just did engine swap. plz help!
 

i have a 2006 hhr 2.2 ecotech just over 300,000 miles :) yea i know a bunch of miles:)

i blew the engine got a replacement out of a cobalt finished reinstall now the problems...

seems like everything having to do with the steering wheel harness isn't working???
as in :
horn
windshield wipers
head lights (low beams only) high beams work
the dtc controls on the left side of steering wheel
and not getting the key to start the motor
(not getting a signal at the starter to trigger solenoid)


any ideas what the heck might be my problem???
plz note everything worked fine before i blew the motor.

Welcome to the site!
Double check the ground wires and the fuse block halves loose.

yea i have check fuses and all connection points like 4 or 5 times

Send a PM to Dbeluscak
He just did an engine R and I on one of his HHR's for his mother. Maybe he can help.

Which crank sensor did you use?

Did you change the engine wire harness or did you use the original harness that came with the car?

Welcome to the site!

First thought is a ground/harness problem, that's a lot of issues to have with the column. So I have a few questions.
What did you remove during the swap? The entire cradle, or just the engine / trans? As Lucky asked, which harness are you using? Was the steering column / linkage disconnected at any point during removal?

What was the year of your donor cobalt? If everything worked before, something must have happened during the install. Maybe a little more insight into your procedure and we'll get this figured out. For now, I would check all your connections for the 6 or 7th time.

From what your stating it sounds like nothing on your steering column has power. The high beam is only a switch and the relay is getting its signal. If you only removed the engine the steering doesn't come into play at all. If you removed the HHR cradle to make things easier you had to disconnect the steering somewhere.

I'm curious.. I had the entire SS cradle out and the kids played "sail boat" with the steering wheel and broke the clockspring (which is how the steering wheel controls/air bag/horn is connected to the steering column harness) it doesn't sound like that is the problem. Sounds like its missing 12V + or -. The High beams probably still work because they're simply a 1 or 0(sorry, binary reference) to the BCM.

We'll wait and see

when i did the swap i dropped it out the bottom via removal of the cradle .
i disconnected the steering shaft at the point just above the steering rack.
i only used the engine from the cobalt and used my original sensors and stuff cuz i new they already worked not so with a un-known engine so as far as the hhr computer is aware the car basically just sat with no battery for a week.
not sure if i mentioned this before but i am not getting a fuel pump prim either??
thinking maybe bcm is bad?? the guy helping me did f something up when reinstalling engine he hooked up the main positive wire that bolts to the engine compartment fusebox...
so question right now is the main positive from the battery does it go straight to the fusebox then feed everything or is there a branch off the positive wire before the fusebox??
guy helping me says it is a direct wire meaning battery positie straight no branches to the side of the fuse box so nothing could have gotten shorted (ie..bcm)
anyone have a wire diagram showing the main positive wire route and branch run??

I'm fairly certain your friend is right. The positive lead runs directly from the battery to the fuse panel under the hood. From there everything gets power from either fuse or relay. The positive lead does branch at the connection point on the side of the fuse box. It runs with the engine harness to the starter solenoid. Also the alternator positive lead is connected here (on the starter solenoid).

So. You said he hooked it up..hooked it up to what? Shorting the positive lead from the battery to any ground will give a few sparks, shouldn't hurt anything. If it was the starter lead that shorted and was tied to the fuse panel that might cause a problem, it didn't for me.. I was removing the engine wiring harness and fuse panel so I could pressure wash the engine bay before reinstalling the engine. Well, I was reminded that I hooked up the battery when sparks went flying from the stater lead as it contacted the freshly wire brushed cradle (uh, whoops!). I forgot I hooked the battery up to unlock the steering wheel so we could push the car outside.

I got lucky, hopefully you'll be the same. Need some more details into what exactly he hooked up to where.
Since you did have your cradle out I have to ask. Is there a chance your steering wheel got spun around more than 2 times? It happened to me like I mentioned before. You didn't say you had a CHECK AIRBAG warning so that doesn't seem to be the problem.

If you want some trouble shooting advice over the phone I could try and help diagnose the situation a little better. PM me for my number.

he hooked the wire to the strut tower