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HHR poor handling/goes left and right. No problems found
Problems/Service/RepairsIf you have a problem with your HHR, want a tip on repairing or performing a particular service to you HHR here is the place to post!
If y’all want to drive on over to Mederia Beach area next April, I’ll test it out personally and show you the bad parts.
I’m not kidding either!
haha... Is that where you're going to vaca? "OldBlue"...I'm guessing from Michigan?
That beach is over a 6-hour drive for me... I'd hope to have this resolved before I had to drive that far!
The offer is very generous! Thnx
Michigan, nope , I drive down from Ontario, Canada approximately 22 hours! We brake it into 2 days since we started haul my Mother In Law, with us in 2014, it’s not a bad drive!
Now I’ve been thinking, a list of parts that I’ve replaced over the last 8 years and 225,000 miles of ownership of Oldblue.
As stated the LCA bushings
Ball joints
Steering rack, included inner and outer tie rods
Intermediate steering shaft
One that eluded me was the upper engine mount, that was a daa moment, if you look Thur the slot in the passengers side front wheel well and see the bolt is down lower then the hole, replace the mount.
You can do it with a few tools and a floor jack to support the engine
See the bolt thru the second hole?
See how it’s lined up to the holes, if you can’t get a 15 mm 1/2 inch drive socket on a 12 inch extension on that bolt, the mount is Purdue much toast!
Michigan, nope , I drive down from Ontario, Canada approximately 22 hours! We brake it into 2 days since we started haul my Mother In Law, with us in 2014, it’s not a bad drive!
Now I’ve been thinking, a list of parts that I’ve replaced over the last 8 years and 225,000 miles of ownership of Oldblue.
As stated the LCA bushings
Ball joints
Steering rack, included inner and outer tie rods
Intermediate steering shaft
One that eluded me was the upper engine mount, that was a daa moment, if you look Thur the slot in the passengers side front wheel well and see the bolt is down lower then the hole, replace the mount.
You can do it with a few tools and a floor jack to support the engine
See the bolt thru the second hole?
See how it’s lined up to the holes, if you can’t get a 15 mm 1/2 inch drive socket on a 12 inch extension on that bolt, the mount is Purdue much toast!
You're saying a bad engine mount will cause poor/dangerous handling?
Hello I'm new... and at wits end with my HHR.
2011 just over 100k miles. I bought it with 42k miles.
No wrecks. No damage or worn parts found by any shops. But the car darts left of right when it encounters variations in the roadway surface.... but it doesn't follow the crown of the road either. On a long sloping righthand turn, it wants to go straight and ride uphill into oncoming traffic. You always have to be on your game and never relax your grip or you'll find yourself in the oncoming lane or off the shoulder. Shop said there's no adjustments in this vehicle to try and correct any geometry issues. Sometimes I swear the chassis is flexing to the point the alignment changes with the pitch of the road.
This is the first electric steering car I've owned and haven't been able to test drive any others. Is this normal? (Surely, I hope not.) All steering components have been tested/calibrated.
Has anyone experienced this? Please help.
I've never had any problems with handling on my 2006 HHR. If it's been doing this the whole time you've owned it and hasn't gotten worse, it could have been damaged hitting a curb and bent something. I assume you have bought new tires in that time. Have they checked the tires or tried moving them from front to rear? A good alignment shop should be able to find the cause. Ball joints binding up.
The bodies on the HHR is, or should be, very rigid. Most alignment shops are more likely to recommend replacing anything even slightly worn and seldom miss things. They might be concentrating on the front end but the rear suspension can cause the vehicle to wander the road like a lost child. Most shops do a 4 wheel alignment these days.
I've never had any problems with handling on my 2006 HHR. If it's been doing this the whole time you've owned it and hasn't gotten worse, it could have been damaged hitting a curb and bent something. I assume you have bought new tires in that time. Have they checked the tires or tried moving them from front to rear? A good alignment shop should be able to find the cause. Ball joints binding up.
The bodies on the HHR is, or should be, very rigid. Most alignment shops are more likely to recommend replacing anything even slightly worn and seldom miss things. They might be concentrating on the front end but the rear suspension can cause the vehicle to wander the road like a lost child. Most shops do a 4 wheel alignment these days.
Thanks. The symptom really hasn't gotten worse over 60k miles.
The tires were brand new when I purchased the car @ 42k miles. They been balanced, examined, rotated, etc.
The alignment has been checked by multiple shops and no remarkable results have been found (but alignments were performed with very small degrees of correction.) I was told it's a 2-wheel alignment vehicle/nothing to adjust on the rear.
Yup the hard parts of the chassis and unibody are pretty good, its all the soft rubber they put in the bushings that causes problems. I have had control arm bushings go bad after only 3 months.
01-01-2018, 01:27 PM
