My hhr has 353thou km on it and has been a good car, my husband tried to start it this am and it wouldn't start. said it sounded like it was running on 1 cylinder and died, tried twice more and wouldn't go at all.that was at 7:00. put it gasline antifreeze and I went out at nine, fired right up, no strange noises.he did notice some condensation when he took off the cap where you wold add oil. any ideas. It's been starting ruff in the cold -30 even when plugged in but figure it has to do with battery being in back bumper

 

Probably a bad head gasket. A compression test, possibly a follow-up leak down test would help this diagnosis.

 

Welcome to the site, cold start with condensation in the furl tank , the additive might have cleared that up , an older battery at those temperatures would have decreased cold cranking amps, have the battery load tested.

 

Oldblue, the condensation is on the oil filler cap.

 

Yes, it had condensation on it when I took it off

 

And there was fuel additive , which would address any condensation in the fuel tank, the oil filler cap condensation is pretty normal up here in sub zero temperatures.

 

thanks for info

 

I wager the CheckEngineLight has been on for a while?