So it seems I am a bit late to the party, but I have managed to purchase a HHR in the year of our lord 2022.
Its one of the early makes from 2006 for the US market (assembled in Mexico), but its an import as I live in Germany.
Now I just want to ask, is it sure that if I remove that plastic cover that says 'airbag' I will be greeted by a torx screw instead of a surprise explosion to the face?
I have little experience with tinkering with cars however I want to install a DAB+ receiver that needs grouding to metal frame of the car. It has an antenna that needs to be stuck to the windshield and it has a really short grounding cable so it needs to go there.
Previous owner replaced the original radio to some chinese cr*p with a display and its mostly just playing static which is really annyoing. However I do need to play something as the heating fan in the middle console has bad bearing and its making a horrible sound constantly (I will replace that next as soon as I find out where exactly it is and how to get to it.)

Pic of car

 

I have no idea why you would want to go anywhere near the airbag to do that. It would be a lot easier to route the wires under the moulding. What do you think is the difference in "grounding to the metal frame" and just grounding. There is no actual frame in an HHR, just the all metal grounded body. Ground is ground. Old cars had the engine for ground and the body grounded to it, modern cars are the opposite.

The blower is under/behind the glove box. It needs to be cut out with a knife unless it has been replaced before.

A 2006 needs to have the butyl patch under the cowl on the passenger side inspected and probably fixed. Wet passenger side floor, corroded blower and resistor result.

BTW. all HHRs were built in Mexico.

 

I would not want to go near the airbag at all but what is supposed to be grounding the antenna is too short, and the antenna itself has to go on the window.
Here is a picture:



Now mine isn't exactly like this, there is the antenna, the black box but the cable for grounding doesn't come out at the top, rather it goes to the right, hence would make sense to take of the passanger side pillar (and also run the cables there that goes to the device itself).

 

Add a length of wire to the ground? That plug in the pillar trim is a cover for a bolt that would make a decent ground. There is also a decent ground at the base of the FM antenna.
Ground wires don't care about splices, they are not supposed to carry much current.
Why not mount it behind the mirror and run your wires under the headliner over to the pillar trim? That shielded cable does not need to be exposed, that is pretty ugly. And if it is shielded coax the shield is grounded. The body of the car is the "ground plane" for the antenna, usually the antenna does not need to be attached to the ground plane.

We tried digital radio in the US, it flopped. XM/Sirius is a better option here.

I just thought, are you talking about a plug on the pillar trim that says "airbag"? That is indeed a bolt cover. I didn't think 2006 had side curtain bags. And don't worry aboput airbags spontaneously exploding, they don't use explosives anymore, the only caution you need is let the car sit for 20 minutes after shutdown before touching them.

 

Thanks for the reply. Yeah I might have said it wrong, I really just did mean the plastic cover on the side pillar.
It can very well be that it doesn't have side curtain airbags, didn't know 2006 don't have them, I just know the lid is there with 'airbag' written over it but maybe its just the same part used.

Now I found a picture of the exact one I have, and the instructions on how to mount it:



I also checked if I can get the upholstery off the top of the passanger compartment but for me that seemed like more of a hassle since it didn't really move, and I saw somebody at some point already ran a cable in the A pillar as its sticking out a bit, plus then it would look like how it is recommended on the picture.

Well digital radio also didn't work out everywhere around here either, at least in some countries nobody uses them but can also imagine some stations don't even bother with it. I just tought of this as the whole FM radio doesn't really work, I don't actually know what is wrong, probably the connection from the antenna to radio itself as from my previous car I know that reception was perfect all around and now I can't go a street without it becoming only half static. And this adapter would get the digital signal and send it over on FM or Bluetooth to the car radio. I am hoping that since it is so close (literally inside the car) the FM will be picked up perfectly.

 

Nice looking HHR. XM is much more reliable.

 

Did you notice he is in Germany?

The problem you have with FM is that a US radio tunes to odd increment like 93.3 or 9Mhz, Euro radios tune to even increments like 93.2 or 10Mhz. There are adapters made for the purpose. Or, get an after market Euro radio.
Another member just went through this, in Holland, I think. Called a "radio band expander", check with a local radio installer, the ones I see on ebay are around $10 US. I know that a lot of US cars get imported to Germany there must be some shops that specialize.

This is one site that makes them: https://www.2040-parts.com/usa-car-radio-fm-converter-for-european-frequencies-band-expander-0-1-mhz-shift-i445302/

 

Hmm I wasn't aware of this, but this does explain a lot about why the radio works so hectic. Sometimes its clear without static but thats probably when I move away from the source and it is on the frequency increment that is sort of like US.
Thanks for the tip about the band expander but I want to have a go with this first since I already bought it for ~60 euros off of Amazon.
Plus I think it might work the same way too as it says it has a DAB range of 177Mhz - 240Mhz and FM range of 87.5Mhz - 108Mhz. It might be able to pick up everything properly and then I can just push it through via bluetooth to the car speakers. Also has aux, but this abomination chinese display unit that was put it doesn't have aux. As far as I know the original HHR sound systems did have aux. Now I just wish they would have kept that.

I am not entirely sure about the past of this car, I only know that it has spent a considerable amount of time in Florida before being imported to Europe. To which country exactly I don't know as I also picked it up from another country and drove it to Germany.

 

A 2006 - 2009 HHR radio should have AUX, after that they went to USB. If the car has an OnStar unit installed you might have BT.
From your comments I am thinking your HHR is not a 2006. The 10th digit of the VIN is the year.

Old fashioned analog tuners could tune both US and Euro, digital tuners are set to country codes. The station frequency is actually the center of a range, so if you tune to 104.3 instead of 104.2 the modulation range gets clipped by .1 Mhz. To further complicate things the US uses a different range span than European.

 

I have the 10th digit as 6. What I am saying now is that the stock radio what sits in the center console was replaced by a previous owner to some horrible chinese touchscreen abomination and that has no aux. I wish they would have just kept the original radio, would be better off with that.

Also as I side not, could anyone shed light on what the buttons on the rear view mirror do? I've downloaded and read the manual but it has no diagram and says things about OnStar.