Our 2009 lt makes a clicking in the rear brakes only under light braking at slow speeds.We took to dealer and they said nothing is wrong.I was told they all make the same noise and they did remove rear brakes and everything is fine.What is causing the clicking noies?Anyone else experience this with their HHR?

 

My 2008 with 25000 mi. does the same thing. Mine seems to be on the passenger side rear.

 

Could it be they just need to be adjusted? If the self adjusters aren't working as they should (sometimes the "star" wheel on the self adjuster is not locked against the adjuster "bar") so when you brake slowly the whole inside brake assembly might pitch and twist about a 1/4 of an inch because it is too far from the drum. Try using your parking brake when you park and also (safety first) try backing up and braking a few times to get the brakes to self adjust. If you've worked with drum brakes before you might want to try adjusting them-wheels off ground and spin the tires by hand. If the tire spins very fast and you do not hear any dragging noise, they probably need to be adjusted. Adjust them enough so that the wheel slightly (I said slightly) drags when you spin the tire by hand. Now the brake assembly doesn't have far to travel to touch the drum. Hopefully this helps. (as for the 09 HHR it may not have been adjusted properly at the factory)

Mike

 

Mine was the parking brake cable rubbing on the wheel! Somehow the clips that hold the cable to the body came off. What a relief!

 

Not the problem.This HHR only has 5000 miles on it and has done it since new.Dealer said they all do it.I find that hard to believe.

 

Mine 09 did-but adjusted them properly-no noise now + my front don't glaze over from unbalanced braking.

 

2009 purchased with 10k miles on it; right rear wheel clicking when soft braking; dealer could find nothing wrong, claims to have turned the drum and the clicking went away; 7K miles later it's back; will be returning to dealer wondering how many times they can turn the drum before I need a new drum; also wondering how turning the drum solved the problem;

 

If a drum gets out of round (like a slight oval-usually due to a hard stop on hot drums) it may pulsate the brake pedal slightly as well as move the brake shoe assembly as a whole. As the assembly is touching the drum in the "good" round area there is no noise, when the drum rotates to the "bad out of round" area the assembly releases off the sides of the drum, shifts back into a different position, then meets the good part again (fast or slow depending on your speed) it may seem like a clicking noise. The shoes are mounted on pins and springs so you will get movement. If the drum is that out of whack (we used to call it tworpt-short for twisted and worped) my advice would be get a new drum made of US or Canadian Steel. You are probably out of spec now if they had to cut the drum already.

I used to experience that clicking problem on some vehicles with composite drums-drums made of steel walls but had aluminum casting mounts. When they used to overheat on vehicles the steel would react differently than the aluminum it was cast to. Tworpping then happened. To cut those and the composite rotors were a B_T_H. Had to glue and strap rubber belts to the drums to try and cut them without the massive vibrations transmitting to the cutting head making the steel look like an LP. (Old type of "CD" played on a Record Player for you youngins out there-LOL). Eventually we just sold the customer new solid steel cast rotors/drums and they never had a problem again.

Mike

 

Second trip to dealer. This time they tightened the muffler and said all was well. What gives? The muffler's on the left side and the noise is in the right rear wheel and still there. Also can feel minor pulsing in brake pedal when gently applying brakes. As before, hard braking produces no clicking/clunking noise.

Day later now - discovered right rear parking brake cable body mount had come loose and re-installed it. Also raised right rear tire and checked for brake drag - proper brake drag present. Test drive produced same clunking/clicking noise upon softly braking to a stop. Headed to the dealer a third time. If I'd have financed through GM I'd just let them have it back.

Filed a complaint with the ODI of NHTSA via www.mycarstats.com

 

Just got the car back from third trip to dealer. According to the service order they repositioned the brake shoe mounts on both rear wheels. I'm guessing this is a reference to the mounting springs on each shoe. Whatever the case, the pedal feels better than it ever has and the car stops better with no noise. Time will tell if this is the final fix.