rorr

I made some great discoveries this week. I purchased another 2009 SS for my mom and have been working on it off and on for a month now. One of the issues was it did not come with a key fob, so no way to initiate the TPMS position re-learn. No big deal, I've programmed many fobs to HHRs previously. But, I learned a few things working on this one that I thought I'd share here...

I ordered the Dorman 4 button fob (remote start) / programmer kit. I've used them in the past, and they work great with HHRs and my Silverado. But, I found out the Dorman fobs will not allow you to reset the TPMS position by holding the lock and unlock buttons down. No matter what I did, I couldn't make it work. So, I tried programming a fob from another project '09 SS I have, and it wouldn't program with the Dorman programmer. No worries, I'll order another OE fob and program it to mom's car. That turned out to not work either (maybe the wrong part number???), did a little more research and ordered a different OE part number - 15114374. I'm working on another LS for my kid, so I thought I'd order some more aftermarket fobs at the same time, just to have (hers doesn't have TPMS, so I didn't care if they wouldn't initiate the TPMS re-learn). I ordered all of this off of Amazon. it showed up quick, so I initiated the Dorman programming process again today. I first programmed the OE fob. It seemed like it sort of worked with the Dorman programmer (got a beep, but no green light). I then programmed the Dorman fob to it again, just for a spare, it worked, got the beep and green light. I still had time with the programmer, so I thought I'd just try one of the new aftermarket fobs I had received and they paired with the car just fine. I pulled the Dorman programmer, cycled the ignition key and was able to initiate the TPMS re-learn with the OE fob - success! I then tried to initiate the TPMS re-learn with the Dorman fob, and still, no joy. For grins, I thought I'd try to initiate the TPMS re-learn with the other aftermarket fob and to my surprise, it works just as the OE fob does. Needless to say, I was pretty happy. The OE fob I ordered from Amazon was $28-ish, which wasn't bad. But the other aftermarket fobs were $14 for 2 4 button fobs. So, I figured that's a w in the win column for me, and I thought I'd share.

So, if you're looking for extremely inexpensive aftermarket 4 button fobs for your HHR that will actually initiate the TPMS position re-learn, hop on Amazon and search for a seller called USAREMOTE. They showed up super fast, they include some sort of card that you can register your fob and if you loose your keys, someone can send it to this company for a reward of some sort and you'll get your keys back. They work just like OE fobs (we'll see how long the screen printing on the buttons last, but that's easy and cheap to replace if they wear out).

Anyway, hope this helps someone in a similar predicament.

Cheers,
Robert "HHR Junkie"

2009 SS Manual w/GM Turbo Upgrade - Daily Driver
2009 SS Auto - Project Car
2009 SS Auto - Stock - Daily Driver
2008 LS - Project
2007 1LT - Daily Driver
2007 LS - Project
2006 2LT - Project

donbrew

The early Dorman kits came with OE circuit boards. The common clone boards don't work, some don't do the relearn, some trigger a low battery. FWIW, Lock + Panic = remote start, you don't need the extra button, on remotes that can send the combo.

The ones that don't work usually have an LED on the board.

The Dorman module works with OE fobs, since it is the car that is getting programmed, however there is a limited number of fobs it will program.