is there a post that has a pic of the battery? i know the jump terminals are under the hood.

 

Not completely stock, but factory location of oem.

 

Well I have had problem after problem with my Chevy HHR! its an 06 and first the lights on the entire vehicle flickered on and off & the cig outlet in the front doesn't work. Then came the rattling under the front of the car, then came the pop noise in the radio. Then came the smell coming from the A/C duct (a sweet annoying smell, if that makes any sense)! Took to Chevy dealer, and was told that all I was basically crazy! I gave them a lot longer list than what Ive so far listed here, lol. Well after servicing my car for 4 days, I was called with the delightful info that there were several bulletins on most of the "things wronge" list & that it had all been fixed. Smell is still here when A/C is on & rattling comes & goes. Lights around radio & A/C knobs still flicker now & again . Well weeks later, the power steering light warning is coming on & power steering going out (maybe once every week or so), if I shut car off & re-start, lights go off & steering is back, wah-lah! Then came the quick sudden shut off, if I got down the road to find that my tall husband didn't put the steering wheel back in place & I move the steering wheel gently back down, the car completely shuts down on me & locks up. Starts back up with no problemo. I've learned to check that before I head out. Iv'e been in some VERY close calls with this shut off, & power steering issue! With an 8 year old child, I do not feel safe driving this thing, but its my only ride, were not milllionars!!! Well we go to Six Flags over At;lanta a 2 hour drive and all is fine. Im proud of my lil orange HHR! Well this AM I get in to head to the store, and theres NO power whatsover. Key gets stuck, cant open hatch to get to battery, look under hood to find the "Jumping spot", but no power coming threw it. I get fed up and my dad n law pulls his van up to my rear pass. door and we pull the jumper cables threw to jump it. WAH-LAH... POWER! Well I go to drive it to get the juices flowing and no friggin PS! Power steering warning isn't on, the darned PS is still out! There is a MAJOR problem with HHR's and their issues. I am begining to think I was sold a lemon. After several NET research, I have learned a whole lot about HHR owners that have had same problems. I am told now that Chevy has fixed everything and that the things I am talking about can NOT be. They have never heard of this situation going on, and that they have checked everything out and my car is fine. Well its not! The mileage warrenty is about up, so Im guessing thats whats up with that . I have the same guy looking at my HHR at Chevy and the 4 times I have brought it in , in the past 6 months, he tells me its the battery! It was a brand new battery (as we were told) when we bought it Oct 2011. Theres no way right? Very misunderstood about my HHR! But I am almost sure that its not because it was charged the wrong way. Im going to head to Advanced Auto Parts in about 20 minutes because they use HHR's as most companys do. I will ask them about all my problems and see if they have any insight or helpfull 411 for me. BTW.. why is there no sad icons for message box, thats not fair! lol... Okay I see one below in post icons

 

Well I have had problem after problem with my Chevy HHR! its an 06 and first the lights on the entire vehicle flickered on and off & the cig outlet in the front doesn't work. Then came the rattling under the front of the car, then came the pop noise in the radio. Then came the smell coming from the A/C duct (a sweet annoying smell, if that makes any sense)! Took to Chevy dealer, and was told that all I was basically crazy! I gave them a lot longer list than what Ive so far listed here, lol. Well after servicing my car for 4 days, I was called with the delightful info that there were several bulletins on most of the "things wronge" list & that it had all been fixed. Smell is still here when A/C is on & rattling comes & goes. Lights around radio & A/C knobs still flicker now & again . Well weeks later, the power steering light warning is coming on & power steering going out (maybe once every week or so), if I shut car off & re-start, lights go off & steering is back, wah-lah! Then came the quick sudden shut off, if I got down the road to find that my tall husband didn't put the steering wheel back in place & I move the steering wheel gently back down, the car completely shuts down on me & locks up. Starts back up with no problemo. I've learned to check that before I head out. Iv'e been in some VERY close calls with this shut off, & power steering issue! With an 8 year old child, I do not feel safe driving this thing, but its my only ride, were not milllionars!!! Well we go to Six Flags over At;lanta a 2 hour drive and all is fine. Im proud of my lil orange HHR! Well this AM I get in to head to the store, and theres NO power whatsover. Key gets stuck, cant open hatch to get to battery, look under hood to find the "Jumping spot", but no power coming threw it. I get fed up and my dad n law pulls his van up to my rear pass. door and we pull the jumper cables threw to jump it. WAH-LAH... POWER! Well I go to drive it to get the juices flowing and no friggin PS! Power steering warning isn't on, the darned PS is still out! There is a MAJOR problem with HHR's and their issues. I am begining to think I was sold a lemon. After several NET research, I have learned a whole lot about HHR owners that have had same problems. I am told now that Chevy has fixed everything and that the things I am talking about can NOT be. They have never heard of this situation going on, and that they have checked everything out and my car is fine. Well its not! The mileage warrenty is about up, so Im guessing thats whats up with that . I have the same guy looking at my HHR at Chevy and the 4 times I have brought it in , in the past 6 months, he tells me its the battery! It was a brand new battery (as we were told) when we bought it Oct 2011. Theres no way right? Very misunderstood about my HHR! But I am almost sure that its not because it was charged the wrong way. Im going to head to Advanced Auto Parts in about 20 minutes because they use HHR's as most companys do. I will ask them about all my problems and see if they have any insight or helpfull 411 for me. BTW.. why is there no sad icons for message box, thats not fair! lol... Okay I see one below in post icons .... Oh it read my dots n parenth and made its own sad faces cool!

