Today I went to start my car and it just clicked-dead battery. Tomorrow I will boost it but I am concerned about why it died. Alternator not charging properly, something draining the battery, or just bad luck?

Anybody else have this problem???

 

Have you done any rewiring/stero stuff recently? Sometimes an extra componant can add a constant drain that takes down a battery before it should die.
Modern cars can act a bit erratic in these ways. I can figure out my old Corvairs (usually), but with several microprocessors involved in todays cars, a lot of times only a trip to the Chevy tech and the eventual diagnostic printout will lead to the solution.

I 've had friends short out their cars electronics with jump starts that were by the book OK, but somehow surged the electrical system of thier cars. These were some of them ferin' jobbas, Honda and Nissan if I remember right.
I'd rather come out and find my tire flat. At least then you can figure out the cure

Our only problem, besides the new shifter which has come in and I need to make an appointment for, is the occasional auto start turn off. Otherwise, she's OK.

Oh, as an aside,
We can talk about those rims in a week or so.

Sorry your HHR gave you a lousy Christmas present.
Hopefully it is an obvious problem with a quick solution, like a factory defective battery. I belive I've seen a couple of posts on just that issue over the past year.

Let us know what transpires..........

 

I know I had a weak factory battery. When it was in the shop getting fixed they had to replace it because it was weak, and the next day it was dead.
At least thats what they told me. Did not matter why to me I got a new one for free.
Maybe that is your problem just a weak factory battery

 

HHR is supposed to have something that detects current drain and shuts down the battery after 10 minutes.

After dinner last night, I checked my car again and now everything was totally dead. Before dinner, the lights and horn worked. After dinner, I could not even get my key out of the ignition. So, there is either a constant current drain, or hopefully, it is just a bad battery with an internal short.

I fear returning to the dealer, though. It is obvious that I added stuff-stereo, GPS, horns. Last time I had the problem with my Airbag light staying on, it turned out to be a blown fuse in one of the circuits I had tapped into. They spent a lot of time before they checked the fuse, and I had to pay over $200 bucks which they would not cover since I had 'tampered' with the car.

 

Well, the Chevy service just jumped the car and it started right up. The man said that he sees thi all of the time. It is just the electronics that sometimes goes haywire, and that if I let the car run for 25 minutes I should be fine. No need to go to the dealer. Plus, he said that the factory batteries are not what they used to be, and only last 4 or 5 years.

Now, the bad news. My radio no longer works. More specifically, I replaced the head unit and still am using the factory premium amp. My sub amp plays, just not the factory one. I remember hearing about some sort of antitheft deterrent that locks the radio until a code is entered. Apparantly this also locks the amp. How do I unlock it???

 

One Week After I Got My Hhr The Battery Went Dead.some Thing Was Wired In Before The Anti Run Down Protection,the Heated Seats,and It Drained The Battery While I Was In Work For Nine Hours.i Turned The Seat On When I Got Out Of The Car So When I Remote Started It The Seats Would Warm Up.these Were Dealer Add On Heated Seats So I Think They Wired Them In Wrong.they Gave Me Some B/s About The Cables Not Being Connected Tight Enough.

 

There is a 20 amp fuse for the radio amplifier. I checked and it seemed ok, then I tried the radio again and everything worked fine. Could have been a breaker-the car has them. Anyhow, tomorrow I will bring the car into the dealer to check the battery. But the car ran and started fine so far today.

 

4 or 5 years?? Wow!! If you lived out here in the Summer heat in the Phoenix area you're lucky to get 2 years out of "ANY" battery!!

 

I remembered something that could be significant. The last time I drove the car, I noticed that the status light on the right side of the rear view mirror was red, not the usual green. I just figured that it was a Christmas miracle, since the left light was still green. (Green and red-get it? )

But that could have indicated something was wrong. Now it is back to green. But Christmas is over, so that could be it too.

 

I just got back from Chevy. There is nothing draining any power, but the battery was very low in it's charge. They said that just driving it, especially in the cold, would not sufficiently charge the battery fully so they put it on a charger for several hours and said I should be fine. Everything else checked out ok, and they had no idea why it would die like it did. The OnStar light being red instead of green had nothing to do with it-perhaps OnStar was just temporarily down. I have to call them to see.