Jeff'sHHR

Hello!! New guy here..Yesterday when I was at work. My wife was at a friends house when she got out of the car she noticed the sunroof open. She turned the kety on to close it and left it on for about 2 hours or so.. My friends got the owners maual out and followed the instructions to jump the HHR.The battery was totally dead it just clicked and nothing else..So they put it on a battery charger ..When i got there it was charged I removed the charger and fired it up.. I parked it. A couple hours later when we were driving home I noticed I had no power steering .It drove OK but the wheel was real heavy,no electircal assist.It maybe the steering fuse I am going to check that first,,Just looking for any feed back from the collective experince on the forums..Thanks for reading this! And any info is good info .. Jeff

Jeff'sHHR

Hello!! I found a blown fuse.. Under the hood position number one..A yellow 60 going to the auto parts store to pick some new ones!! Hope that fixes it!! ..Jeff

HillsdaleHHR

Yup But you may have caused the fuse to blow by improperly jumping the battery. Where did you jump it from?

Be sure to place the Positive cable on the red terminal on the underhood fusebox, and place the Negative cable on one of the driver’s side strut bolts.

prod

Yeah this is common after jumpstarting. Are you sure the instructions from the manual were followed exactly? You need to attach cables positive to the red terminal and negative to the strut tower bolt. If you attach negative to the terminal beside the positive (it looks like a negative battery terminal), it will blow the power steering fuse.

c2vette

After having to re-program and replace fuses on several HHRs that were jump-started EXACTLY as illustrated in the owner's manual, my Service Technician says the only proper way to do it is right at the battery terminals. Which, even if you don't have luggage in the back means a real hassle using the incredibly difficult to operate manual release from inside the car.

Jeff'sHHR

Well they may have used the negative post at first I"m not sure.. But when I got there the charger was connected to the postive post under the hood and the negative was connected to the strut tower bolt..Advance Auto didn't have the tall yellow 60 amp fuse but they did have a low profile yellow 60 amp fuse.. I put it it works untill I can get the tall fuse from the dealer or maybe NAPA.. So for now it is working..Thanks for the replies...Jeff

Sno White

Your Service Technician is being overly cautious against jumping in the engine compartment. If done correctly(directions followed) there should be no problem; in fact the manner documented can actually supply more power to start the vehicle. The problems occur when in the confusion of not knowing how to properly jump the vehicle, which I admit is a bit strange. Luckily it was pointed out to me upon my first examination of the vehicle - had it not I would do it wrong too. I would personally like some place on the engine to put the negative cable instead of the strut.

The second problem with opening the hatch without power can be rectified by either of the two solutions found at this thread:
https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/how-tutorial-library-21/how-liftgate-emergency-switch-22192/

c2vette

I hear what you are saying, but I followed the instructions exactly as illustrated in the manual, and it took 3 hours of re-programming and troubleshooting to get my TPS and remote lock working again. I even went to the trouble of disconnecting all aftermarket 12v connections prior to jump. I was also the 3rd HHR at the dealer with identical failures, so it was not something unique about my car. All covered under warranty BTW.

Sno White

Must be that salt air on the coast! Foothills don't have that problem. I do refrain from jumping other vehicles though.

Could there be a misprint in the 08 SS manual as to the procedure?

You say the Remote Door Lock and the Tire Pressure Monitors were the only things not working? They are both serviced by the same module and the power is sourced from the BCM, not the under hood fuse box. Very strange.

c2vette

Well, here's the description. Once he fixed mine, he was able to fix the other HHR fairly quickly, after sending him home previously, and has since fixed another.