Tomorrow I will start looking at the clutch pedal assembly to see if there is something that could possibly cause the ECM to not recognize pedal input (loose connections etc.).
This is one of the rare instances I hope the car would actually have some fault code.
Atleast then I would have a clue on why it's unhappy.

 

Are we just glossing over the starter solenoid clicking in ACC and RUN? This seems like an ignition switch problem. Did you try putting the original switch back in, as a test?

 

I'm going to do that tomorrow as well.

 

How old is your battery? Have checked the voltage yet?

Changed to Winter tires? How long ago was that? The onset of cold weather often unmasks a weak battery.

 

First post , charged the battery is mentioned

 

I've charged batteries and had them drop to 10.5V in 15 minutes. To be more specific, I'd like to know what the voltage is on a cold morning after a charge the day before. And again, the age of the battery. Low voltage can make some systems work but fail to trip an apparently good solenoid. Hotwiring to bypass the starter solenoid can continue to mask a bad battery. But there is no information here that shows a bad battery has been eliminated.

 

I agree, and suggest taking the battery to get it load tested. As we know less then 12.4 volts is a dead battery in an HHR

 

Hello again! After taking a break from the car for a few months (mainly due to it being cold outside), I decided to try again.

What I did was change the original ignition switch bits back to see if that would change anything (it did not). I also tried to see if there was any obvious issues with the clutch position sensor wiring, couldn't find anything.

And just to refresh my memory I checked through the fuses and relays again (also tightened the 7mm bolts once again just to be safe) and I couldn't find any non-functioning ones.

I also tried starting it with a brand new battery from my other daily driver, but that didn't change anything, it still wont crank over.

I'm running out of ideas. My guess is that either the clutch position sensor itself has conked out, some grounding point that I don't know of is corroded or one of the control modules is malfunctioning.

 

Do we know the batter is good? Starter? Ignition switch?
I don't know what we have eliminated.

 

Your clutch pedal position sensor should be the same part as your brake pedal position sensor. You could try swapping them as a test.