Well the final answer from GM customer care is in... they marked my file as dissatified.... Wow... like that helps. Anyways, this afternoon I recieved a call from the GM support team... which was a initiated because they recieved the paperwork I sent to them regarding the lemon law application. The "new" customer care rep." repediatly asked if they can do anything to satifiy me. I responded by informing them all they need to do is replace my hhr. She reassured me that she would look into it but cannot make any promises... she is also setting up a meeting so the service manager from the dealer can do a inspection on the car. WOW... like they havnt had 14 oprotunities to look at it!!! I am aware that it is part of the procedure of the lemon law for the dealer to do a inspection but come on.... its not like I'm lieing about it... all the paperwork is in the system. At least GM knows now that I mean business about geting tired of all this crap. I am hoping that the HHr breaks again rite b4 the inspection.... wouldnt that be carma??? LOL Anyways,,, thats the lates update , hopfully the inspection will be done next week.Does anyone have any ideas on what they will look at during the inspection?

 

well my luck finally fell out the window... as I went to work yesterday... my hhr overheated again... what a suprise right....lol Anyways.. they towed it back to the dealer.. which said that found the problem... they say the neck where the radiator cap goes on had a hairline crack... which wuz causing it to overheat... repediatly... anyways.. I contacted GM customer care (which they really dont care) and informed them of it going back into the shop. I informed them since they wanted to inspect the car now is there chance to do it. I went to pick up some of my belongings afterwork and the service advisor kept informing me that this will solve my problem and put it on the previous dealership that they were the cause of all my problems. Anyways, the dealer informs me the part has to be shipped from the detroit and they will overnight it and the hhr will be ready friday. Then GM contacted me and informed me what the dealer had already informed me and also informed me that this repair will count as there "last attempt" to fix the problem. I assume because of the paper work I filed for the lemon law. They also informed me that they will not do a buy back or trade at this time. I wonder why GM is in such a bad situation ... poor customer service along with bad managment. Anyways.. now I have to wait till the motor vehicle ass. gets back with me about my application... In a way I hope the car breaks again but I sure do hate having to be stranded on the side of the road ....

 

If there was a crack in the cooling system you should have been losing fluid to cause it to overheat as bad as it did. Why didn't anyone figure out fluid was missing. If it wasn't missing a lot of fluid then it wasn't the cause of the overheating. But the question to the dealer is "if the car was overheating why didn't you pressure check the cooling system to check for a leak".

 

I very seriously doubt that they found the problem, when it would overheat, steam would vent from somwhere under the hood and fluid would be spewing from the radiator cap to the ground. The dealer claim the first few times that they did do a pressure check and everything checked out. I am assuming that the piece that they said was cracked, cracked under the heat and pressure of the overheating. I could be wronge but after heating up 4 times in the last 2-3 weeks... that would be my guess. I'm not a mechanic.. but when the temp gauge reads 300*plus... four times.. it makes me wonder how much the internal engine can handle. I checked the oil level when I was there and the oil look clean.. like so clean that they just changed the oil, I asked if they changed it but was informed that they had not touched it. IDK... somthing seems fishy... just my .02

 

Like I said before, the engine can take it to the extent the head gasket doesn't fail, but the cooling system has probably taken too much. They probably never purged the system when the engine was replaced and now the whole thing from the heater core to the radiator is probably all buggered up now.

 

well I called the dealer today, they informed me that they really dont know whats causing the overheating. the shop forman told me that he serious doubts that the part that is broken caused it. They have yet to dupicate the problem and now the GM representive is suppose to be over there monday to do a inspection. The service manager hinted that it might be a electrical problem from the electronics that were installed (flipdown screen,indash touchscreen) ... boy did that piss me off... looks like they are trying to find any excuse to find the problem. the install was done late last year so if that was the problem it would have caused the overheating to start as soon as the install was complete.

 

The cap for the cooling system is in a hose. So I wonder do they mean the radiator neck where the hose attaches or the hose where the cap is? And if the neck is cracked it would be more than likely something that happened during one of the numerous repairs you have had done.

What I don't get is why all of this happened after they replaced the fuel rail and injectors. Puzzling to say the least.

I think you have a blown head gasket and or a cracked cylinder head. We had customer who smashed the lower part of the radiator on a parking curb and drove in with coolant pouring out of the radiator and the temperature showed 295°. After the radiator replacement it came back in twice with a complaint of overheating and basically acted the same way as yours.

Normal pressure testing showed no leaks or loss of pressure the first time but the second time we found the leak by putting a pressure gauge on it for about 4 hours and it finally leaked down. When we pulled the head the gasket had a small area where the coolant was blowing by and the cylinder head was cracked in the same area. After replacing the head he has never had another overheat condition.

 

I agree with this also. This cooling system is one of the hardest out there to purge air pockets out of.

 

I saw the hole ... it is right under the radiator cap... it looks like the cap is on a tee... one end is connected towards the motor and the other end faces the radiator. The hole is about the size of a small collar button. The tech said maybe pieces of the cracked neck found its way into the cooling system and plugged up the radiator. They also informed me that they did pressure test the system for 1 full day.... and they didnt find anything wronge. Can there be somthing else wronge that the pressure test couldnt find?

 

I wondered the same thing... but how would the injectors,fuel rail replacment cause the overheating?