It's a cold solder joint. Any tranny shop would pull on all the tubes to be sure they weren't cracked. We did transmissions but we were a full service garage but we knew to do that. This is common across several manufactures.

 

So, death from CO poisoning is a trivial matter? There are flex pipe repair parts available, they require welding and might not be legal in California.
If the flex pipe is cracked there is a good chance that the motor mount is bad. Look through the oblong hole in the passenger side wheel house, if you can't see a bolt head centered the mount is bad. That could affect the shift linkage.
I would look at the shift linkage on top of the transmission before pulling the pan.

 

Could a low fluid level cause this?

 

I told them it was serious they both just shrugged it off. I have told them numerous time. I would say at least 6 to 7 times a month and they don't want it fixed cause im don't weld. They would have let this if it still moved. I never understand people who mistreat a vehicle by waiting until it is a full failure of it. They do and what is bad i told them last time when i fixed the a window motor and the brake and rear signal light numerous times that i was done working on it.

 

That’s a shame, but it’s not going to fix itself and you can’t force them to fix it. It’s their HHR. Very sad 😢 they are not going to fix it.

 

Hi Guys, A couple days before Christmas last December I pulled up to a stop sign and my HHR would no longer go forward. Reverse worked fine. I scoured the internet for clues and found the trans in the HHR and a few other models have a fairly common issue with the forward tube cracking and failing in the transmission pan. The tubes crack at the weld from the pipe to the flange. I had a local trans shop pull the pan and they did indeed find the tube had cracked causing the car to lose forward drive. They welded it back and I got out the door for right about $400 and a 12 month 12k mile warranty. 6 months later and it is working fantastic still. I saw a video on YouTube of a guy tearing down a trans on a bench looking for the issue. The very last thing he did was pull the pan off only to find the cracked tube. It is far less than a replacement trans and well worth checking. I could have bought the part and done it myself but I am old and lazy and left it up to an expert. He said that he had seen it before and was likely caused by years of vibration. I hope this helps someone.

 

Thank you for sharing your repair story.

 

so samething happen to me on my way home from work Monday stopped at stop sign car pulled off fine got to next stop sign car would not move foward only went in reverse so I pulled back to curve parked it got it towed to shop mechanic found upper transmission line leak got that fix filled transmission fluid almost 8 quarts tried to take it for test drive and the transmission control module loss communication display on computer scan reader mechanic telling I need a new transmission any body have this problem

 

should I replace the tcm

 

So i was driving lost foward drive still goes in reverse fine so i backed up park on curb had it towed to shop found out it was a upper transmission line leak got that fix when mechanic filled 8 quarts of trans fluid went to test drive tcm loss communication still no foward drive what should i do next