hello fellow hhr enthusiasts :-)

my 2006 HHR was running a bit rough, did not sound good at all when my girlfriend pulled up in it. so i thought i would start out checking the oil, looked fine. i had changed it like 3 months ago, so i figured it would be fine.

then i checked the air intake hose. it was dry rotted and falling apart. i removed that and metal taped it up ( i do hvac, so i had the metal tape ) and then i figured i would check inside to see if anything weird had gotten sucked in. saw nothing, the MAF sensor looked clean and shiny.

i unscrewed the screws that hold the air filter and checked that, looked dirty. so i decided i needed to go buy that. i went, bought an air filter, installed it, put the air intake hose back on and screwed it down, put that rubber air elbow back on, and went to start the car.

it wont start. i checked some relays, may have put them back in reversed, but cant find any sort of chart that would show which direction 4 pole relays go in ( or if it matters with the hhr ).

checked the battery, voltage seems fine. 12.56 i think it was.

when starting it attempts something, but does not seem to be doing every thign needed to start.

i was hoping maybe i did something easy like reversed relays not bringing on ignition but i dunno.

oh, forgetting something. there was a check engine light in the beginning but i did not have a code reader at that time. i have sicne bought one, but it says no codes are present.

i did have the negative battery terminal off overnight as i was concerned if i may have caused any sort of weird issue.

any ideas?

my car has been sitting i guess a week now, so i really hope anyone knows what is wrong.

thank you in advance for any help

 

here is another video, this one is before the other one. but i guess that shouldnt matter.

 

The little rubber elbow you spoke of......

did you plug it in correctly? It only operates correctly if plugged in correctly. Possibly reversed??????

Oops....should say the electrical connection to the rubber elbow.

 

Sorry but I had to edit the videos from your posts, the comments on them were in violation of our site's rules concerning obscene language. If you can just post the videos with no comments showing, thst would be fine.

Based on a quick read through, check #14 on this diagram which is the MAF(Mass Airflow Sensor), to make sure it's plugged in and not damaged. Unfortunately, unhooking the Negative battery cable cleared any stored codes, robbing you of vital information.

And since the videos would not play on my i-Pad, can I ask why you pulled relays?

 

Welcome to the site

Ok I'm guessing here but it sounds like there isn't a lot of compression when your cranking it.

You stated that it did not sound good before you shut it off. Did it make rattling noises. If so the timing chain may have jumped when you shut it off.

Easy way to check this is to do a compression test of the Cylinders.

I assume that you have check for fuel and spark already.

There may have been a code that may have pointed us in the right direction but disconnecting the battery cleared that.

 

Good point on the compression test Lucky, you get a gold star for the day!

It might have blown a head gasket, cracked its head, or even "jumped time" depending on the mileage on the engine and the maintenance it has received.

 

Check fuse #33 under the hood. It controls the MAF and the O2 sensor heaters among other things.

I had something similar happen when an O2 sensor wire shorted out.

 

how old is the battery? the voltage seems to low for starting.
check your ground wires for clean and tight and no burnt wires.
the timing chain may have skipped a link, I'd remove the valve cover to confirm that.

 

Thanks for all the inputs guys.

Yes, maf only plugs in one way so yeah, pretty sure i have that correct.

I pulled the relay because of adhd, i touched one amd it wasnt seated so then i started checking them all pushing them in because, well, anxiety, haha.

A couple friends have said the same thing about ground issues or battery. I work alot at this point, hopefully will have a brething day in a week or so to check it out more.

I will keep things posted if i solve the issue, try to contribute back

 

So my girlfriend had me take the HHR in to the dealer since I don't have time to work on it. I mentioned the recall on the ignition and they told me the recalls are all over, oh and they are charging me a $255 diagnostic at the moment.

Didn't i see a Chevy customer service rep comment before? I really can't get that ignition issue fixed anymore? What if I die, I thought this thing was dangerous