Hi, I'm about to donate my 2006 HHR to charity at this point. Has an electrical problem that I've spent thousands to fix...last $2k was at Paul's Electric in Vegas, a specialist for car electrical problems. The guys here suggested getting it to an electrical specialist. It worked for 2 weeks.

When I got the nerve to try again to salvage my HHR, a mechanic told me there was a solenoid or something 'whirring' somewhere under the dashboard when the car was off. It would cost at least $1600 to take the dash apart and investigate.

Someone here or elsewhere said to buy a cheap Harbor Freight scanner and scan the car to find out for myself what may be wrong. I thought the $2k electrical guys already did that, but what have I got to lose.

Can a scanner work to diagnose certain issues if my car doesn't even turn on? So--does my HHR have to have battery power for a scanner to work? Because if I have to spend $300 to have a battery replaced to check to see what's wrong, I will. But that is the last dollar I'll do, and I'll ONLY do if if a scanner can actually tell me what's wrong.

By the way, thankyou for all your help over the years!

 

A cheap scanner will only work if there’s battery power the energize the car’s computer. You will only see any codes from the MIL. Seems to me you got ripped off at the shops you have been to.

 

$300 for a battery ?

 

Yep, what mobile mechanic charges to replace one.

 

Thankyou. I'm an RN and basically know little about cars. Only hoped that whatever I drove to the hospital would start. Want to get the HHR back to being a relatively dependable mode of transportation. If not, it goes to a veteran along with probably the only existing roof window motor I bought for it a while back. I can't let it go without a bit of a fight still. And $300 for a battery? Yah. If I can't jump it. And it's what a mobile mechanic charges. But that's okay, as it's my last ditch effort here. If I do get a scanner going and kicking out some 'codes' I'll decipher them and hope to discover any issues. If the code or codes equate to an issue or issues that are terribly expensive to fix, I'm afraid I'll have to give the car away. And since I've trusted the scanning of mechanics and whatever they've found really didn't fix the car, yeah, gonna do my own scanning. Happy Halloween, and thanks for the help and advice you guys gave me over the years.

 

Post the codes here, we can decipher them for you, most codes don’t mean what they say in their title.

as a suggestion to find the electrical gremlins , you can tighten the four bolts in the under hood fuse box, pretty easy with a 7mm socket and a 1/4 inch drive ratchet. It’s usually the root problem along with a dead battery
You can change the battery with a 10 mm socket, same ratchet and a 13 mm box wrench for the hold down bolt.

 

If the battery is Dead, won't the codes have been erased? Disconnecting the battery erases the codes.

 

That’s true

 

Thanks a bunch, will do!

 

Thanks very, very much!! Will do that!!