My car was working fine yesterday, but today when I tried turning it on, it wouldn't crank. It was perfectly fine yesterday, just not today. The DIC says power steering, low fuel, and coolant : - 40. All the accessories work fine, the battery is okay (we even tried replacing the battery), the 50A fuse on the battery cable is also good, AC blower runs, the radio works. The theft deterrent symbol isn't blinking either (so the key isnt at fault). I tried starting it in neutral, but no response.
Each time I turn to crank it, the tachometer loses power and nothing is displayed until I let go and the key is back in the acc position. No clicks from the starter, headlamps work fine. We had an electrician come over and he couldn't find anything wrong with the fuses or the relays, what else should we have checked?

 

Have the ignition related recalls been performed?

 

Aren't you the person who posted up about a new "transponder key" ? Then when you showed a picture of that key, we told you it was the wrong type key for a HHR.
You didn't respond back to that thread to tell what you did about getting a correct key.
Going to be hard to tell you what to look for if we don't know what alterations(key ??) you've done to your car.

 

Allen P , have you inspected and made sure all the fuses and relays are seated tightly in both fuse panels? Have you inspected and ensured the under hood fuse block halves are firmly placed together and the fasteners are tightened secure?
you mentioned the battery is good? So what is the static voltage reading and the load voltage reading? What is the CCA reading? Did you have it load tested? Or just a VOM reading.
seems to me the symptoms of a dead cell in you battery, or a problem with your alternator.

 

Yes, so sorry for not getting back about the key. turns out the key wasn't compatible (just like you said) so I was lucky enough to get 80% of the money back. Haven't tried anything with it, it's been lying around.

As for the ignition recall, no it hasn't been done. The car came here a long time ago, and it still uses the old key.

So yesterday, a guy came over and found out that apparently the ecm/tcm fuse in the passenger fuse box was bad. But I think he wanted to make the problem look bigger than it is and he proceeded to tell me that since the fuse was bad, the ignition switch (the black box with a white turning thing) had to now be "programmed". He did take it, and I think he just hung around and came back with it as it was. He fixed it back, but now the computer doesn't seem to be communicating with the car. The car starts fine, but it doesn't look like its running on the computer (the power steering doesn't work-says POWER STEERING on the DIC and the steering feels hard, the 4500 rpm limit no longer exists, switching from park to reverse/drive seems like a big jerk downward, the car sounds different-more like a truck, the car doesn't turn off when you turn the key- you have to turn the key back on a second time and turn it back off for the engine to shut off, CEL light illuminated, my Bluetooth scanner can't connect to the cars ecm).

I'm hoping nothing happened to the ecm, as the guy told me it mightve gotten erased and now needs to be programmed. Is there hope that it might still be an electrical problem?

 

There is always hope! Try a battery lobotomy. Disconnect the negative cable at the battery, for a full 30 minutes. That should reboot the ECM

 

The scanner says lost communication with tcm...
I checked the ecm/tcm fuse again in the passenger fuse box

 

It could be a damaged ground wire at the TCM

 

ECM=engine
TCM=transmission
So. You're saying no comm with the TCM but you still have connection with the ECM ?

 

TCM is not responding, Captain