All New HHR Owner's Check This!
#41
I'm glad you asked this crafty.....
On my recently completed vacation I had an opportunity to speak with some old friends that still exist at the Milford Proving Ground and GM Tech Center. In speaking of the HHR they laughed at the "histeria" that had developed over the "loose fuse" issue. They were concerned because many people complained of having this problem......but NOBODY EVER had a fuse pop out to cause an electrical failure in any area (from researching dealer complaint issues in 100,000 consumer vehicles and over 4,000,000 test miles). They informed me that the lid of the fuse cover, under the hood, was specifically designed to prevent this. And, sure enough, after a couple of "beverages" we returned to my HHR and they demonstrated and displayed the design issue.
If you look closely, the inside of the fuse cover is honeycombed (under the drawing stickey) and provides only about and 1/8 inch clearance between the top of the large fuses and the honeycomb.......making it IMPOSSIBLE for the LARGE fuses to pop out.....check it out, guys. The smaller color coded fuses may pop out, but again, there is no record of it, and most of this discussion/concern seems to be centered on the larger fuse near the front of the holder.
An additional note.......
they did trace the unfounded and unsubstatiated claim to this and one other site dedicated to the HHR (after several dealers "clued" them in on customer concerns). It tends to slant our credibility in the wrong direction.
I also discussed several other member/owner concerns with them. But I'll limit my comments to when those issues are mentioned here.
On my recently completed vacation I had an opportunity to speak with some old friends that still exist at the Milford Proving Ground and GM Tech Center. In speaking of the HHR they laughed at the "histeria" that had developed over the "loose fuse" issue. They were concerned because many people complained of having this problem......but NOBODY EVER had a fuse pop out to cause an electrical failure in any area (from researching dealer complaint issues in 100,000 consumer vehicles and over 4,000,000 test miles). They informed me that the lid of the fuse cover, under the hood, was specifically designed to prevent this. And, sure enough, after a couple of "beverages" we returned to my HHR and they demonstrated and displayed the design issue.
If you look closely, the inside of the fuse cover is honeycombed (under the drawing stickey) and provides only about and 1/8 inch clearance between the top of the large fuses and the honeycomb.......making it IMPOSSIBLE for the LARGE fuses to pop out.....check it out, guys. The smaller color coded fuses may pop out, but again, there is no record of it, and most of this discussion/concern seems to be centered on the larger fuse near the front of the holder.
An additional note.......
they did trace the unfounded and unsubstatiated claim to this and one other site dedicated to the HHR (after several dealers "clued" them in on customer concerns). It tends to slant our credibility in the wrong direction.
I also discussed several other member/owner concerns with them. But I'll limit my comments to when those issues are mentioned here.
#43
My dash lights, and gages stopped working. I stopped the car, restarted the car, twice. No change. I popped the hood, pressed in the fuses-turned the ignition to run, and the dash lights and gages turned on.
Can I prove that the "loose" fuses were at fault? No. I wasn't in a test lab. I was 150 miles from home, at night, in the pouring rain. I'm glad the first person that experienced something told us about it. Because I believe that it was the fuse block. Whether you believe or not, I don't care.
Can I prove that the "loose" fuses were at fault? No. I wasn't in a test lab. I was 150 miles from home, at night, in the pouring rain. I'm glad the first person that experienced something told us about it. Because I believe that it was the fuse block. Whether you believe or not, I don't care.
#44
follow the red wire to the inline fuse and then to the black connection plug of the anti-corrosion module mounted on the right side wall.
#45
My dash lights, and gages stopped working. I stopped the car, restarted the car, twice. No change. I popped the hood, pressed in the fuses-turned the ignition to run, and the dash lights and gages turned on.
Can I prove that the "loose" fuses were at fault? No. I wasn't in a test lab. I was 150 miles from home, at night, in the pouring rain. I'm glad the first person that experienced something told us about it. Because I believe that it was the fuse block. Whether you believe or not, I don't care.
Can I prove that the "loose" fuses were at fault? No. I wasn't in a test lab. I was 150 miles from home, at night, in the pouring rain. I'm glad the first person that experienced something told us about it. Because I believe that it was the fuse block. Whether you believe or not, I don't care.
#47
A couple of weeks ago wife had the car and called saying she was having problems getting it started. Message on the DIC said service air bag. When she got home I called OnStar to check it out. They said there were three different error code and suggested I take it in. I remebered the thread about loose fuse. I checked and most of them needed to be reseated. The message went away after reseating the fuses.
#48
I guess I'm the kind of guy who would wear a belt AND suspenders; I have not experienced any problems in my short two week ownership. However, I did check the fuses and more than half were not seated.
Did I prevent a problem? Maybe, maybe not. Better to be safe than....
Did I prevent a problem? Maybe, maybe not. Better to be safe than....
#49
A couple of weeks ago wife had the car and called saying she was having problems getting it started. Message on the DIC said service air bag. When she got home I called OnStar to check it out. They said there were three different error code and suggested I take it in. I remebered the thread about loose fuse. I checked and most of them needed to be reseated. The message went away after reseating the fuses.
For all the owners that are claiming these middle-of-the-night scenarios, how about taking your cars into the dealership so that whatever problems can be documented and followed up on by the system? If this is SUCH a widespread problem, surely it serves the public interest to have your vehicles examined?