My 2 month old 2007 HHR LS with 3160 miles on it didn't want to move this afternoon. I thought that I had a brake locked on me, but after driving around, the wheels were not hot. But it would take nearly 1500 rpm just to get moving. It was 5 degrees outside when I left and it did get better as the car warmed up. But I have driven it when it was -8 degrees outside and didn't have this much resistance with it.

I have also noticed that the transmission does not like to go into overdrive on cold days either. It will take 5-10 miles of driving on the highway before it will quietly slip into overdrive. And this was after the car set running for about 15 minutes to warm up.

Is this just normal behavior in these cold temperatures or is it a sign of more trouble ahead.

It has been a rough week for it. Monday, it got rear-ended at a red light in the snow (luckily, only damage was two small indents in the plastic from the other's car license plate screw heads) and now this problem. I think it wants a break!

-Jared

 

My car acts a little sluggish when it's cold too. I think it has something to do with the emissions controls when the cats aren't quite hot enough to burn off the particulates fast enough, so the computer orders fuel and spark retard to control emissions.

 

I don't move too quickly in 5 degree weather either. I'll let the northerners help you with that issue.

Regarding being rear-ended, did you open the hatch to make sure it still worked and look around the vehicle? You could have damage you can't quickly see. Even a light bump could cause problems later.

 

While I have noticed that the car will feel sluggish when it's cold out, it doesn't last long with mine. It will also take longer to shift into overdrive, but it will do so within a minute or two. This is in temperatures around 0. I surely think something is wrong if it feel sluggish for more than a minute of drive time and fails to shift into overdrive for 5-10 minutes. Take it in to get it looked at.

 

The transmission never kicks into overdrive before the engine has reached its normal operating temperature. That can take 2 minutes, or it can take 20 minutes depending on outside temp. Idling a car is the worst thing you can do to warm it up: it's hardly effective, and you're lenghtening the time when the engine is below its supposed operating temperature.

When it's very cold, I use the block heater, start it up and give it about 30 seconds of idling. After that I'm driving at moderate speeds for the first couple of minutes. That's it.

As long as it goes away after a few minutes of driving, I wouldn't worry about the slugish part; the poor thing has molasse in it, everything is going to feel stiff and is harder to move.

Yves

 

I'm going to ammend my previous statement. The car doesn't engage the lockup torque converter until it is fully warmed up. As far as I could tell this morning(-11 temp), it was shifting into 4th gear pretty early in the drive, but the converter lockup didn't happen until 10 minutes or so into the drive. I would still be a bit concerned about the "sluggish" part because on mine I only notice it the first time or two I take off from a cold start, even today.

 

Yves,

Can you hear the block heater working? Apparently GM has an electric thermostat on the block heater cord (think green?) that only allows the block heater to turn on at less then -18C. I had to fix the end of my cord after I ran over it and at -21C today I can’t hear the heater working so maybe either my fix didn’t work or running over it did some other damage?

 

I've never tried to listen for it, but I know it's been on when the initial engine temp at startup is above 0 deg C. And you are right, it won't turn on above -18C. I've tried it a couple of times around -15C and the initial engine temp was around that too (-14C or -13C).

Try to look at the coolant temp display at startup; it'll tell you whether it's working or not.

Yves

 

You guys notice that the drivetrain sounds very noisy when it is old out and just starting out? Almost like a whine..is this something all GM trannys exhibit?



Goose

 

Just an update... Today, the temperature was a little bit cooler (+4 degree)when I left work today and I did not have much in the way of resistance. Still doesn't sound right to me; I'll mention it to the dealer when I get the oil changed.

SandyBeach - I did check the hatch while waiting for the Police. I actually thought that the bumper was a destroyed. It sounded very bad. Of course when you have no idea it was going to happen, it does scare the out of you which I am sure makes it sound worse than it is. However, I am still going to have it checked out just to be safe.

Thank you all that have responded!

Jared