Hello everyone,

I'm back to work on my wife's car again today. The first thing I did was charge the battery up to 12.6V. I got the exact same result with the battery charged up as I did at 11.8V: the shifter won't move out of park and the car won't crank. All the dash lights come on; the doors lock; everything else happens normally as it should for starting except the actual cranking of the engine. That seems to rule out a dead battery as a cause of the problem. When we replaced the solenoids last weekend we didn't do anything with either the brake pedal or the ignition switch. I don't know for sure if the ignition recall was done on this car since we only bought it a couple years ago. It was always dealer serviced by the previous owners so I would suspect the ignition recall work was performed but I don't know for sure.

Based on what I'm seeing with the car I think the most likely possibilities for the cause are either 1) the park/neutral switch being out of alignment or 2) something in the fuse box getting moved/bumped/disconnected when we moved it out of the way to work on the transmission. I've tried moving the park/neutral switch through its range of motion and there's nowhere in the range of motion that I can get the engine to turn over. Another possibility is that I did something to the shift cable when I unclipped the cable housing from the transmission. I had put the cable and housing back in the clip on the top of the transmission but it's always possible that something got misaligned there which is causing the cable to bind up or not move. I think it's more likely that the solenoid on the shifter is what's keeping it from shifting out of park than the shift cable. Since I can't move the shifter I can't get the big trim piece off to release the solenoid. I've tried getting to the solenoid with a screwdriver but I can't seem to find it to release it. I have to get it into reverse to recalibrate the park/neutral switch unless someone knows the proper tool to align the switch. I've tried looking online and I find alignment tools for the 4L80E and 4T60E but nothing for the 4T45E.

Your help with troubleshooting is greatly appreciated.

I will go inspect the fuse box and ensure that everything is properly seated.

EDIT: everything in the fusebox is well-seated. Still won't crank.

 

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/gm-r...-status-50716/

Do your keys have a small round hole for the ring, or oval shaped?

 

make sure there are 2 wires on the front post on the fuse box and 1 on the rear one.
make sure there is 12 volts on the large red wire on the starter
make sure all of the ground wires are still attached to the top of the trans.

 

The keys have a round hole. I'm guessing that probably means the ignition switch was replaced.

 

I can verify two of those things right now: there are two leads going to the front terminal on the fuse panel and one going to the rear. We were very meticulous about making sure those were reconnected when we were done working on the transmission. Same with the ground wires. Those are all still connected.

Next time I go out to work on the car I will check for the 12V at the starter. It will probably be a few days before I can do that because of my work schedule.

 

UPDATE: I was able to go out after work today and spend some more quality time with the HHR.

There's definitely 12V at the starter. I also checked that there was 12V at each of the posts on the side of the fuse box, and there was. I had my wife turn the key and there was no signal on the purple wire to get the starter to engage. Since I had her help for a while I tried moving the park/neutral switch around until I found the spot where the backup lights lit up. Even after doing that the engine still wouldn't crank and the shifter wouldn't move out of park.

What's the next thing to check?

 

Not sure if you've already checked these.
Fuses #8 and #10, interior fuse block.
Fuse #5 underhood fuse block.
Relays #34 and #51 underhood fuse block

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I checked #5 under the hood and #8 and #10 on the interior fuse panel. All were good. It's dark now so I'll have to wait for the morning to check the relays. I did swap #34 with another relay when I first started troubleshooting but the engine still would not crank. It's possible that both relays were suspect so I'll do more thorough testing tomorrow morning.

 

I checked the relays this morning. They are both good. Both closed and had full continuity with 12V applied to the appropriate terminals.

 

Have you tried tightening the bolts in the underhood fuse box, they tighten past the point of you think it might break?
Did you check for voltage to the fuses?
Did anyone mess with the steering column?
Did any stray sparks get produced (disconnected battery before doing the trans/fuse box)?