car stalling when hitting bumps?
 

so my wife is driving her HHR and she pulls into a Long John Silvers driveway and the first thing she hits the driveway the car stalled on her. it has happened 2 times so far. today we are on our way home from the Auto Show and hit a bump in the road(not some major bump either - say a 2-3" dip in the road) and it just shut off. has anyone else experienced anything like this?

Wow..that doesn't sound right at all. I'm sure this may not fix the problem...but have you checked the fuses under the hood and to the right side of the center waterfall to make sure all your fuses are snug. They are known to be loose and that would be the first thing I would check. I also believe there is one by the battery in the rear storage compartment as well.

Yeah, does sound like it could be kind of electrical in nature.....you know bump...disconnect. Guess it depends on how you get it started again and how long before it does start.

Probably going to be one of those things the dealer can't find. Unless of course, you call the dealer when it stalls out and tell them to pick it up.

the car will restart immediately after it stalls. its just a quick put it in nuetral/park and turn the key and it starts right up again. its just really strange.

Is it possible that she has a lot of keys on her key chain and when you hit a bump it turns the ignition switch just enough to shut it down? I have seen this before on other cars. Just a thought.

There have been many issues with loose fuses in HHRs since the fusebox is located directly over the front suspension, and takes a lot of "hits" from the bumps. If you already had some loose fuses or relays, it is possible that one "of great importance" might be knocked out of place from a bump, causing the engine to shut down.

Just a theory, but from the great number of HHR's we see with loose fuses - it would be the first place I checked. Pull the fusebox cover off and re-seat all the fuses and relays - while you're there, take notice of any that are extremely loose.

Here's a how-to from our website:

Underhood Fuses

Hope it helps,

Just found this thread when searching Google... been awhile since I've been there!

Well - this has happened to me twice in the last 2 days. Same driveway dip. Only happened after sitting for a few hours. The last time after it 'stalled', I restarted and went around the block. It navigated the dip just fine without stalling.

Any news or more thoughts on this?
I will check the fuses, but how would it seem to reseat itself after I re-start the car? Wouldn't it stay stalled until the fuses and relays were reseated (if one was loose).

Does it just stall, or does it shut off (is the key still in the run position?) I had a problem with my 06 where the key cylinder became very weak and would switch to the acc position and shut the car off if I hit a hard bump.

X2 on this, especially if you have a lot of weight on your key chain.

Did you try and reseat the fuses...:eek: I can't believe I typed that. Erase Erase....

Open the hood and give the underhood fuse box a couple of whacks, don't break it, if it stalls your problem could be a new box is needed.

I would also check your battery connections in the rear.

We have an '06 and Nancy does have a 'ton' of key chain thingies, along with the door lock remote, on our key ring for the car, which makes for a heavy set of keys. Our HHR does also stall when hitting a considerable bump of dip in the road, going slow or fast. We have found that the weight of the keys/key chains is actually pulling/turning the key out of the run position, therefore stalling. Our fix to the problem wasnt simply removing excess weight from the key ring but to rotate the ring to the back side of the key so the weight of the key ring will prevent it from turning. does that make sense? We just have to keep remembering to do that to our keys when we drive off. hope that helps.