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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 hope help others by relating what I've done & learned from reviving a 2009 HHR LT 2.2 (B code) & through experts adding corrections & positive suggestions. Vehicle sat for 3 years after it started to have fuel leaks & after being driven through heavily salted Michigan winter roads
The car was a gift from my dad. He had worked on the HHR's as his last vehicle before retiring as an experimental vehicle builder for GM. He felt a bit nostalgic & bought this one used a few years after he retired. He also had a cobalt (very similar cars mechanically if you didn't know) & liked the idea of being able to leverage working & knowing one onto the other. But I think like most of us, good intentions can be side tracked by old age & aches etc.
Prior to me getting it, after sitting for 3yrs my dad removed & charged the battery, put it back in, & started it with the 3yr old gas still in the tank. He found it would start & run, but wouldn't move. The back tires wouldn't turn & the fronts just spun in the gravel: I think he cycled the traction control a few times hoping to roll it forward & on to asphalt. It didn't help that he was ignoring low tire pressure & that the wheels had sunk into the ground a bit. So then he ignored it more (like for months) & eventually when my kid was about to turn 16 I told him I'd just get it off his hands (he was being stubborn & saying he'd fix it & not letting me near it in the interim). But before I got there he jacked up the back wheels, broke them free, & filled in the divets.
Had to use a come-along to put the vehicle on a flat bed as it wouldn't run (too much of a fuel leak now), & the rear wheels/brake drums had loosened but you could hear them growling. Before I arrived to tow it, he got in it, tried starting it again & the rear two windows stuck down.
On the way home (with it still on the flatbed), I stopped at a gas station and filled the fuel tank with fresh premium fuel. Dad had given it to us 3/4 full of old gas. Figured if I got is started I'd at least have a mix of old and new fuel. The fuel that ran out by the drivers rear wheel did smell ok when we turned the key...
The dome lights wouldn't work. Found the fuse removed: so I asked my dad. He said "Oh yah, when I was trying to start it and the windows got stuck down, the dome lights stayed on, so I pulled the fuse." I put the fuse in, found the RAP (retained accessory power: keeps stuff on after you turn the key off for a short time) relay behind the interior fuse panel. Swapped it with the AC relay & the lights seemed to work fine. Don't know if it was a bad voltage/ground issue from the battery, or a relay issue. (The AC did work after I got it started). I was wondering if there wasn't a common link to the windows as I suspect that RAP works with them too, but I think it also gets its time on after shut off signal from the BCM (body control module).
Also was getting goofy readings of battery voltage depending on where I tried to test it. Suspected bad battery or bad/intermittent grounds, but the car was so new to me, & I knew so little about it. Where to start looking? Remember both rear windows were stuck down too. Was there a common cause? Where to start on such complicated troubles that would be normal after years of sitting?
BOTH WINDOWS STUCK DOWN: I started working on getting the windows to work so that the interior would be dry when it rained. My dad bought & gave us a Haynes repair manual (he never had one as he felt he knew the car in and out from building the prototypes years earlier). Would hear clicks at the motors when I pushed down on the driver's switch but not up. The wiring diagram in the manual was the key: I pulled the rear window switches, turned the key to accessory & used the pin-outs/wire colors from the manual to jumper power to the window motors... they went up & down just fine depending on how I jumpered them: That confirmed the motors were good and it was a switch problem. Seeing the diagram showed that the rear switches both worked off of the driver's switch (would have been nice to have the switches internal diagram but the manuals just showed the wiring between them). The common place for the problem with both rear windows was the driver's switch. Bought a replacement driver's window switch, dropped it in and both rear windows worked perfect. It seems original switch died for rear up, but worked for rear down. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XTB9HFF
Also along the way, I didn't trust that the 4yr 9 month old battery (going off of the month/year sticker) that had sat for 3yrs without charging was good. My dad had charged it & said it was good. Remember he'd started the car with it too. When I got it home I tried to charged it, but my 'smart' charger didn't like it: sometimes it would charge it for a while, then trip a warning. Other times my charger wouldn't even see it was connected to a battery. Tried charging in and out of the vehicle. But I couldn't be 100% that my charger hadn't developed an issue. So I tried another old school charger/starter: it started fine, then the charger got really hot & smoked. I put it back on the smart charger & got my smart charger to go green on it. But still seemed to get goofy voltages & such and it wouldn't read above 12v for very long if I put a load on it (like windows). So Took it in (to walmart, where my dad had gotten it) they tested it, it failed (even though I had charged it), & they gave me like $10 off a new one as part of the "5yr" warranty (no receipt!). Just seemed like a smart way to reduce probable causes of electrical issues, and give me peace of mind when my kid was driving the car. I had gotten goofy voltage readings when I was trouble shooting the rear windows too. So I eliminated that as an issue.
The back tailgate wouldn't stay up as the two balls the gas shocks mounted on had rusted off years ago. Bought two new mounts & new gas shocks. Works perfect now. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FB96DBX
Changed oil/filter. Cleaned the air filter & housing (nut fragments showed use by a chipmunk)
The old fuel lines fell apart in my hands, & were fairly easy to remove so that I could run the new nylon lines behind the heat shield & in the plastic tracks the old rotten lines were in. Toughest part was dealing with the old connections (behind the fuel tank and by the rear wheels cross suspension bar). They just didn't want to come out from years of corrosion. Repeated lots of PB blaster to flush out, working the connection releases, pushed & puled & twisted. After a couple frustrating hours, got enough movement to get the old metal lines out of the fittings, cleaned up the crud form the fittings & dropped the new lines right on to them. Cycled the key to run a few times to pressurize the lines, checked for leaks, started & ran the motor (had to crank a bit more but not much than a normal start). Fired up & ran fine. Had a couple leaks at the compression fittings but they were remedied with just a little snugging of the fittings.
