Interesting info about the battery being in back. I had the same thing with my BMW 325i and it saved me one time I left the parking lights on all night with my car garaged. I just needed somebody to pull up behind me and jump it. Otherwise I would have had to push the car out of the garage.

When I bought my HHR the battery was dead and they jump started it the way the manual says with the postitive terminal end and the strut negative ground. Didn't have any blown fuses from it. Maybe they fixed it in the 09 models?

Fred

 

Thanks to all of the posts regarding the key stuck in the HHR ignition, I created a twenty-some page document in preparation for my husband to call our dealership to request under-warranty replacement of the shifter on our 2006 HHR. The key started sticking in the ignition last Thursday night. My husband called our service department this morning and was ready to fight for warranty coverage (our HHR is six months out of warranty coverage and recently passed 40K miles). He was told immediately: "We can fix it under the warranty."

While reading through all the posts, I also ran across some references to the radio pop problem, which we have had happening for at least two years (when my husband mentioned at several previous service visits that the radio had a problem, they looked at him like he was crazy and, of course, the problem could not be replicated while the HHR was at the shop). While my husband was on the phone this morning with the service department, he asked them about the radio pop problem, and mentioned that we had tried to get it fixed several times. The service rep's response was that they would fix that problem under warranty as well.

Soooo...the HHR is at the shop for the night and is supposed to be ready by COB tomorrow. We are hopeful that both problems will be corrected for good! Thanks for all of the good information. It is greatly appreciated! :twothumbs

 

[B]Oh were do I begin here ?? I've had both problems, key will not turn to start the HHR, Key will not come out of inj switch ?/

ChevyMgr let me in on his secret of spraying a little WD 40 in the key switch, that took care of the first problen.
Then about 6 weeks ago I could not get the key to come out. So after reading everyone's post I stopped at the dealer to see what if any warranty I could get, ( 60,000 miles and still have 45 days left) but I was told flat out I need to pay.
So I got the shifter part number from parts dept. and went shopping? I was bidding on a shifter on Ebay till I found out it was a new orginal part number with no updates made to it. Then I find another one on Ebay, auction started out at $.99. My first bid was just $20, then as the end came near I decided to up that to $60. But when the auction came to a close I had it for a mere $15.50 + shipping of $14.00
I still don't beleive I got it so cheap ?? Oh, did I mention the second one was built in 08 / 08 so it had both the updates. After I had it in my hot little hands I went about finding out just what it would take to R&R it myself, again to save the labor cost.
All in all it only took me an hour to swap them out. Only problem I had was getting the 4 stud's to stay up so I could get the nut's back on. I had 4 "O" rings in the draw that I put over them at the bottom to hold them in place. Just dropped the new shifter in and installed the nuts again, hooked up the shift cable and pluged the wires back in the plug. And away we went.
What I found wrong with the origanal shifter was the steel pin that goes thru the shifter shaft was lose and to the left side and away from the micro switch causing the switch not to move up & down to release the key.
Any question Please feel free to contact me direct./B]

 

wrusprod, thanks for the photos and description. Mine locked up yesterday. It was stuck and all I did was moved it. Its seems OK now, but I suspect that's not the last time it will happen. BTW, there are some small access holes on the side of the mount plate to put a small screwdriver through to hold up the bolts so you can thread and tighten them.

 

Does anyone know how to remove the shifter? Particular how to get the covering off? It detached easily at the rear of the shifter but seems to be attached quite well by the window switches.

 

Take out the rubber insert from the coin holder. IIRC, there are two screws under it that need to be removed.