I was thinking labotomy, as sometimes the shop will plug in a memory saver battery.
I also think the shop who checked the battery was remiss to not check the charging system,
As my attached post says above it could be the alternator not keeping charge in the battery!

 

I agree Blue. although my '08 HHR SS's battery died without warning and would not hold a charge. My dash turned into a full colour rock concert light show when the battery died. The alternator was charging perfectly according to my techy.

 

Thanks for the input, very good information!

 

I took it to the shop, the mechanic said that it was a filthy throttle body. So far it runs fine but I'm refraining from making long trips until I'm sure that it fixed my problem. The traction control and ESC lights have not come on since. He also replaced the radiator cap which seems to have solved the overheating issue. Luckily it didn't cost that much. Thanks for the input.

 

Thanks for the follow up.

 

It's been a week and still no more problems. Hopefully the dirty throttle body was causing all of the issues. It is probably the reason for the reduced engine power issue at least.


The front brakes were rubbing metal on metal when the car was giving me the problems. The mechanic changed the brakes at the same time he cleaned the throttle body. Could bad brakes have been affecting the ESC system, causing the sensor to confuse the computer and triggering the error codes?

I read somewhere that when an HHR has a faulty or dirty throttle body it can cause the battery to slowly drain because the computer is working the whole time and the sensors still send it information and it gets stuck in sort of a loop. Is this true?


Speaking of the battery, even though the battery tested good at the parts store (they said the battery was good but low on juice - something had drained the battery and there was nothing wrong with the battery itself) I went ahead and bought a new one. The old one might have lasted a while longer but it might not have so getting a new battery was probably not a bad thing in itself.


Thanks again for the input. Maybe if somebody has the same issues in the future they will find this thread.

 

Correct on both.

 

As far as a battery goes, "weak" generally means a fail in my eyes. Start with the battery. On modern cars a shorted or weak battery that doesn't put out proper voltage can cause very crazy things to happen. Moderns cars generally still actually use battery power while the car is running to check the alternator; partly a reason that you should NEVER disconnect the battery with the car running like they used to suggest back before my time (24 yr old here)

 

He did replace the battery.