Well I sit here tonight all in tears , after several trips to the dealers four to be exact, for my A/C problem they thought they had fixed my car. sure enough all the fuses were loose. I picked it up Thursday full of excitement then driving home from work Monday going about 65MPH a car pulled out in front of me and I pushed on the brakes to find my whole front end shaking . Took it back to the dealers and they are saying rotors or cal. on the car unless the tires are bad. I have had my HHR since the first of June and trouble since the 22 of July it has been to the dealers 5 times now. Is this common? am i going to always have trouble? I Love my HHR it is what I have wanted since they came out but now I am wondering. The dealers are going to try to make me happy even if it means a new car (still love the HHR) so I am wondering if maybe another HHR will be better luck. Any advice cause I am at a lost at this time.

 

No I don't think it's common... but this kind of thing does happen from time to time.

I'm sorry for the trouble you've had.

You may want to push the issue with the dealer though. I'm sure they've gotten to know you by now.

 

Many HHR's are experiencing warped rotors from overtightening of the lug nuts. My guess is there's a Gorilla somewhere on the assembly line installing wheels. Ask the dealer to replace your rotors and only torque the wheels to 75ft/lbs - not the 100ft/lbs specified in the manual.

We have done this here and have not had a single customer return with warped rotor problems.

Hope it helps,

 

I've had my HHR since January 2, 2006 and haven't had any problems whatsoever. From time to time people will encounter problems with their cars. Sounds like the dealer wants to make you happy, even if it means a new car and that's a plus. Keep the faith and let the dealer do their thing and provide you with a loaner when yours is out of commission. Keep your chin up...hopefully they will get everything resolved quickly.

 

Mike
Not that I am question you on this advise or anything, but a couple of questions to toss out there:
1) would the dealer do this since it is specified in the manual?
2) If this is done and you have problems and the dealer found out this was done would or could that void any warranty work?
I only ask because dealers can be picky about some stuff.

 

Here's my response to the same question in another post:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave C
The Chevy HHR service manual says to torque the lug nuts to 100 lb ft on clean AND dry threads. Use NO LUBRICANT !
"Tighten the nuts evenly and alternately to avoid excessive runout of the tire and wheel assembly."
The key is to go around and around increasing torque by about 20 lb ft until the correct torque is reached.

Now don't shoot the messenger
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Yep. Sure enough; that's what the manual says. But after managing 4 different tire and off road shops, I can tell you that you're asking for problems with that torque (on an HHR). Most wheel shops actually use special "torque limiter" extensions:



...when installing wheels to prevent overtorquing and tweaking rotors. This keeps the wheel shops from getting sued for warping your rotors. A standard wheel torque figure many tire shops use is 75ft/lbs.

I hand torque my wheels to 75ft/lbs every time I put them on (which is a few times a month!), and have had no problems with warpage or loose wheels, even driving in excess of 100mph (during testing).
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Now, most people won't be taking their wheels on and off very often. Here. I end up doing it at least twice a month for various reasons. With 75ft/lbs I have never had a warped rotor, nor found a loose lug nut when removing wheels. Dealers aren't going to "void a warranty" over wheel torque; there are just too many variables there.

Hope it helps,

 

Mike not shooting messenger, just throwing stones at him. Most people that have worked at tire shops KNOW that most torque limiters do not WORK at all. If anything they work within a range of values. And telling a person to tighten there lugs too less than the recommended torque is asking for trouble. 100 ft/lbs are NOT going to warp a rotor. And in regions of the country where in one day the temp can be 60, and less than 24 hours later it could be snowing the thermal expansion of the rotors compared to the wheels...could be enough to loosen the lug nuts.

Shops warp rotors from tightening lugs not in any order, and tightening lugs all the way down, before moving on to the next lug, and over-torquing the lugs. Most shops up here in northeast Ohio aim for AROUND 100 ft/lbs. If you follow the manual you WILL NOT warp your rotors.

 

SoCal, Got my rotors turn/trued less than a month ago, started squeaking again this past weekend.
Could be bad rotors.

 

Agreed - 100% ('stone thrower' )

 

Do you have ABS? If you do maybe it was the anti lock brakes working. It could be confused for a front end problem.