Okay im gunna throw something out there. No offense intended.
These cars already suffer from weak brakes and a rotor warping issue on top of the rear drums not adjusting themselves. All issues when it comes to braking. So your style of driving can greatly affect the life of your brakes. If you are a heavy braker....which around here is normal...you will wear out your brakes faster especially if you dont adjust the drums. This is true of all cars but the factor is greater on the hhr's. I persoanlly brake very light. I have 73,000 miles on my brakes. Still as smooth as can be under braking.

Before everyone jumps all over me i do understand that there can be other issues such as hubs and the steering column. But just keep in mind that your driving style can greatly reduce the life of your brakes.

Thats my life lesson for today....

 

I too have replaced front pads and rotors (07 2.4L LT) but still notice a light shutter more so in the steering wheel.....and what seems to sound like a wheels bearing???
I know that its very difficult to fix a car issue over a forum but a clear cut list of all the things that could potetially cause these issues would help me out a lot.
I intended to "go thru" the whole front end.
So far I have replaced
1.brake pads
2.rotors
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

 

Thanks for all the help everyone! Does any one know the runout specs for the brakes or the bearing hub assemblys. I am gonna check the rear brakes and possibly the runout on the fronts to see if the hubs need replacing but with 47k on the car seems kinda strange they would be worn out.

 

I've replaced many front end parts on my '06. I started out with the sway bar end rods, then I put in sway bar bushings.

Next a spring in the rear breaks broke so I replaced the shoes and all the hardware back there. I'm pretty sure the self adjusters are working alright because every time I check that the shoes are set right they seem to be just fine.

The next thing was the outside tie rod ends. The originals seemed fine but since I had the new one already I put them on. Then I put on new disks and pads. The disks and pads that were on it looked fine and the disks looked pretty good running against my dial indicator but I had the new ones so I put them on.

Since all my home handy man work has not fix the problem I took it to the dealer to ask what exactly was wrong with it. {hoping that maybe GM had a recall on some of it so I wouldn't have to pay for it}

I worried that it might be the electric power steering or the rack and pinion or even the wheel bearings. My worries were laid to rest, they said its the inner tie rod end on the drivers side. They did compliment me on my fine {so far} mechanical work.

Later this month I will be getting inner tie rod ends and the tool to remove them and put them back on. Then we shall see if I really am that good a wrench or not.

I've wanted one of those tools for removing inner tie rod ends since I helped my little brother with his step sons Chrysler. He didn't have the proper tool either and it was a total bugger to get them out with the wrenches we did have. A standard wrench was bent and forced to work.