sounds like a wheel hub bearing. had to change mine

 

jack one wheel clear of ground, set park brake, start engine, put in gear then slowly release brake pedal. as the wheel begins to turn you should hear the sound. did this to find which side of mine was bad

 

I think if I am going to do the latter half of this, I will jack up BOTH sides so I don't have any wheels touching the ground.. Wheels touching the ground would make it move. Thank you for the tip Macgyver6046

 

Actually Kev, HHR's have an open differential, so the wheel off the ground will be driven while the one on the ground stays still. It's an old technique that needs to be practiced with great care in an area where a "runaway" vehicle will have little to hit in a worst case "Aw Crud!" situation. And before the SS folks get on me, yes I know they were available with LSD(Posi-Traction for us old farts).

Here's a good "How To" video from Eric The Car Guy....

 

I'd suggest just taking it to a shop before someone gets hurt there.

 

Sage advice whopper, I admire how your confidence has grown over the years Kev, you're tackling things now that you wouldn't have before.

But like I said in my earlier post, and Eric reenforces in his video, you have to be super careful using this method of diagnosing a bad hub.

If things go wrong, you'll have a crunched HHR or worse, don't want you or anyone else here getting hurt.

 

That sounds EXACTLY like my left front wheel hub... I will be replacing my fronts Saturday because the dealer "can't hear" the problem.

 

Don't do the "jack both sides" up either. The CVs will make noise because the sag out of their range, an you risk breaking a boot.

If you elect to put the car in gear while both front wheels are jacked up, you must support both LCAs also. (4 jacks/jack stands).

 

OK, I deleted the posts that somebody might find offensive. The thread seems to have relevant info in it, so I undeleted it.