2008 2.2L
This is my son's HHR. He has had it for about 3 months. He went to a friends and had to parallel park. When he got ready to leave, the ignition will not turn. The dome light turns on when he opens the door, so battery is not dead. The chime dings when he inserts the key in the ignition with the door open. The key is NOT stuck in the ignition, it easily comes out. The tires are turned all the way to the left, I suspect this has something to do with it. I told him to turn the steering wheel, but he says it is locked tight. I will likely have to drive over there (one hour drive) and try to straighten this out tomorrow. Give me everything you got so I can prepare myself.

 

Several people have encountered what sounds like the same situation, and the solution was to jiggle the steering wheel from side to side (using some force) while applying a gentle turning of the ignition key.

 

I am amazed everytime this comes up. It is just natural to me to jiggle the steering wheel. I know of instances when people actually paid for locksmiths or tows.
This has been true since the 70's when they moved the key switch to the column for the steering lock. The problem is there is a pawl that locks the wheel, pawls tend to get stuck when reverse pressure is applied.

 

x2 Donbrew. One of my neighbours was bi$ching about being charged for a tow truck a few years ago when they encountered the same problem.

When the tow truck driver unlocked it without any drama, taking no time at all really, the owner was kinda upset about having to pay the tow truck driver for the "fix".

 

Wouldn't hurt to have his foot on the brake pedal as he tries as well..

 

Thanks for all the tips. I knew going into this it would be either incredibly easy or we yanking the steering column out. I made a list of every tool I thought I might need and then headed to North Dallas. As we all suspected, you just need to apply a counterclockwise wise pressure to the steering wheel and turn the key at the same time and it is freed up. I had explained this to my son last night, but I guess I did not express that these two things need to happen simultaneously. Lol. So while we were there, I showed him exactly how the steering wheel locks and that the HHR's steering wheel only locks when in the 3 o'clock position. The thing is, when his steering wheel locks, you really have to wiggly the key in the ignition more than you would expect. We repeated this several times and half the times it was a little difficult to get the ignition to turn, even with the steering wheel pressure completely off of the locking blade. He is well aware of this now and will avoid putting the steering wheel anywhere near the 3 o'clock position when he parks. Something ain't quite right here, but then again this HHR has 275K on it. Then we went downtown Dallas to Eno's Pizza Tavern and ate out on the patio with the kid, wife and our wienie dog. I'll call it a success.

 

Did he get the ign recall done ?

 

I don't know about this 3 o'clock business. It usually happens if there is some sort of turning pressure like turned and aimed down a hill when the wheels are trying to turn from physics.

You might check if the ignition recall has been done.

 

Test yours. I own three HHR's plus the kiddo has one. They all allow you to turn the steering wheel in either direction with the key out of the ignition until you hit the 3-4 o'clock position, then it locks.

Yes the recall has been done, thanks for the reminder