Hi all,

Posted this on the HHR Owners FB page, and was looking from input here as well:

My battery died today. I used a co-worker's Malibu to jump the HHR. It fired up, but the check engine light, as well as the traction control light and the DIC ESC warning message are all present. Worse yet, it will not come out of 1st gear (automatic tranny). I drove 30-35 MPH at about 3K RPM to my father's house after work and disconnected the negative terminal at the battery in the rear, hoping to reset the system, but alas, the same symptom persists along with the lights and warning message. I'm really concerned because the car is an '11 with 112K on it, and I'm hoping I didn't screw the transmission. Does anyone have any thoughts? Thanks in advance...

 

You need to pull the CEL codes for the OBD2 system. There's probably code(s) that are causing this. Either that or you need to charge the battery. The alternator is not very good at charging a weak battery.

 

.... and giving an explanation as to why the battery died would help as well - ie: did you leave lights on or such, or did it die on it's own? Also, how old is the battery? If it is over 4 yrs old, it is worthwhile to get it tested once charged.

These vehicles do not like running on a low or dead battery - all sorts of weird symptoms will pop up. Like RJ said, get that bettery charged, and download the codes from the Check engine light - post the codes and we will see what else we can suggest.

 

Or you did not jumpstart correctly, and shorted something out.

One of the thing that could happen is accidentally touching the TCM with the hot side jumper cable, that will kill the TCM.

 

I'm having the same problem. My battery died and I had to jumpstart it. After I restarted it the check engine light was on, along with the warning "service esc" and "service traction". When I drove off I thought the engine was running a little louder and then as soon as I got on the freeway I noticed it wasn't shifting to a higher gear. It was Nearing 6000 RPMs going about 55 miles an hour. I got the check engine light read at AutoZone and there's a laundry list of problems. I think it's very strange that this all happened after my car battery died.

 

How were the jumper cables hooked up? Who did it? What points were the hooked to?

My guess is that somebody didn't bother to read the instructions and caused an arc with the negative cable. Probably killing the TCM.

The laundry list might help.