gmdealerguy

Last month I posted how my tranny slips from 1st-2nd in launch mode under normal driving. Our dealer looked at it last week and of course it didnt slip for him but they cleared the trannys memory.....I didnt even know about this,but it adjusts itself to your driving. So now it has not slipped.
But now.......I dont even know how to explain this.....but I am driving normal and every once in awhile if I let off the gas(say going around a turn( and then press to accelerate,their is no power for a moment. Its like you step on the gas and there is nothing! It just starts to slow up from the engine. Take your foot off and hit it and it it's fine. It happened 8 times yesterday.....once when I was going up a hill. Its dangerous. I dont know what it is....turbo...tranny....I dont know. It feels similar to an old muscle car when the carb bogs when you hit the gas and then goes......except this feels like the engine is off for a moment. This all happens in like 5 seconds. I have 10,000 on this and had alot of small,annoying issues with this car and I am beginning to think I should have kept my 07 HHR 2LT that was problem free!

*jerdog*

could it be something in the stability control or traction control causing the engine to shut down?

ChevyM84

mine does it too but its only when its trying to shift back in gear after u take ur foot off the gas.......mine also feels like its slipping and thje rpm's will go up and down somtimes when its cold.....but its been doing this for a year now and nothin else has happend....

foolmoon_design

I have noticed the "bogging down" once or twice, when I have given it too much pedal before the car is good and warmed up. I think in my case it has something to do with building enough vacumn before getting on it, cuz' once its warm there is no problem. Does yours do this after warming up?

gmdealerguy

Yes it does. Once it does it,you can floor it and it builds no boost,no rpm...nothing........it will do that until you take your foot off and then press again...then it's ok. Our dealer is going to look at it but they have no idea what it could be....and of course it's intermittent. Im fed up as I have had nothing but annoying quirky issues with the car.My last HHR was flawless as were all my past GM's,..... but this one is giving me hell.

gmdealerguy

Possible....wont know until it happens to a tech when he drives it.

russruth

Depends on the dealer and the tech.

I personally don't believe GM gives a s**t about these cars, or any performance car.

I took my HHR SS in for the stage 1 with all the materials from this and other sites on how to install and issue to look for. The dealer tech was non interested, (actually didn't know chevy offered the upgrade) but they did the install after some issues and a day later it dropped to limp mode every 15 minutes.

Took it back in and the dealer said it needed a new actuator valve and it wasn't in stock . . . told me I'd have better luck talking to gm myself, so I placed the call.

To make a very long story short (actually a 7 page story), the gm rep knew nothing about this car or any cars for that matter, said their was a tsb on the glove box that might be the problem ???? and the part would be in in a month or two.

I send all the information back to the dealer and it turned out to be a split rubber hose and they glued it then replaced it and it ran fine for two weeks, but now if you go into reverse it surges and dies.

I just dread going through the process again but guess there goes another week or two of phone calls.

The real shame is I do like this car. It's fun and runs like stink when it runs but between the dealers in catastrophe mode, the gm reps are 12 year olds that know nothing about cars (any car) and the general motor focus seems to be on Dawewoo Built econo cars I don't hold out much hope for having this car a long time.

87silver

Not sure about GM; This may be true these days, now that it seems that they want to blend in with the bland, Asian automotive appliances.

But you're right about the dealer and the tech.

One can be as different from another as night and day. Sometimes if you're not getting what you think you deserve or don't see that they have the talent, you may have to go further from your home if it means getting a better dealer and their professional technician to do the right thing.

IgottaWoody

Don't blame the car... find a dealer who knows what they are doing and critique the crap out of the one who doesn't...these are great cars, but only run as good as the mechanic

russruth

The dealer is in the Santa Monica area and yes I mostly blame the dealer's service repair, but . . . and this is a big but, calling Chevrolet and talking to the service representative is a fright. "Her replies were stuff like check the tsb on the glovebox, I know it's frustrating because my roomate has some kind of Japanese car with problems, I don't have e-mail, if you ask to speak to a supervisor then it will push the case back by weeks."

Now those quotes aren't the dealer . . . that's GM and go talk to a dealer and listen to their frustrations. There is no zone manager that they can talk to daily, much less weekly, the dealers have absolutely no say in the product GM is planning and don't think for a moment Chevy dealers aren't scared to death by trying to sell a $40,000 Eco Friendly Cruze.

I do love this HHR SS, think it's probably the most interesting car I've owned and no it's not the car or the car designers fault that GM has pretty much given up on performance cars and doesn't take it upon themselves to get actual real world information from the dealers.

Two weeks after the dealer finally made a fix I got one of those obligatory survey calls from some company and I tried to give them detailed issues, but all they want answered is 1 to 5 type of answers.

This goes nowhere in helping GM or even letting GM know that there is a market for performance cars and good service.

Yes I am sure there are better dealers in the LA area, but many are closed, the closest good dealer is in San Diego and if you know LA that's a full day return trip to get anything done.

Nobody has the time.

I have a mitsubishi EVO that I don't think is 1/2 the car of the HHR SS, but the dealer knows every inch of that product, what's available, offers all kinds of upgrades and the owner of the dealership will call you even after routine service.

OK, rant over.