 

TheBhamBrophyFam,
If you happened to read the beginning of this thread or your Owner Manual or the labels under the hood for the points to attach your jumper cables, most of your flame would be moot. Get the guys at Advance to show you the labels under the hood, then replace the PS fuse that you blew when you hooked the negative jumper cable to the "black post" on the under hood fuse box instead of to the clearly marked spot on the driver side strut tower. And then consider that you have a 5 year old used car, not a brand new car.

I frankly could not read such a long involved, disjointed flame. I am just commenting on what I could understand of it. Yes, many HHR owners have the problem, but there is a section in the Owner Manual that addresses jump starting, you just have to care enough to read it. If one did not come in your used car you should have asked the dealer to give you one, or looked online.

Sorry, I got bored.

 

BINGO! RTFM!

And make your posts Readable! Looks like one long run on sentence.

The "Cig outlet" in front, isn't necessarily a Cig Outlet, unless yours was Ordered with the Smokers Package? That was an Option.

Came with a lidded cup ashtray and a cig lighter, I think the socket had to be changed with that optional kit.

Otherwise that "cig outlet" is just for plugging in accessories like a GPS or phone charger. Sucks that cars no longer come with a built in Dash Ashtray and a working Cig Lighter I have had cars with as many as 5 ashtrays and a lighter at each, but they don't nowadays.

All the "politically correct" government BS sucks, about smokers.
Keep a BIC Lighter in the car. Or go buy the "Smokers Package" and have it installed or do it yourself, the Kit is about $25.00 bucks, I just saw one on ebay for 21.00.

You have a 6 year old car, not sure when you bought it, but it is at least 6 years old Now.

The '06 is also the First Model year of the HHR, so yeah usually bugs get fixed as they become known issues in later model years, happens with All car makers.

Steering columm had issues, have it Serviced, your long out of warranty, but if you handle the situation Calmly at the Dealer, you may get Lucky and they replace it.

Power Steering had issues that were recalled in Canada, but Not the USofA, Sucks, but thats the way it is.
The Power Steering is actually an electric assist, and is located under the dash by the steering colunm if I remember that correctly.

IF you bought the car Used, then a previous owner could have installed an aftermarket radio, then when they got rid of the car, put the OEM Radio back in, and may have done shoddy wiring, or left a loose connection or a bad ground wire.
Have it Checked.

You CAN get the rear hatch open with a dead battery, again, RTFM.

If your cars was missing, GET ONE. Dealer, Ebay, Simple Fix.

Battery is in the back, jump start it under the hood, but then, you need to Read the manual to do it Properly.
You can or you may blow the power steering fuse and maybe others if not done right.
As on the first page on this Thread READ THIS LINK> https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/show...power+steering

You bought it as a Used car, most of your "issues" are easily Fixed. Just search here, ask questions, most Will help you figure it out here.

Maybe previous owners just let one issue go, without fixing it and they then start to pile on as a car ages, I know when I trade a car in, it's not Perfect, or i'd still be driving them. lol

Take ONE problem at a time here and most are simple known fixes.

With a little help, Soon you can have your '06 HHR, Solid as a Rock.

Oh, if you can afford to go to Six Flags, you can afford to Fix your HHR before going there again.

 

Amen A&P!

Thanks for plowing through that post, I gave up after two attempts, sentence structure and composition do matter when you're trying to ask for help/vent/complain/question/etc.

