new ss owner here
 

Hello everyone new to the hhr ss but not to cars or forums so first a brief background. I grew up a mustang kid first one owned was a 2004 cobra went to a truck and then a sonata when I had my first kid. Picked up a camaro for a track car but ended up selling that and my sonata and getting a 2005 subaru wrx sti that I built into a 585 wheel HP monster. Well when I had my 3rd kid I had to get somethig a bit safer and went to a 2012 mustang, long story short wife hated that it wouldn't fit us all and so the search began for a 5 passenger family car that I could still take to the track

Now I'm not gonna lie I knew little to nothing about the hhr ss until 4 days ago when I saw one at my local lot and saw ss turbocharged badge, immediately had me intrigued and I scoured these forums as well as every YouTube video and review site I could find. I'm addicted to boost and the fact that it seats 5 and has so much versatility I decided it was worth a test drive.

I have a great relationship with my local dealer so they handed me the keys for the weekend and I began falling in love with the hhr ss, its a 2008 4 speed auto with only 52k miles one owner and a flawless vehicle history score and passed a 172 point Chevy inspection with flying colors.

So proud to say I pulled the trigger and picked it up for $14k and its now parked in my driveway.

Can't wait to keep learning from the forum and maybe if there's some people in my area meet up and maybe track day sometime. Can't wait to save up for a tune as I see good times coming from them. For now ill enjoy it stock and keep learning.

I had a question for anyone who made it through that wall of text, my subaru was VERY picky about the type of oil I had to use rotella t6 only every 3k miles is there a preffered oil you guys use?

Thanks for all the info you post and can't wait to join the SS community

Welcome to the site :smile: and congrats on you new ride :thumb:

I don't have an ss but I use mobile 1 oil and have had good luck with it..

:welcome3: aboard
SS's are fun

:welcome8: to the forum, and congrats on your new ride

Welcome to the site. :thumb:

Congrats on the SS purchase.

I'm for the Mobil 1 that GM recommends. The DIC will usually hit 0% on the Oil Life Monitor at around 10k miles. I prefer to change mine by mileage, which I do every 5k miles. But, that's just my personal preference.

Congrats on the purchase and welcome!

Ok thank you for the oil info in the land of high powered large turbo subarus mobile 1 is a 4 letter word that can get you beat up lol that's not necessarily cause the oil is bad subarus just don't like it :/ wanted to make sure nothing like that with the hhr ss

Look forward to taking it to the track and pinching pennies to get a tune! I'm a boost addict for sure!

Also quick question the coolant temp reads pretty consistently in the 200-210 temp range and I can't find anywhere what the optimal/normal temp should be so any insight into that is much appreciated

Welcome to the site, in regards to the coolant temp it may be the T-stat, but just a maybe, are there any codes tripped ??

Car to car, there seems to be no exact temp that the SS's operate at.
Some run low 180's, others seem to run in the 200-210 range.
Mine runs in the 183-189 range.

The thermostats in both the SS and regular HHR seem to be a weak link(or design) in the cooling system. I would suggest maybe changing your's just to be on the safe side. Replace it with the better designed GM replacement that doesn't have a rubber O-ring like the originals. The rubber O-ring seemed to be the main reason for a lot of those thermostat failures.

Welcome, mine is the hot one. 205-215......:D