The guy that says replace the complete chain and guides is correct. Now shop around for labor rates; flat rate book says 5 hours.
"Runs fine" until it doesn't. It has been giving you warnings of imminent catastrophic failure for a year.

 

Since this is a SS, you should replace the full chain assembly as suggested. If you have chain failure and destroy the engine, it's going to cost more to replace the SS 2.0L turbo engine than it would for a 2.2 or 2.4 engine.

 

Flat rate for SS is 5.7 hours.

 

2.0 or 2.2 or 2.4 it’s still a bag of cash to replace the whole engine, because of pistons and valves colliding when the chain skips a few teeth or worse breaks!

 

If I were you I would use Pennzoil Platinum 100% synthetic 5/30 this time.
I switched from Mobil 1 when I had a noise like that and it took a bit but now it is gone.

SF

 

2 days ago the morning temp here was 11 degrees.
No noise on start up.

SF

 

 

Yeah....
As a side note ... all 10 of my HHR's Had that noise. One was brand new ...a 2011 1LT w/ 2 4L Auto.
Chevrolet Service put a Serpentine Belt on it.
It went away for a while but came back later.

One other thing I do now is on first cold start ... I wait for the fuel pump to turn off before turning the ign. key to start.
Just Me !!!

SF

 

SF- I do same thing, since I bought mine in '09.

 

Birds of a Feather FLOCK together ....
Some got Muscle and some got Smarts !!!