Hello everyone.First time post for me but long time member.I have a 2006 HHR with 136,000 miles.My problem is the radio.I am basically listening to it through the tweeters.Sometimes get the left or right bank back but quickly stops working.Have had the radio out to check the wires behind it and for loose plugs etc.I see nothing wrong.I have checked on ebay and they run from 75 to 199 but then i have to bring it to the dealer to get reprogrammed?Is this so?Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Sounds like a bad radio. Yes it has to be programmed to the vehicle. I bought one on ebay from a company called LKQ. Worked great with no problems. Make sure you get the same part number.

 

X 2

And to the forum JJRHHR!

 

Thanks for the welcome and thank you for the info.One more question though,If i buy an after market radio is it the same thing with the reprogram at the dealer?

 

Aftermarket head units don't require a visit to the dealer, but you do need to get the appropriate wiring harness adapter/pig tail to allow the radio to interface with the vehicle. HHR's use the audio system to produce the warning chimes you hear for the seat belts etc. So you need to have the correct hardware in order to preserve those functions.

 

Be sure to check out the radio with a known good set of speakers.

I thought the radio in my ‘06 HHR was faulty because the drivers side speakers would not play all the time the tweeter on that side was fine.

I put a Clarion stereo in the dash with the single DIN kit I got on eBay along with a set of the right wires to just plug the radio into the original HHR wiring harness.

Oddly enough the speakers on the drivers side worked fine for a few months with the Clarion stereo. I bought a used HHR radio on eBay because my wife was upset that all the chimes were gone while the Clarion was in dash anyway.

I installed the replacement radio in the car and took it to the dealer. The dealer told me the replacement would not accept the codes they entered because the BCM was not compatible. So I put the Clarion back in. Then the drivers side speakers started not working all the time again.

I removed the Clarion and put it on my test bench and it checked out just fine so,… I began testing the speakers in the doors. They worked some times but not all the time after having worked just dandy for months.

I dug into the big box of speakers and found a decent pair of Infinity three way speakers, made a set of rings, to fill the hole in the door and lashed them up to the original stereo and low and behold, they play just fine.

I ended up putting the front door passenger speaker in the back drivers side rear door and left the original passenger side rear speaker alone.

The thing rocks just fine and all the chimes work like when we got it now. Even though I had the original stereo out of the car for a few months it did not need to be reprogrammed when I put it back in.

I’m actually considering getting the satellite radio feature going again.