My HHR is suffering a fairly rapid accumulation of miles now, so I'm thinking about what I'm going to need to do to ensure it remains reliable. Are there any parts that fail predictably that I should think about replacing? I'm at 85000 miles now. I'd rather spend a little extra to replace parts before they die while I'm hundreds of miles from home.

I did a search, I'm probably going to replace the timing chain tensioner - I've always had a little noise when starting from cold, not sure if this is the tensioner, or maybe lifters, is it worth replacing the chain and guides too? Water pump? Radiator hoses? I'm going to do a flush and coolant refill anyway.

I need to replace the front struts next year, I did the lower control arms last year, but the wheel bearings are so far smooth and quiet, despite receiving a bit of a pounding when I did the front rotors, the old ones had welded themselves to the hubs. Sway bar ends were replaced once at about 2 years old when the dealer failed to find the source of my front end noise, I'm pretty sure that's the struts or top mounts.
I have a little shudder on takeoff, not sure if that's the engine mounts, I'll be looking at those soon.

 

To some a list of things to replace would be long and a possible Landry list not really worn out. Perhaps change a few things at a time. Like the ball joints and LCA bushings, then the struts and bearing plates