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Problems/Service/RepairsIf you have a problem with your HHR, want a tip on repairing or performing a particular service to you HHR here is the place to post!
I was helping a friend replace the rear speakers in his 2008 HHR. After putting it back together, the window rolled down, but not back up. With the cold weather in Buffalo, he hasn't really used the window much recently so we aren't sure if it was broken already or something we did. Replacing the speaker obviously has no effect on the window motor, unless I bumped something while I was taking the door panel off. The obvious solution seems to replace the motor and regulator - however, I am skeptical because I can't hear anything from the motor when trying to roll the window up. If I try to roll it down, I can hear it "click" as it tries to roll down further. The only wiring diagram I can find is from a 2006 model, so I'm looking at that currently to find out if power is getting where it needs to. Has anybody had a similar experience?
The 2006 diagram is the same, only the location of the front buttons changed.
If you can hear it clicking there is power to the motor. You need to mechanically disconnect the motor to test. The motor is part of the new regulator, so really you only need to make sure the switch is working and there is a full 12 volts available. Use a VOM.
Try swapping the window switch from the other back door and see if it rolls the window back up. When the switches go bad it often will still work one way but not the other.
Thanks for all the responses! I was able to verify with a multimeter that the rear switch is good. Tomorrow morning I will probe the connector to see that it is receiving power and ground from the front master switch. If that all looks good, I'll be off to the junk yard. I'll update this again tomorrow, hopefully with a solution...
It turned out to be a bad ground wire. The rear switch gets its ground from the front switch. Both switches were fine, but somewhere along the purple ground line (highlighted in the picture) there was an intermittent connection. I must have agitated this just enough to break the connection as I was taking the door panel off.
One of the things that really threw me off with this, was that the grounds powering the window motors appear to be isolated from the chassy ground?? Since there are 2 grounds (purple and green) sent from the front switch, I was able to jumper the rear switch connector, using the green ground that I knew was good. This turned the motor. However, trying to use the chassy ground did not work. Yes I tried multiple metal parts, and scratched them to get down to bare metal. I don't know how many hours I wasted, testing things using the chassy ground which appears to be isolated from the window power. For some reason, it will only run with the ground that comes from the front switch. Does this make any sense? Why would they be isolated?
Anyways, after 2 days of insanity, we were able to get the window working again. When it gets warmer out I plan to run a new ground wire from the front switch to the back (or hopefully find the culprit purple wire, corroded or chewed somewhere).
03-19-2019, 04:37 PM
