thanks snoopy. The dealership said the same thing. I told him about this forum and that others have had the same issue. He said he would look into it but as of today he had not heard of this? I will let you know if they find anything. It goes in next wk on tues.

 

Dealership could not find a problem with the car. There's obviously an issue with the car, scary. He also said my car's fuel pump would not have shut itself off as it doesn't have that option. Hopefully it doesn't happen again.

 

This is very strange, I always thought the on-board computer stored errors/problems, so they could be diagnosed.
Maybe just another story no one can verify, like the so-called satellite technology, so powerful you can read a newspaper from 200mi. up, but they can`t find a 6ft. tall guy dragging an oxygen tank...

 

oh black beauty, how I laughed at your post. You couldn't have said it better!!

 

It happened again. We went to Ky this past weekend and hit a bump doing 70 and sure enough the car shut off. It quickly restarted in neutral and my husband said he didn't care what the dealership said it has a shut off in the fuel injectors. He said this is exactly how its supposed to work and the fact it does restart with NO problem says otherwise. So why don't they know this??

 

I've never had this happen to mine. My HHR works as it should.

For this I would not piss around with the dealer if they can not diagnose the problem. I would write GM directly and whatever agency in your state is responsible for transportation safety. It does not seem to arise much so is likely isolated, but safety reports are what help spawn recalls. Who knows.

 

Last week wife was driving home from work...and bam engine shutoff. It happened in a really bad spot too...thankfully she is fine. It was just normal driving, no bumps, nothing out of the ordinary. In our case, we are done with this car. I've had the rotors turned three times in 22,000 miles. I've had the windows stick anytime it's cold out. Snow crams the wheels and vibrates the car like crazy. The hood dents if you lean on it...barely. Tires are bald already (not hhr's fault though). Gas milelage on highway is at best 24mpg. I'm really disappointed in this car...I've owned GM all my life and when this came out I was happy to purchase, love the styling, features, etc....but thankfully the dealer is buying it back (payoff value) and we're moving on. I'm not here to rip on the hhr, but just to relay my experience. This has been a great forum for help and a great community....take care.

 

You just never know when your going to get the "bad apple". I felt that way about my Chrysler Sebring Convertible. I love Chrysler cars but my bad experience took me to Chevy. My car has shut off twice but both times I hit a bump at a high rate of speed and both times my husband was driving and he was able to slip it into neutral and it restarted right away, AS I THANKED GOD. Dealership can't duplicate the problem so they don't seem to know what's going on? My husband says its a safety feature that it shuts off when it thinks there's an impact but Chevy claims the car doesn't have that? My husband says their dead wrong? Who knows. Pretty scary that your wife's shut off just with normal driving. I like my HHR despite the issues I had the first yr. Good luck on your next car.

 

OK, As I posted earlier, I have had this happen to me now. In my case, the bump moved the key from "run" to the "acc" position. AFter testing a bit by playing around with the keys, I found that it is VERY easy to pull down on your keychain and have the car shut off. That's why a big bump will shut the car off, at least in mine. I don't think that's what should happen. As a control test, I tried to get our Ford to shut off by pulling down on the keychain, and its key would NOT move. Either there is a design problem, or a problem with the particular lock cylinder or whatever you call it on my car. I wonder if others that have experienced the stalling after a bump have actually had the key switch to the accessory position when their car died.

 

pitbull, what you said makes perfect sense. When reading this forum, this topic in particular, I immediately thought "inertia switch in the fuel system"...but inertia switches have reset buttons, so a re-start wouldnt be possible without resetting the switch.

I then thought 'faulty ignition switch'....

your most recent post has me leaning towards that as a possible issue. Many older in-dash cars, and some P.A.T.S. equipped Lincolns use a key-in-dash set up, and have been known to have ignition switch wear just by the weight of an individuals key set. Our old Chrysler ended up with ignition lock wear just from key placement/key chain weight...I was drag racing it, and when I launched the car, the keys pulled right out of the ignition, and slid under the seat...if I had to shut the car off in a hurry, I would have been screwed. When I got back to the pits, I had to get out, and fish for the keys just to shut the engine off. After inspection, I realized...the ignition cylinder was worn to the point that I could take the keys out easily...and that 440 6-pack engine has no trouble launching the keys backwards when you punch it....at ANY speed.

I feel that perhaps SRogers should experiment with his ignition cylinder-
go start the car...then fondle the key chain, pulling it down and up, and see if the ignition cylinder rotates BACK and shuts the engine OFF.

if it does...there's your answer. if the dealer doesnt buy it, install your key on a release-style key chain, and let your key stand alone when operating your HHR.

that's what I would do.

unless proven otherwise, I feel Pitbull might have nailed the diagnosis.