I got me an HHR..!
07-10-2010, 09:54 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: 07-09-2010
Location: SE New Mexico
Posts: 2
I got me an HHR..!
Greetings to all,,, I am brand new to this forum and We recently bought a 2006 HHR in excellent condition with 30.233 miles and the back seat has never met anybody's posterior,,!! My wife and just love the ride quality and especially the 32 MPG on the highway. EXCEPT,,,, yesterday, we could not get the key out of the ignition. Tried reverse to park and jiggling the key lots of times and no go. We finally went back home and i did a google and was fortunate to find some ideas on removing the small plastic square under the steering column and push a button and Ureka,,,the key just slid out. Is this button GM's idea of a fix to a seemingly inherrent problem??? Other cars of this class seem to share this problem according to the internet. Anyway,,,,I figured that either there is a switch at the shifter or a solenoid at the steering column that is bad or both. I tried the floorshift first as I am hesitant to try to remove the steering wheel with the airbag inside it. After several pushes pulls and a few cusswords,, I finally removed enough snap panels and found a limit switch that is "supposed" to be activated by a metal pin that trips the switch when the gearshift goes into Park. I say "supposed" to as the pin was not coming up far enough to trip the arm on the switch and send a signal to the solenoid at the steering column and allow the key to be removed. I could activate the switch with a long screwdriver but never could get the pin at Park position to come up enough to push the switch arm and trip the switch. I could not figure out how to remove the floor shift assembly to see why the Park Pin wasn't coming up far enough. I could use some long needle nose pliers and manually pull this pin high enough and it would trip the switch, but it would fall back soon as i let it go.
Since I was running out of sunlight, time and patience, I decided to southern engineer the metal arm on the limit switch as I could not get to the shifter pin area and fix the real problem. I removed the switch and promptly broke one of the clip ears (sheesh) and after several tries, I got the arm bent to where the shifter pin would trip it. I re-assembled everything and the thing works like new.
Has anybody here dis-mantled the floor shift assembly to gain access to this pin? I really want to fix this the right way and also replace the cobbled up switch. Sorry about the long winded dis-a-tation but can anybody tell I like to talk,,?? Thanks for any input Joe r
Since I was running out of sunlight, time and patience, I decided to southern engineer the metal arm on the limit switch as I could not get to the shifter pin area and fix the real problem. I removed the switch and promptly broke one of the clip ears (sheesh) and after several tries, I got the arm bent to where the shifter pin would trip it. I re-assembled everything and the thing works like new.
Has anybody here dis-mantled the floor shift assembly to gain access to this pin? I really want to fix this the right way and also replace the cobbled up switch. Sorry about the long winded dis-a-tation but can anybody tell I like to talk,,?? Thanks for any input Joe r
07-10-2010, 10:10 PM
#3
Senior Member
Join Date: 10-19-2005
Location: Miami
Posts: 20,687
Plenty of threads here on the subject. Here is a post from one of them.......
Same problem..cant remove the key...I found this pin fell out of shifter area (pix 3). not sure from where..yet.
first picture is of the interlock switch. I temp. closed the switch, the key came out...
going to try to find where that pin goes, if you know post please!
(edit) well I found where that pin goes. I removed the shift assy (4 nuts). From the driver side if you look at the side of the shifter assy. following the shifter down you will see a hole with white plastic showing, when you squeeze the trigger on the shifter that white plastic moves up and the hole will be visible. Slide the pin through the hole. used some epoxy. will see how long that holds.
got this picture from another location. its the hole circled in picture.
07-11-2010, 09:11 AM
#5
Thread Starter
Join Date: 07-09-2010
Location: SE New Mexico
Posts: 2
Hey,,Thanks for the welcome @ngelita. soon as i figure out how to do so I will post pics of the HHr. Dumb ? but, what does HHR stand for?
Does "wrusprod" still hang around this site? I'd like to ask him some Q's on his post about the stuck key problemo.
Hmmm,,, I used to have a Brother that was nicknamed "sleeper" Thanks for your welcome. Joe r
Does "wrusprod" still hang around this site? I'd like to ask him some Q's on his post about the stuck key problemo.
Hmmm,,, I used to have a Brother that was nicknamed "sleeper" Thanks for your welcome. Joe r
