burped it and topped er off no leaks.. and I do find it odd that only one wheel and especially one lug nut was so overtightned, note how others on this board see similar issues ( infact thats what led to my closer inspection). I was Helicopter repairman in a past life, so know machinery is always looking for a failure point!

I love this auto but was just interjecting how perhaps some of these issuse contributed the General's illness

 

Well, it definitely is odd. Seeing it was a repo lot, explains no prep for sale as stated. Does the tire look "stock" or "patched"? maybe owner or gas station repair over torqued it, or maybe the General as you thought.

If it was not voluntary repo, then you know the previous owner "beat it" and "drove it like it was stolen", knowing full well the bank was about to take it away very soon. Very, very common, and I wouldn't be surprised if some "tranny-drops" were performed.

 

Unless you bought this new from the dealer how on earth can you determine that those were quality issues when the HHR was built?? We're not talking about a car with 13 or even 100 miles. You mentioned it was used with about 7500....

Some people do some strange stuff to their vehicles. You bought it used (one that was re-processed no less) and all of the current issues were there since it was built? That doesn't make any sense considering there is 7500 miles of unknown stuff done to it. My guess on the tire being tight is that perhaps they had a flat tire and took it to a local tire repair shop. Some do a great job while others should wear face paint with a big red nose stuck on. I've seen overzealous newbie tire installers use the impact to tighten the lugnuts as tight as the wrench will go. Over tightening on one wheel suggests a boneheaded move on the part of a service station instead of a factory job mishap.

Perhaps an issue with a loose turbo clamp, etc could be attributed to the factory but it isn't really fair to suggest they did all that wrong with the unknown history of the vehicle.