 

LOL - American & Proud - you hit it right on man!!! And I bit my tongue and deleted my reply several times earlier today after trying to read that "worst post that I have EVER seen" - OMG - was it even in English?

Last time I suggested someone use some sort of punctuation, proper sentence structure etc. to make the posts a little easier to read I got slammed on by the OP - I didn't think it was possible, but this one is even worse. :-)

Is it a full moon?

 

OH NO, not a bunch of English teachers!!! Lol! I was pretty mad about my HHR, wasn't too darned concerned with making sure I was typing perfectly!! Went to Advanced Auto Parts today because they use HHR's. I explained to the guy who read my battery (which exceeded required standards btw) what I did. I tried to jump the battery from the front (which didn't work), so I crawled through the back connected cables, jumped it & it started! Now get this,I was told ny Dealer, AAP & my Mechanic that I did it right, it wasn't my fault!! I didn't blow a thing, so I am not sure what your talking about. There was a bulletin notice sent out that informed HHR & Saturn ION owners in Canada that their has been problems with the Electric Power steering going out in both ION's & HHR's built between the years 2006-2010. So GM will be covering their repairs to the Electric Power Steering at no expense to HHR or ION owners (safety reasons). Well I was disappointed to learn that this was ONLY for Canadian residents! Why not US? Can anyone answer that? Well, before learning this 411 & a whole lot more, I spent a good bit of the day on the phone with; my car repair guy, the dealership, GM & lastly the 800 # 4 the Chevy folks.
Not very fun being told....... By Chevy 800 peeps, "Humm, I am not sure what is wrong with your HHR, there are no recalls on it, bring it to dealership & pay out of pocket for a diagnostic test, Can I make you an appointment for today"....... By repair guy, "Oh no Crystal, you traded in a perfectly good 04 Dodge Ram Hemi 2500 Xtend Quad Cab for a friggin P.O.S HHR just for better gas mileage, Damn girl, Well, you can try disconnecting the battery cables & resetting the system"...... By dealership, "Oh, when you have to jump your battery, it knocks PWR STR out & you have to replace the battery, it's going to cost you $170 cause it isn't covered on your BMPR 2 BMPR Warranty, Wanna bring it in today"....... By GM, "No Mam, if your battery tested fine and the keys were not turned while jumping battery, then you should not have to buy a new battery in order to regain your power steering, give me your contact info and I will get back with you on helpful info".
Sorry for all the run on sentences in my "quotes of people"!
I wanna try & disconnect the battery cables, like my faithful repair guy said, BUT, I do NOT want to take the chance of something else messing up. Electric Power Steering sucks! Now, go ahead and waste time correcting my spelling, sentence structure or what have you. God help me, I though this was an HHR owners feedback forum where you can discuss the problems your having with other HHR owners. Yah know get advice, tips or tricks to fix. But, I guess this is an English correction forum where people slander your typing skills for being in a pissed off mood and typing while angry, because your $12,000 car is giving you problem after problem. My bad for trying to turn to a "HELP" website to get some insight on my problems. Any kind of HHR help or feedback would be great people. Not criticism on what you think I did wrong to my car or how my post appears. Thanks

 

Honest, we're not a bunch of English teachers here, well maybe there are a couple...but I'm a lawyer so that lets me off the hook.

Now to your issues....

The steering recall was a Canadian deal, nothing we can do about that I'm afraid, and its been beaten into the ground here...trust me. What happened was that enough GM owners complained to Transport Canada, and that government agency up there had enough pull or weight behind it to get GM of Canada to do the recall. Here in the U.S. things like that are handled by NHTSA and they've received very few complaints, so no recall, now or ever.

OK, so your battery seems fine as you've been told, that's good because they aren't cheap. But when jump starting, you do run the risk of blowing a fuse that's designed to protect the steering motor, its in position #1 in the underhood fuse box. Check that out to make sure its not blown or loose. HHR's will vibrate the fuses and relays in the underhood fuse box loose, so make sure they're all seated by pushing down on them.

As to your mechanics comments, not everyone likes Chevys and lets leave it at that.

For a diagnostic check at no cost, have your auto parts store pull the code/codes that may be stored in your HHR. When you get them, post them up here and we'll try to help you figure out what's going on. You have the minds and experience of an amazing bunch of people here, take advantage of that.

Now let me you to the forum and I hope that you understand our initial criticism in the light that it was meant. Personally I do everything I can here to help people, but you need to let your frustration level drop before posting so we can pick out the salient points and give you the answers you seek.