whopper

Yeah it's getting a bit long for sure. No problem - we will figure it out one way or the other. :)

tsanzari

I did change both the solenoids and the sensors. I called a local Chevy store this morning and they have GM Solenoids in stock. So I am going to get those and return the Napa auto parts ones. Hoping they don't give me issues on the return, but they certainly don't seem to be working right as they made the issue worse. If they worked and the Solenoids were not the issue I would figure at would at least be the same...right?

I will keep you all posted on my progress today.

tsanzari

Not sure this is the one I should reply to or not...but here goes.

okay...So I put in GM Solenoids. I had the battery disconnected, I did them making sure to push down until I feel the pop, hooked them back up, put the car back together, hooked up the battery and no luck. Unlike with the old ones in...the traction ecs light comes on and I get a flashing engine light under acceleration.

Whopper...I went and had the code pulled and it was showing a P0303 I was told that was a cylinder three miss-fire. So I came home and checked all the coil packs and they were tight. I pulled out cylinder 3 plug and the gap and all was still correct. It did look a little whiter than I feel it should.

But, I am a little at a loss of how it ran better....not right, just better...with the old Solenoids than with the new. I would think it would at least run the same if I trouble shot this thing wrong.

I replaced the oil about 1,000 miles ago, so it is pretty clean. Always use mobile one full synthetic. I replaced the plugs and coil packs about 7k miles ago. Is it possible that it running poorly burned out the new plugs? I drove it a little while with the issue, but it was very light. Every now and then it would idle rough or have a hard shift so that is when I did the plugs and coil pack. When that did not take care of it I had the codes pulled and it was the p0010, p0011, p0013 and p0014. But I did not have an TC light on. It was Thursday night that all of a sudden it was stuttering very hard at low rpms and began shifting very hard. Had the codes re-pulled and it was the same ones. So I did the work I described earlier.

You all have been a great help thus far...hopefully we can figure this thing out!! Thanks

firemangeorge

The stuttering and shifting hard indicate that it most likely had a cylinder miss and went into "limp" mode.
The P0303 code does point to cylinder 3. Since you have checked the coils and plugs and connections, the next thing to do is a compression test.
Compression test all cylinders and compare. Since you'll have the plugs removed for the test, have some new ones on hand to replace the old ones with. If you find number 3 cylinder to be low on compression, just forget about swapping the plugs.
Let us know what you find.

tsanzari

Okay. I will have to take it to a dealer for a pressure test, I don't have the tools for that.

It is an 09, bought in August of 2009 and I have 97k on the miles...so if it is low compression that should be under the power-train warranty.

I am wondering too...since that plug was whiter than I think it should be if maybe the injector to that cylinder has gone bad and it is not getting fuel to that cylinder. (not sure if injectors are under the power-train warranty or not)

Thanks

firemangeorge

Sounds good. If you are the original owner, then the powertrain warranty may be applicable. If you're the second owner, the warranty period reverts back to the first titled owner purchase date.

Fwiw. It's cylinder compression test. Saying pressure test could cause some confusion. Especially if you said that at the dealer.

tsanzari

Was able to have it fixed at the dealership today.

Looks like the miss fire was a bad coil pack. So the solenoids and sensors had been a problem that I should have addressed earlier but looks like that coil going out was the larger problem. The mechanic said after the diagnostics that he moved the coil pack from the cylinder 3 position to cylinder one...cleared the codes and fired it up. The engine light came back on and it was a miss fire cylinder 1. So bad coil pack. Wish I would have thought of trying that myself, but happy I was able to do the solenoids and sensors with all your guys help. So thank you!!

Still not sure why the miss fire was not as bad with the old solenoids....maybe the new ones just magnified the issue when the timing was corrected. Not sure but Thankful for this HHR Network.

whopper

Glad you got it fixed - it had a lot of us scratching our heads over that one. Keep us posted on how it continues to run for you. Hopefully all the problems are cleared up.

MrMike1952

The yellow light comes on, plug in the scantool and the DTC is P0013. Looked for the exhaust vvt solenoid at the local parts places online and none stocking, gotta be ordered. Every parts place is Dorman #917-216 for exhaust and #917-215 for intake. Go to Amazon and buy the pair for $51.78. Ordered on Monday and had then in the car on Thursday. Takes longer to get the airbox off that replacing the solenoids.

whopper

big thanks for the Dorman part numbers - I'll add them to our Common Parts listing (https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/commonly-used-part-numbers-68/part-numbers-elusive-common-parts-broken-into-separate-posts-thread-48833/)