a whole bunch of odds and ends to the engine and it's been running better and smoother than ever. I just have a few more things before it's perfect and the A/C performance is one of them.

The system works good, gets cold almost immediately and gets uncomfortably cold on high after a while when you're moving. When I come to a stop, I can feel the chill in the air diminish pretty good and while it's still cool it's no longer ice cold. I'm guessing since it works great while the car is moving that the fan/airflow would be to blame. I'm going to deep clean the condenser as good as I can using some coil cleaner but a thought crossed my mind. Is it possible to increase the fan speed through tuning? I'm not sure if the HHR has a multi-speed fan or not but that seems like it'd help quite a bit.

Another issue is that between the right vent and left vent in the center stack there is about a 10 degree difference. One will feel icy cold and the other will just feel cool with the icy one being the right vent. This is super strange to me as the car does not have dual zone climate control. It may be a vent ducting problem as the air gets warmer the further you go from the evaporator. Anyone else dealt with this? I also don't believe I've ever changed the cabin air filter so I'll do that as well.

 

Vent door actuator motor, change the cabin air filter.

 

I know the line drawing is hard to see but look closely for answers to your questions. The ducts are connected by simple friction and sealed by open cell foam, that ends to dry out and rot over time.

 

Ahh I had no idea that the two far side vents were fed by the same source, cool! Dang that picture is giving me flashbacks of replacing the actuators in my Trailblazer. It'd have been easier to just break my arm in 3 places to get at that driver one

 

I bet the air box is pretty similar to the Trailblazer.

 

I remember parts of a discussion here, that colder on one side can mean that the refrigerant is low.

 

Very possible! The R134A does weaken with time. Perhaps it’s a good idea to have the system vacuumed and refilled with fresh Freon.