Good post! It encompassed reason, logic and common sense. Thank You.

 

I liked it too.

 

I'll have to lean towards agreeing also. If all it takes is running the engine for 15-20 seconds to ensure you have vacuum before driving off, then that seems a reasonable requirement and an owner responsibility once you know that. Gee what a concept, individual responsibility.

 

Heck if anything , 15-20 secs is just good thinking for letting oil get moved around in the engine .
Look at it that way (for a person that hopefully "cares" a fraction for a vehicle than for human life)and problem solved.
My SS has exhibited this very same problem w/ brakes after a start. Once i was aware of it (and read more about it here) it was a no-brainer. Even tho i do the remote start thing b4 i head outside,i still do a mental check of all things car-wise. (Is that not something everyone was taught when they learned to drive? )

 

Not to be disagreeable, but I am pretty pissed that GM has tried to tell their customers that it's normal to have surprise double stopping distance. That is unacceptable in any vehicle. I am disappointed that they made what I consider a major vehicle safety design error, but I understand when designing systems with so many moving parts it can happen.

From safety and product liability standpoints it's absolutely ridiculous. Even if I intend to always wait the few extra seconds (which I do), if I am in a hurry and forget to warm up the vehicle for a minute I can expect double my normal stopping distance????? Of course it was a design error and everybody makes mistakes and all, but IT IS ABSOLUTELY RETARDED TO PRETEND FOR EVEN A MOMENT THAT IT CONSTITUTES ACCEPTABLE BRAKING PERFORMANCE.

Imagine if you let someone else drive the vehicle, and forget to inform them that they had better wait a while if they want the "optional" braking feature to work. What happens if they forget? Imagine what happens if a rental company started renting these things out to drivers who expect the vehicle to, I dunno, um, STOP when they stomp on the brake pedal. Foreseeable circumstances where staff doesn't inform the renter that they'll have double stopping distance? Injured renters. Others injured on the roadways. Property damage. Luckily there don't seem to be too many rental companies offering the SS as a rental.

The last time I checked, functional brakes were a basic requirement for operating any vehicle on a public roadway, and have been since the first automobiles began operating. Oh, well, I guess we'll just reclassify unexpectedly doubled stopping distance as normal and everything will be fine. Until someone is seriously injured. Then I guess we'll just blame the poor sod who a)didn't know they had to wait for braking functionality, or b)knew, and forgot to wait, like I accidentally did one time a while back.

Oh wait (Really! Wait!). Instead, what if GM maybe used the DIC to display a big red warning and tones that THERE IS INSUFFICIENT BRAKE PRESSURE AND YOU SHOULDN'T DRIVE THE THING YET. Maybe the 'puter should sound the horn to warn the world that the vehicle has no brakes so they should flee for the hills.

Just PLEASE don't try to tell me GM is handling this in an acceptable manner. GM screwed this up, and they have not handled their mistake in stellar fashion. They know there's a problem. They have tried to keep it quiet to avoid unflattering attention. Just hope nobody you care about is injured or killed while GM keeps it quiet for however much longer it takes them to work out a solution.

I do seriously wonder if it might not be smart to at least reprogram all of the DICs so the brake system warning light stays illuminated until adequate pressure is reached. Most drivers would not expect the turbo boost to have anything to do with the brakes. I also hate to think about what happens if that flimsy IC tube eventually fails catastrophically and you lose your brakes at high speed. Ouch.

 

Lets face it 70% of all HHR SS are Auto and we all have the the same problem.

I find it strangr so many of us are coping so well when only a few are not. By the reaction of some I wonder what it would be like it they had a insurmaountable problem?

I agree this is somthing that needs fixed and I am confident it will be fixed.

I also like the message for low vacume but I am not sure if it could be done.

The bottom line is not a lack of pressure but a lack of vaccume boost. We have two options to deal with it till the final fix is avaiable. One is to give it 15 sec and the other is step harder on the pedal as the pressure is there just no assist. This is something none of us will fix by ourselves.

Ranting here is not going to fix it any faster as your singing to the chior. If you want to complain E mail GM and keep working properly with the dealer.

Also when dealing with GM or the dealer do yourself a favor and do not make comments to them like have been posted here. You would be suprised how much more you can get done if you are resonable vs making wild comments or threats. People are more inclined to help those who are willing to work with them vs agiainst.

I my self plan to send an E mail to someone in GM I know and see if they can help find out what is going on. The big problems with GM is they are a very large company that half the time the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing Dealers are often left in the dark as we are on fixes till they are ready.

The truth is things like this happen at all car companies and it could be worse. Toyota right now is just now taking in some of the truck they have that the frames haver rusted in half. But they are not taking them all. My friends truck broke in half and left him with no brakes in a big way not to mention no truck. You think he is happy?

By all means keep working and contacting people to try to get something done in the proper fashion. But please do help yourself by working with the dealer. If thery don't have a fix their pressure tro GM for you may help expidite this.

 

mine is a 5 speed and I have the same problem, didn't really notice it until I read this thread. I always warm the engine for a minute or two but I agree it should be corrected

 

Well my E mail is off and I will post it if I get anything.

With the problems GM has at the moment 3000 HHR SS owners are the least of their problems.

 

Interesting post, Nebulous1, and IMO "right on".

Interesting suggestion you made about the interface with the DIC. How about not allowing the gear shift to operate until sufficient vacuum is built?

 

What he said . I ve been watching this thread for some time now as I have the same problem,Agreed its not something GM should ignor..but on the same line theres an awful lot of *****ing going on and for the most part I can see why,but theres really nothing anybody can do about it here.The interim fix is as he said..( and I didn't have to read a post to figure this out), allow the thing to warm up a few seconds before pulling out!
It only happens to me first drive of the day,the rest of the day is fine.I watched the boost gage to figure out "when" I was ready to go and heres what I found ; at start up it goes to 5-10 vacuum.. let it sit a "few seconds"( thats not really THAT much time). till the gage rolls down to around 20 vac and your ready to go.Not so hard.You have to push the petal in the engage the gear anyways( well,for autos) so use that as you "test" before you go. Yes,,GM NEEDS to address this,but untill then, you know what you have to do.Taking it out on the techs isn't exactly going to get it fixed, they didn't build it.Something you might be forgetting to tell them though is, it doen't start happening till after a few thousand miles..this is must know info..they( the engineers) may be going out to the lot and trying to "make" it happen and it won't because the car is new. So something is happening after break in.THATS what they need to be looking at.Just another
We keep this up and pretty soon we'll have enough to build our own fix!!!