4silverado

Just picked up a 2011 HHR Wednesday. It seems to be in good condition and only has 109,000 miles. Carfax showed no accidents. This is to be the wife's car. Previous owner installed a Pioneer AVH-270BT double din and there is a Kicker boost knob under the dash (but not hooked to anything). I can see signs that there were 2 amps bolted to the rear seats. It looks like the wires were snipped and amps removed; the wires were tucked between the seat and the rear compartment. Haven't dug into much more than this to see if the other end of those wires are still hooked up. Hopefully, this weekend will warm up enough for me to look things over. There are only a few things that need fixed, like the air intake hose from the air box to the right fender well is torn up, headlights are starting to fog and the gold in the rear bowtie looks like a moon crater. I've got a can of plasti-dip that'll fix the bowtie. I did upload some pictures to an album.

I'm new to HHRs, but not new to Chevys. For the most part, I've had GM vehicles since I was a teenager, with the exception of a F250, Nissan Sentra, and a 37 Studebaker (which did have Chevy powertrain). My current vehicle is an 04 Silverado 2WD. My username has nothing to do with the # of Silverado trucks I've owned; my last name is pronounced just like the #4, just spelled differently.

I've been with the same company for the last 23 years and am currently a factory troubleshooter for a forklift manufacturer.

I love to modify things and cannot keep a vehicle stock for long. It'll be interesting to see how much of the HHR my wife will let me tweak.

I'm always looking for info on every vehicle we've owned and I'm sure that I'll have a lot of questions to ask.

1st one - where is the battery at? I know it is in the back, just not sure what needs to be removed to find it.

Mike

whopper

Welcome - looks like you will be having some fun with it.

the battery is in the rear like you said, lift up the thick plastic floor at the rear under the carpet, and under that you will find a black light weight plastic tray that when you lift it up, you will see the battery on the right hand side.

the batteries seem to last about 5 years or so, so it might be near end of life - might want to check that out. Oh, also, if you remove the battery, DO NOT CLOSE THE REAR HATCH, as it has an electric latch - lay a towel over the lock area to keep it from totally closing. The owners manual is a must read - it gives a number of various hints including how to open the hatch if the battery is removed - and read the part about jump starting the vehicle via the points under the hood, as they two are very specific.

Best of luck with it.

firemangeorge

Welcome.

Battery is in the back, under the 2 covers that hide the spare tire. Battery is actually up against the rear bumper area, right side rear.
If you've got the owners manual, lots of good info in there. If you don't have a manual, we've got them available on this site for download.

( Or, Donbrew, one of our mods, will be along shortly. He's got a link in his signature)

EDIT: Dang it. I've got to type faster. Whopper beat me again.

4silverado

I'd actually downloaded the owner's manual yesterday off of this site. I'm probably one of few people that will read the owner's manual cover to cover after getting a new vehicle.

I'd seen the bold letters about not shutting the gate after disconnecting the battery. My main purpose on the battery (aside from knowing where it is at) is to see if the old amp wires were removed from the battery or if the previous owner did a snip and go (snip the wires and take the amps) leaving the other wires alone.

At same rate, I've got a can of Dupli-color Custom Wrap in Graphite Metallic that I painted the bowtie on my truck with. I plan on using it on the bowties on the HHR. Thing is with it being metallic, the emblem has to be horizontal. The metallic ran the first time I sprayed the bowtie on the truck since I had it hanging from a mounting pin. I went this route since I wanted something other than black for the bowtie.

donbrew

The bowtie is stuck on with 3M tape, new ones are available on eBay and some dealers.

Just wrap the air tube with the metallic tape of choice, I used silver DUCT tape, some have used the colored DUCK tape some have used 2 inch dryer duct between the 2 pieces of rubber. A new one is way to expensive.

4silverado

I'd read somewhere on this site about a Spectre universal 3 inch duct hose; local O'Reilly's carries the black one. The tube on ours looked like someone grabbed a hold of both ends and twisted in opposite directions. It's literally coming unraveled down the middle.

Yeah, I'd also seen where new one was like $60. Heck with that.

donbrew

The disintegrate the first time a hose is used to clean the engine compartment, not even a strong stream.

It is easy to remove the rubber fitting from the fender, just deform it.

A really expensive, but pretty solution is 3 inch silicone tubing like is used on diesel intercooler tubes.

Oldblue

3 inch metal dryer duct works great!

Casa Del Gatos

I got one of those plastic hoses and it was destroyed just tightening the clamp.

Jessica Garrison Reigle