HHRNewbie

Okay, gotta say, posts like these just scare me We have an '06 LS, with almost 65K, miles, and just in the past 45 days, we've had to put $1,000 worth of repairs/maintenance into our HHR - and this issue (OP) has me even more concerned! Is anyone else out there, ready to trade on their '06?! It's a shame, I really wanted to love our HHR, but lately I feel like we had NO idea, what we were getting into...~sigh~! I truly believe a recall, of some sense, needs to be done on the '06 LS models. Completely losing faith in GM, which I never thought I would!

IgottaWoody

Since this car is only 4 years old, there are not enough miles collected to weed out ALL the little quirks it may have...sometimes things may not show up for 10 years...since the 06 was the first run, it of course would have the most problems, as the next few year cars would have had all the changes( should would could, depends on GM)not the answer you'd like, b ut thats why alot of people will not buy a first run model untill they see/or the bugs are worked out.

HHRNewbie

I truly wish I had known (sadly it really just didn't occur to me or my husband) that you should try to stay away, from first runs for a car, I think possibly we were just lucky in never having bought, a first run in the past (we had a Ford Escort ZX2 previous to this, can't remember the year, guessing it wasn't a first run, we traded it in when we bought the HHR) ~ lesson learned! We hadn't needed to purchase a new/used car in over 8 years, so really was "out of" the car loop buying process! To be honest, one of THE reasons we had bought "this" car (ie., the actual car itself, not just an HHR in general) was due to it being literally advertised, at the radio station my husband works at ~ the dealership was/is a sponsor at the station~ they assured us they'd "take good care of us" when we came in to buy the car (hey, the one head sales person/manager even knows my husband's boss, lol!) ~at this point, I feel they were obviously just wanting to get rid of this particular car (duh), probably was a rental as well ....again, lesson learned ~ doubt we'll ever purchase from this dealership again however~ we had much better customer service/treatment at other Chevrolet dealerships!

mrmarkuSS

This just happened tonight to mine...

Maybe from now on,a pic can be posted showing exactly where this bracket is? Even though I'm sure I could find it,time is money...just sayin'...

donbrew

Necro request granted.

mrmarkuSS

You da man! I'll be checking this tomorrow!

AZHHR77

This is usually an intermittent problem and letting it sit and clearing the codes will help for awhile, but they can eventually get a lot worse.


I am not trying to say any other post is wrong, I am only writing this to save everyone else the problems I had. I have read 300+ posts and almost no one had the answer. Even now, I had trouble finding the exact solution even though I knew the answer. I have two HHRs, both had a Reduced Power Message displayed. Sometimes there was no code and other times it had different codes. Most posts indicate a problem with the Throttle Actuator Control (TAC), the TPS sensor, or TPS pedal switch, which doesn’t solve anything. The Reduced Power Message points to too many other components (which I checked numerous times) when really it has to do with the 5-volt reference wire (that feeds 6 other sensors) causing a misdiagnosis. The REAL PROBLEM lies in the pass-through connector for the fuel pump, located under the vehicle and in front of the left rear tire. I would have never imagined or found it without another mechanic’s help. One or more pins in the connector has some corrosion causing a bad/intermittent connection. Mine was caused by a leaking ice chest and/or a wet blanket behind the rear seat. The connector isn’t watertight on the inside of the vehicle, so the moisture enters from the backside. As soon as I unplugged it from under the vehicle, I found water inside it from months earlier. All I did was clean out both ends of the connector and it has been perfect for over a year. Since the issue is usually intermittent, making a bogus repair to anything may look like a fix, but it’s not. If you have a Reduced Power Message, please at least see pics. Also, this repair is easy and costs nothing. Hopefully I don’t get in trouble for posting the same solution on several other posts, as it needs to be made known.

Cort

Hey everybody I’m new here I have this old 2010 Chevy HHR2.2 4 cylinder and it had a problem with reduced engine power and service traction and service VSC so I found that the fix of this was not the wheel bearings as suggested or the pulling of a fuse but I took off my intake manifold and I cleared out all of the carbon from the ports as well as the carbon surround in the injectors and put everything back together with a new intake manifold gasket and new throttlebody gasket which came together in a kit and the problem went away and has not returned try it out and let me know also someone had suggested that it was my spark plugs so I changed all of those out and the problem returned I also changed out the wheel bearings and that did not hear the fix either

greg8453

Might help to know what your codes were. You had engine problems that made it go into limp mode. You can have tranny and ABS problems do the same.

Cort

Sure can but I didn’t have any tranny code I didn’t have any ABS codes either so I can say that this was more like a no code situation an intermittent issue because of the carbon buildup sometimes you can have a problem that doesn’t throw a code but I appreciate it because the problem is fixed and it’s been fixed for couple months now and it hasn’t came back if you have this problem try it and maybe it’ll help you too. By the way, It’s free you didn’t have to buy any parts and the carbon needs to be cleaned anyways oh and don’t forget to clean your throttlebody carbon of course but like I said the main issue was carbon buildup around the injector port and on the intake manifold ports.