After starting had SERVICE ESC & TRACTION CONTROL & ABS warning lights. I tried cycling the traction control button many times. Still the same. Asked my dad it & he though it was because he turned it traction control off to try getting it out of the ruts. Put my code reader on it: no codes, and no check engine light.
Brakes were super soft, went right to the floor. So I jacked it up and pulled the tires. Front pads were worn down to less than a 1/16th but were not worn through. The rotors were badly scared by corrosion, & uneven & rough. Couldn't get the rotors off no matter how much I sprayed them with PB or beat on them (for days & days). Tried to pull the drums: same thing. Bought a drum/rotor puller & they popped right off:
Shoes had worn nearly through. Drivers linings separated from the shoes. . Drums heavily corroded & rough. Got new drums, spring kit, & new shoes, right rear wheel cylinder was suspect, so I replaced it. New calipers & new pads (one of the calipers was fused & wouldn't compress, but moved enough I could remove it). With the brakes redone now: they are firm, & work well with no pulling. Still have an ABS light.
Drivers rear. Not shoe linings were loose and floating in drum
While I was doing the front brakes: I pulled the lower arms (the rear bushings were shot). Replaced them with new.. You can read about dealing with the rear A arm bolts fused to bushings, spinning & not coming out here: https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/general-hhr-4/large-bolt-front-end-64568/
So now I'm troubleshooting ESC, Traction control, & ABS warnings. Just freshened the ground on the wheel well just to the outboard of the under hood electrical center. Still the same lights. In all the work the wires to the wheels were bumped some, but look intact. Help here is appreciated.
ALSO getting a clunk @ driver front when driving over uneven concrete joints etc. Suspect its the sway bar endlinks (I know they aren't sway bars in this car. but I cannot remember the proper name). When I was doing the A arms I pulled up & down on them & they felt fine. So I'm not confident I've got that one diagnosed correctly.
Look forward to your advice. & contribution
Last edited by top_prop; 09-08-2021 at 01:57 PM.
Reason: clarity and grammer
Just proves that people who profess they are experts aren't.
They are called sway bars, sometimes (more properly) anti-sway bars.
Traction and ABS are probably from corroded connections or varmint chews. Could be the sensors inside the hubs are corroded. If the ABS light is on there ARE ABS codes to tell which wheel, sometimes what the problem is, you need a reader that sees the ABS.
Make sure there is NO fuse in position #11 in the under hood fuse box or the lift gate won't lock.
Mixing premium fuel with old fuel just ruins the premium fuel.
Just proves that people who profess they are experts aren't.
Never said my dad was an expert... just said he's experienced, old, and tired. He'd admit that building them and tearing them down didn't teach him how to work on them or repair them. He also complains that the engineers rarely listened to the vehicle builders when they suggested mechanical/maintenance improvements, etc. The engineers only wanted to make it cheaper/faster, while making it to warranty and avoiding recalls... and would fight between their disciplines for access to more space.
Traction and ABS are probably from corroded connections or varmint chews. Could be the sensors inside the hubs are corroded. If the ABS light is on there ARE ABS codes to tell which wheel, sometimes what the problem is, you need a reader that sees the ABS.
Can you make a suggestion on how to find a good reader?
(I have one from Harbor Freight... my cousin has one he got from an auto-parts store... neither of them show any codes...)
Make sure there is NO fuse in position #11 in the under hood fuse box or the lift gate won't lock.
done... no fuse.
Mixing premium fuel with old fuel just ruins the premium fuel.
While true, it works and is running fine... burnt 1/4 tank out test driving it after the brakes were done. Will continue to use dilution as a solution... I'm sure the additional ethanol pulled any water that built up in the tank into solution.
Last edited by top_prop; 09-06-2021 at 11:40 AM.
Reason: clarity and grammer
Is there a pin-out diagram for the ABS connector on this site somewhere? I've seen on another site that sometimes the grounds go bad and you can easily check for continuity to ground if you pull the connector and know what pins to probe...
Also seems you can check for resistance of each wheel sensor on the connector if you have the pinouts and values/ranges... of course this isn't in the Haynes manual...
I have successfully used 10 year old gas in lawn mowers, humidity in my area stays around 79-90 %; So, I don't really subscribe to the "old gas" rules. For some reason the "experts" say that ethanol in gas only absorbs moisture from the air and you need "gas dryer" to get it out of the tank; I don't get it because "gas dryer" is alcohol. I remember when they started with E10 gas The PBS car guy (Pat Goss) did a whole special hour on the importance of using bottles of gas dryer because the ethanol attracts water; and oddly for him, he never mentioned a brand name.
The problem "they" have with old gas is not the water it is the deterioration and fungus.
I looked at the PDF... its torque specs... I'm asking for pinout of the connector that plugs into the ABS module so that I can probe it for continuity and resistance... also what those resistances should be...
Should be similar to what the computer checks to make sure all the connections are made and sensors are functioning.
ETA... I think if I can read the pin numbers something like this will help if it was for a 2009 (or they are the same)... if so, just need the resistance values: https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/brak...-wiring-59462/
09-06-2021, 09:03 AM
