Owners Manual Page 5-63 Removing The Spare Tire And Tools, while looking over my HHR I noticed that I couldn't remove the large black retainer that holds the cargo cover and spare tire in place. To unscrew the retainer I needed to use a large wrench, I re-tightened the retainer by hand enough to hold the cargo cover and spare tire in place but not so tight I couldn't remove the retainer if I needed to on the road. BTW, while you have the cover off you might want to make sure your spare is inflated, nothing like having a flat spare tire when you need it.

Al

 

Glad to see I was not the only one that checked before hand and needed a wrench also. I thought it was me!!

 

I'm sure the retainer is installed using an air wrench at the factory, they probably have the pressure set high to make sure there's no rattles coming from the spare tire area.

 

I had no problems removing the retainer my first try by hand. But maybe that's because the dealer was the first one into the battery area when fixing the rear hatch.

 

I was able to get at mine by hand, good thing too because I didn't have any tools with me when the tire went flat on the road ;(

 

Think they must have use mine to smuggle things up from down south. I could use my hand and it came right off.