Hi,
This is my first post and I do blather on, but I'm looking for "permanent" solutions to Chevy HHR suspension issues.
Bought 2007 HHR in 2009 with only about 20,000 km on it.
We really have liked the car and I have to say if I ONLY simply had to do regular standard maintenance on it, it would be hands down the cheapest car to operate I've ever owned - well, except for maybe one Toyota I had, but let's not go there.
The problem is the engineers did their job and the bean counters did everything they could to screw it up it seems.
My biggest issue is with the sway bar links. I've lost count of how many times I've had those replaced. It's at least five and the car now has over 162,000 km on it. I just had them replaced last week and there's already another clunk in the front end.
There's also a set of rubber pucks (control arm bushings?) that have been replaced several times. Finally had an aftermarket company install a set last year and those seem to be holding up, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Brake pulsation. Finally after about three brake jobs, argued with dealership service manager and told him to order higher grade rotors or else. He did. So far, so good.
Steering column rattle. Apparently they have to replace the steering column to fix this. Screw it.
Sun roof. Air dam cheap plastic riser thingy broke in Utah last summer. $400 to $800 to remove entire roof liner to replace with new cheap plastic riser thingy. Screw it. I put on an external spoiler for $75. I don't like it, but at least I can use the sunroof.
Last week had BROKEN REAR COIL SPRINGS replaced. Are you kidding me? I've been driving nearly 40 years and never broken a spring in a car. What the hell?
OK so I figure I can live with most of this if I can keep a lid on the repair bills, which mostly centre on the suspension issues.
Is there a permanent fix for the bushing issues in the front end of this car and can someone tell me what they are and where to find quality parts?
I just don't get it. Billions of dollars of taxpayer money to bail out this company because they're "too big to fail" and they still turn around and keep pulling this kind of crap.
Anyway, sorry for the rant. When this car works right it's really a great car. It just got victimized by bean counters and substandard Chinese subcontractors.
All recommendations welcomed.
Thanks,
Chris

 

You have gone through just about all of the SEARCH terms to put in the box at the top of the page. Lots of people complain about all of those things and many solutions can be found here.

Sounds to me like you drive on the worst roads in the world, or you are hyper-sensitive to noises. That number of replacements seems way too high. My best advice would be to learn how to do the work yourself and source parts yourself.

I must have missed it when Canadian Taxpayers bailed GM out.

If you want help here; don't just *****&moan use the SEARCH BOX and if you come up with something new under the sun post a thread.

 

The Moog sway bar bushings with greasable fittings are a great replacement for that issue. I've replaced the end links with Moog greasable ones also and haven't had any more problems.

As for pulsing issues, I have yet to figure out how to solve it with my '08 HHR LS. I've put on Raybestos Advanced Tech rotors, some of the best around, with Akebono pads which are the GM OEM pads, and still end up with pulsing after 5-6k. I bed them in, try not to make stops after hard breaking, etc., but no matter what I do I end up with pulsing. I've never had this issue with any other car I've owned. I check the lateral runout on the hubs each time, and they spec fine. I even changed caliper brackets and went up to the larger LT rotors and still have pulsing. I'd love to find an answer to this issue as it is very annoying.

 

I bought my 06 Jan. 2013 with 61k mi. Rotors were just resurfaced. 4k mi. later the pulsing started. I do a lot of rural driving. After reading posts on this site,I realized this will be a problem if not fixed. I decided to upgrade the rotors(NAPA premium $72 pc.) with ceramic pads and I still feel the most important thing I did was to correctly adjust the rear brakes. They were woefully out of adjustment. 13k miles later,smooth as can be. You can see a huge difference in the thickness of the premium rotors. Just a guess, I would say 50% thicker. Did I mention the spiffy paint job the rotors come with?

 

I recently changed my hubs and the judder went away.

 

I swapped out to the larger diameter SS non-Brembo rotors and ceramic pads, adjusted the rear drum brakes and no more judder, have the Moog sway bar end links grease every oil change no issues in 4 years of driving, I replaced the LCA bushings myself no further issues, Moog greaseable ball joints no further issues, replaced the coil springs to lower the car, no issues since. 156,000 miles, or 257,000 klms on the HHR now and no further issues, seemed the original parts were just wore out!! Rant excused!!

 

Had to replace both rear springs cause they were broken? Either one is carrying WAY to big a load or needs to stay off the roads up near Ladysmith that are suitable only for 4x4's.

I will add one thing - often parts are replaced thinking they are the problem, when it is actually something else. Case in point swaybar end links vrs. swaybar bushings vrs strut bearings. A lot of suggested "upgrades" here include replacement parts for the end links as previous noted, or the upgraded camshaft actuator solenoids from GM itself.

 

Maybe that is what I should do also. Every time I check the lateral runout though on the hub surface itself, they have been within spec at .001". I may just change them anyway and then have my rotors turned to see if it fixes the problem. I don't know what else could keep causing this. I keep the back brakes adjusted, and still have this relentless pulsing issue. I put new strut assemblies and rear shocks on the car about 4k ago as a maintenance thing before a long trip (120k on the car then), so there is no wear there.

The NAPA ultra premium are Raybestos Advanced Tech rotors - one and the same.

 

With all you have been thru ....

Just a longshot thought and one more thing to eliminate.

Rear Brake Drums within tolerance ???

SF

 

I've thought of that, but each time I have replaced the front rotors (3 or 4 times in 40k), the pulsing goes away for a while. I should probably check the runout on the rear hubs, but I don't think that is where the pulsing is coming from or replacing the front rotors wouldn't get rid of the pulsing temporarily.