Hello all. I apologize in advance for not introducing myself in an earlier post, but I am stuck on the side of the road waiting for AAA, since my 2009 HHR LS thinks it is a neutral no matter what forward gear I select. I have an automatic transmission (perhaps they all are auto) and the vehicle has just over 100k miles.

I was waiting on a stoplight with the vehicle in drive when the gear selection lever got bumped into neutral. When I attempted to move it into Drive, nothing happened when I lifted my foot off the brake and pressed the gas, other than the engine revving. It goes into reverse fine, and also goes into park, but acts as if it is a neutral if it is in Drive, "I", or "L". I have shut the car off, let it sit, then started it back up again to try to see if it will go into a forward gear, but it's still behaving the same way.

Has anyone had experience with this type of problem? I'm hoping someone will tell me this is a simple fix and that some linkage may have simply come loose. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide, and happy new year to everyone!

 

Welcome.
Never heard this one. Doubtful it's the linkage, since it is a single cable. More likely internal solenoids. But an expert may have an easy fix in a shop.

 

I second what donbrew stated.

Also. I hope when you mistakenly reved it in neutral that you didn't put it in drive with the rpms up real high.
If you did "slam" it in drive so to speak, you could have damaged something internally in the transmission.

Let us know what you find out. I'm interested in the diagnosis.

(just a FYI. HHR's are not all automatics. There is a 5 speed manual trans. in some. )

 

Welcome to the site

Here is a blog that may help explain what's happening.

GM's 4T45E Transmissions: The Good, Bad And The Ugly

I guessing that when popped out of gear and slammed back in may have broke the input sprag

 

Thanks so much for all your responses. It is very much appreciated. Great link, Lucky. I think the input sprag diagnoses may be spot on. Sounds like an expensive fix though. Oh well. I'll let you know what the shop says. Thanks again and happy new year.

 

No problem. Just note that there are different final drive gears so if you go the used trans route you want to watch out for that.

 

Gteat find on the blog link Lucky!

I'm inclined to lean towards the input sprag diagnosis, it fits the failure mode you've described Brsturges, unfortunately there's nothing worse than ending up with a "Box of Neutrals" as old racers used to say.

 

I note the source of the familiar fill hole pic.

 

Here's a quick update for all who were so kind to offer help and guidance. I took it to a shop who determined that it was an "internal issue" with the transmission, and quoted me $2400 to do a complete transmission rebuild. I asked them about it potentially being an input sprag issue, and they advised that they would need to pull the tranny and open it up to determine if this was the issue. They also advised that, if they opened up the transmission, they would only warranty their work if they were able to do a complete rebuild.

I found another shop locally that has a transmission from a 2011 2.2 L HHR with 34k miles. They quoted me $850 for the used tranny installed.

Lucky, I know you mentioned different final drive ratios. My HHR is also a 2.2L. Would this used tranny likely be my same final drive ratio? Am I going to run into any major problems if they are not the same other than my car driving differently?

As always, thanks for any input you all may have. I very much appreciate it.

 

Br. I think between the 2009 and 2011 2.2L trannys it would probably be the same. Could wrong, but I don't remember hearing about a change in them then...