Last year, I experienced the actuator problem on the intake cam; now it's time for the exhaust side to cause my little engine to chug like a tractor! I replaced the intake actuator,https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/main...0-p0011-47890/ and the engine ran better than ever. But two nights ago, after having to stop from 70mph in 20ft (at least it seemed that way), the engine momentarily stuttered, then ran fine. When I reached home, and reversed to park it, it started chugging for a second. I wasn't able to look at the HHR yesterday, but today I ran Torque Pro, and found the P0014 code pending. I never got a light, and the van started up and ran just fine (after a second or two). I cleared the code, ran it around the block (10 miles), looked at the realtime data, and nothing was amiss. Did the panic stop have something to do with the cam timing momentarily, or should I go ahead and replace the exhaust cam actuator solenoid? I have 140000 miles (but the timing chain doesn't make appreciable noise; I have a 99000 mile Quad 4...that's a noisy chain...).

 

Did the panic stop cause it ? Possibly. How would it ? Not really sure about that.
Heck. I didn't a panic stop yesterday when a car pulled in front of me. Only difference was I had to "hit the ditch" on the side of the road to avoid smashing into that *#":!#*ing SUV!

Mine came out intact and no problem. I even ran a code check with the Torque App. No codes.

If you cleared the code, I would just drive it and hope it was a freak thing. If it comes back at least you know which way to proceed.
Or, if it bothers you waiting for it to turn back into a tractor , just go ahead and replace that solenoid.

 

I'm not sure if it could or not...the stop was so "immediate" that I didn't lift off the accelerator instantly. I reverted back to my dragracing days, and left-footed, stomped the brake pedal as I lifted from the go-pedal, instinctively. Maybe the torque converter momentarily had an influence on the engine!

 

The actuators are actually oil control valves. If the oil pressure dropped it could cause a pending code. Never clear pending codes, they take care of themselves. Now you have to wait 17 cold starts for all of the monitors to run.

 

Never knew that. Won't clear it again! Thanks.

 

There is a lot of info on how OBDII works Google it.
To utterly simplify: There are 3 basic types of codes unproven, proven, potentially damaging. You get the first one if it may be a problem, then if it re occurs within a certain time it is proven, if it won't fix itself it becomes "permanent" and set the CEL.