hey Fireman -
The stock box is gone, there's a Spectre Fabric filter on it which sits directly over the middle of the enigine. I wouldn't have put it there, but there it is. thats the "hot" side, isn't it?

 

Yeah, that's what we call a "Hot Air Intake", it's pulling in underhood air and feeding the engine an intake charge with an elevated temperature.

You may want to track down a stock intake for your HHR, despite not being as "cool" as the assorted aftermarket intakes, GM's engineers did a pretty good job on the OEM units.

 

Vibro. That Spectre filter could be the source of your CEL popping on. The SS engines appear to be very "finicky" when it comes to putting on aftermarket air filter parts.
Some owners have even reported CEL's coming on after just putting in a different filter.

 

while looking for info on a stock box, I came across pictures of my engine compartment that linked back to this forum. turns out I've purchased a members SS. my car previously belonged to foxtrotraptor! sent hime an email requesting as much back story as he cared to share, and I'm going through his old posts now so I can piece together as much history as possible. I thought there was a good chance the previous owner was on here, there's too much stuff been done by someone who clearly obsessed over it. (a man after my own heart!)
I hear you on the stock box, I think it would be best as well. Is this something I can just pop on, or will the car have to be reset by a tune or something? its got the GMTU and an aftermarket Exhaust ZZP/borla tip no muffler.
the CEL condition went away. is that part of a cycle or did the trigger go away?
If I have the sensors replaced and the chip reflashed as per the service bulletin, will I have to have any tunes redone? I'm not clear on how any of that works.

vibro

 

First. There is no "chip" in these cars. A computer or ECM, yes.

Fwiw. It would be best if you could get hold of foxtrotraptor and see if he had a tune put in when he added those parts.
If he didn't, then you could probably put on a stock airbox and be good to go.

 

Thanks FM. I sent him an email, we'll see what he has to say. What all is involved in a tune? Who can do it, and what tools are involved?

 

Research.

 

Ok, I guess I've reached my noob question limit! lol
To Don - believe it or not; I'm a big 'teach a man to fish' guy too, so from my end coming to this forum and asking questions is research. All part of my process to find out about my car. All good though, I've since filled in the blanks to my tune question.

Thanks for everyones help and suggestions.