Howdy. Newbie to the forum. An old drag racer that just bought a 2006 HHR LT with 75,000 miles from the original owner. Overall in pretty good shape, however now that I've gotten a good look at things it seems the lower control arm on the passenger side is hitting the sway bar on occasion. Assume the rear bushing has seen better days. I hate replacing things with OE parts. Usually something better available....right? But I have not been able to find what I'd like....a lower control arm assembly with 'performance' (as in better than OE) bushings. Such a thing?

 

Welcome to the site, sadly no , no LCA’s available with a better then OEM rubber bushing.
I simply pressed out the old bushing and pressed in a new Moog K201285 Problem Solvers and drilled out the rivets in the ball joint and bolted in new Moog ball joints, the front bushings rarely require replacement!
RockAuto is a sponsor here and offer a discount code for parts.

 

Wouldn't surprise me if the wrong 12" sway bar links are on it or the plastic stops on the sway bar have moved.

If you went to NAPA and asked for the bushing they would probably give you a generic solid rubber one. I don't know if that is better or not.

H'mm racing, N.M.; any relation?

 

Thanks for the quick responses guys. I was afraid of that....no upgrade arms available. Moved down here to New Mexico a few years ago from Nebraska (retired), selling most of my shop equipment before doing so, including the hydraulic press. The sway bar links are the correct 10 inch ones and seem to be ok but picked up some replacements with the grease zerks anyway, but unaware of plastic stops mentioned. Am I correct assuming that all the cast aluminum arm assemblies available are pretty much the same then?

 

Yes, don’t use the stamped steel arms from a light weigh Cobalt! The aluminum arms are designed to handle the weight of the HHR.
It’s really easy to rebuild the HHR arms , a 1 7/8 socket an old front brake rotor for an anvil and an 8 lb baby sledge hammer, works !




New ball joints



New Moog K200792, these were the go to bushings, now Moog has the K201285 , press these in from the top down , that bump is on the top!



Press or hammer out the old bushing!

 

At this point in time, I think you are better off rebuilding with the Moog part Oldblue suggests and new ball joints. The complete ones have been of dubious quality lately.

No need for hydraulics, screw presses are available for loan from Advance/AZ/O'R.

Most of the cause of the links banging the LCA comes from the bar sliding, either from the stops or bad bar bushings.

 

Double check the sway bar bushing, the 2006 models had 23mm bushings

Per this thread , scroll down to #4

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/comm...-thread-48833/


You might want to consider a rear sway bar from Turbo Tech Racing

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/supp...way-bar-14697/

 

It's best to actually measure the sway bar thickness on a 2006 - some of them had 23mm bushings, and some (probably most of them) had 25mm/1 inch bushings.

 

Be aware the 1 inch polyurethane bushings are actual 1 inch inside diameter and are 25.4 mm
A little sloppy for my liking, if you grease them every 3,000 miles and their not bad.

 

You guys are probably right. I'd probably be happier putting the Moog bushings and new ball joints in/on my arms. Never been a fan of pounding bushings out & in, always seem to hit something I didn't want to (like my finger). The sway bar bushings don't look too bad but when I open things up I'm changing those out as well (will be sure to measure the bar size). Many thanks, will stay in touch.