yes, i am aware of that. i use it just to open. not to close the door. i always pull in the correct place.

 

Funny thing. I knew about the door handle breakage problem before I got my new HHR 4 years ago. I KNOW not to use the handle to close the door.
But. I have caught myself a couple times doing that same thing.
It seemed to be when I was opening the door, half way open, changed my mind, and started to close it with the handle.
So. It can and does happen. Even if you know better.

 

Yes George, I've caught myself pulling the door shut with the wrong handle too, and I sat there while my lovely wife snapped one off right in front of me.

They are just one of the quirks that make HHR's unique, like Lucas electrics on British cars, if you adopt the "well that just happens sometimes, no reason to get upset about it" attitude. You'll be happier in the long run.

 

I just had a look at ours - the passengers side is fine, but the drivers door chrome inside handle is cracked and no doubt won't last that much longer. So I'll have to pick up a replacement before long. We never pull the door closed with it (at least I don't but others might have).

I did notice that there is a little rubber bump stop built into the door to hit the base of the handle when it closes - and the one on the drivers door looks a bit squished and may need reinforcement to have it make a better contact on the handle.

My Dodge Avenger is known for breaking the outside door handles. A close inspection showed that the bump stops were too short in my opinion and allowed the handle to snap against the outside of the door if you released it too quickly. Since building up the bump stop and replacing the handle years ago there has been no further problem. the ones in the HHR may need a slightly taller bump stop?????

Just a thought. :)

 

i was going to try to jb weld it back together, but would my luck it would end up breaking again, figured since i had to pull the whole door panel off anyway, might as well replace it.

 

why is it that everytime something breaks on my HHR, I find a post that says "yeah, thats typical, that breaks all the time?" So now I'm wondering why the appeal and loyalty to something that always breaks!!

 

Welcome,,,, I think.

Never heard that or seen any posts that say: "breaks all the time"
You know, ALL cars, not just HHR's, have their own little list of problem parts and design flaws.
The appeal? It's a little retro look/economy car that fits the needs of many owners.
If your's "breaks all the time" then maybe you need to sell it and move on to something else. Having an 8 year old car you've got to assume you will have a few problems now and then. No car is perfect and maintenence free.

 

x2 - plus, it doesn't take much to realize that on a forum that is designed to assist those that are having a problem with their vehicle, that the majority of the posts are going to be about problems.

And yeah, sometimes someone will report, that it happened to them too.

Big deal - that's the way it works. However, some people then assume that the problems noted are widespread.

 

FYI the chrome handle that is in the kit from Dorman, and the GM handle, are swappable as tested by member skuzzlebutt - kudos to skuzzlebutt for the info. :)