It can be tricky to find the retainer clip the first time. You can see it if you shine a light in there and look hard. Its like a shiny wire running vertically.
I can post the pics I have if you want.

 

Ok here ya go, this is a pic looking in the little hole on the steering wheel, you need to press against the metal retainer by poking something straight in there. I used a drill bit. If you angle it too far forward or back you wont hit anything.





And heres what happens inside as you do it, you need to push the retainer out of the way to disengage it from the slotted posts on the airbag.

 

My son got bag off radio controls on he had trouble too. He took his bag off cobalt in just a few seconds but mine was hard for some reason. Thanks so much for all the pic and help. One more question when you go throught the stations it just goes through favorites not all of them is this normal? I would think if you pressed up or down the station would be the next one not the favorite stations.

 

Yeah it just goes through the fav presets, also skips cd tracks.

 

If you hold the button, it will do exactly that. Not too many know this, until now maybe.

 

i have a 09 ordered the new hareness number and installed it without any problems.
umtil i tried the cruise control it does not work. i'm going to go back in to it tomorrow and see about swapping wires around

 

Look up in the top of this thread, I think you basically have to match the colors up. For some reason they changed the order of wires on the connectors randomly.

 

Does anyone know if you buy one of the leather wrapped Cobalt wheels, if the HHR's airbag fits into it normally (I have an LS)?

Also, does the airbag/horn cover differ from a leather to a non-leather wheel, or are they the same?

 

Not sure on the cobalt wheel, they might be the same but I don't have a Cobalt part number to compare with the HHR part number.

The airbag assembly is the same regardless of whether the wheel has the leather wrapped rim or not. I converted both my '07 and '06 to leather wheels and just moved the airbag assembly over to the new wheels.

 

Thank you!