What was the outcome of the lobotomy?

 

Who knows.
Guppy hasn't been back here since 2/20.

 

Well it shifted perfect when I drove to work and then I started this post. Sometimes the shift slips are worse than other times, so I did not think much of it. When I went to drive home, it shifted perfect. I decided to hold off on the labadomy to see what happens. It shifted perfect for about three days, then started slipping again. So what is the common denominator here, yup the outside temp!! When the outside temp is 70° or above I have no slipping. So now I am thinking this points to the loose connection in the wiring that you guys had suggested. I'll keep ya posted when I find it.

 

Out of curiosity have you checked for any pending codes? I seem to recall from some of my own research that sometimes codes don't trigger a CEL.

 

There are no codes. THe wife drove it from Dallas to Houston and got almost all the way back to home in Dallas. She was about 3 miles from the house and she claims it was driving down the hiway and all of a sudden it would not shift out of first, so she coasted all the way down to 10 mph, which luckily was the off ramp that she needed. Hit the red light and then it would do 40mph. She calls me at work and tells me this.
I get home and it works PERFECT! And still no codes stored.

 

Check ground wires and fuses in the under hood fuse box, and the TCM connection

 

Is it possible that "the wife" didn't notice overheating?

 

Absolutely not. You see I drive a 2008 maroon HHR with an intermittent shift problem. My wife drives the 2009 white HHR that we all had extensive conversations about last year trying to determine why it was running hot, turned out to be a clogged heater core. So after that fiasco, the wife pays more attention to the engine temp than she does her speed. lol.

 

UPDATE:
Well I was driving home down the hiway doing about 65 and all of a sudden it felt like it went into neutral. I hit the gas and the tach would just rev up. I pulled off onto a side street and came to a complete stop. As I started accelerating it worked fine, until it was ready to shift into 3rd gear, it would not. So I drove the back roads home doing a max of 35mph, not a big deal since the speed limit was 40mph.

I tried all of your suggestions, checking connections, measuring grounds, lobotomy, nothing changed. Pulled codes and I got two, one was:
P0977 – Shift solenoid (SS) B -control circuit high

BINGO!! that solenoid I have been suspicious of. I took it to my tranny shop for a diagnosis. He calls later and tells me it likely has internal damage and needs a rebuild $1200. I ask him how much to replace the two shift solenoids and says $100, but no gaurantee. I say go for it. He calls back a few days later and tells me to come pick it up. Bill was $150, since he added fluid ($15) and a torque converter solenoid looked a little shabby ($35). I had provided the two AC Delco shift solenoids and 3 quarts of fluid.

Runs like new right now.

Thanks for everyone's advise!! As always I really appreciate you guys. Thanks!

 

I have heard that the transmissions in the HHR are all but bulletproof, so a simple solenoid should always to the trick!