black99lightning

Agreed, $30K sticker is obscene for an economy car with a turbo. That said, you'd be better off selling outright. I believe the private party value is about $16K-18K.

hyperv6

But who paid $29K? I think many like myself only paid around 20-21K some just a little higher depending on the offers GM had at the time for the SS.

Right now most SS are 14-18K depending on the condition and miles. Now most LT's are 10-12K with the LS just under them depending on mileage.

camaro98z28

I solved it by soldering my MAP connectors and doing a better job than the Dealer. Havent had an issue since.

russruth

I paid 18 out the door including taxes for an 08 1 1/2 years ago. Perfect condition.

Even got an extended warranty.

The thing is as much as I find the build quality of this car frustrating, I find driving it to be really something.

I know other people here feel the same way. I'm always finding myself lightly cruising through the So Cal freeways at 92 to 95 mph which isn't easy to do in LA) and I'd swear the car was going under 70. If I'm at 100 it feels like I'm still going under 80.

Comparing that my my trailblazer SS which makes 80 feel like your going 105 and my Impala SS that makes 80 feel like 90, I think the HHR SS is the car I enjoy driving most and unfortunately the car I have less faith in.

Still, I feel the car is fragile. Even with all the work I've done on the stage 1 tune, including moving the bumper and IC pipe up, adding turbo tech top mounts, having the connections sealed it still will surge sometimes and though I don't put a lot of miles on the car, Other things are starting to act up like the windows rolling up and the tailgate getting difficult to close.

I just don't have a lot of faith in it and it's my favorite car. I'd pay $5,000 right now for a "GOOD" make that "GREAT" mechanic to go through this car top to bottom and fix every niggling little flaw and potential problem.

I know no American company will ever make a car like this again, not this distinctive, not with any risk involved and I still feel it's a shame.

Today I was at my hot rod mechanics and he had a tricked our Scion on his lot. Really trick with a 450 6 cyl supra engine with a turbo the size of our 2 liter motors. I see cars like this all the time in L.A. but I've yet to find anyone within 100 miles that can really trick out an HHR SS.

I still believe with all my heart Chevy really missed the bet on this car and caved into the car as appliance crowd.

Either that or Chevy really did become Obama motors and only wants to sell the volt, because that's all they talk agout.

I know, that Hyper V6 is gonna tell me that's where the money is and that's probably so, but Chevrolet, heck all of GM needs a tuner type Halo car that isn't a corvette or camaro.

But keep in mind the kids that work for me all love cars, all have something done to their rides and all buy either Subaru WRX, EVOs or German cars.

They all look at the SS as funky and with a little embarrassment until they drive it. They love driving it, they just don't like the build quality or the kewl factor of it.

And NO, they will not buy a Buick.

IMO

LewiSS

I bought my '10 new. No build issues so far. For us Auto drivers, if they would just offer a tune to remove the torque limiting in the lower gears, I would be happy. Until then, I will drive it stock. I don't care how many people have problems with the Stage 1, or what the percentage of failure is. It's above zero by quite a margin, judging from these posts, so I don't want to mess up my ride by trying to improve it. Been there, done that on my '06 Cobalt SS 2.4. Sure, I'd love more performance. Who wouldn't? But on the street, with Launch Control it won't hook up with street tires as it is. To drag race it even stock I will need drag radials at the least to launch properly. So I guess I'll just live with it stock.

CGYHHRSS

Well, so much for the best made plans.

After waiting an extra year to get the upgrade on my 08 auto SS, then calling around to local dealers, not wanting to be the mule car (both for the inexperienced install going wroing, and the time it would take initially), I found a deaer that said they have done it, and gave me a price, installed (ie no cost overruns). My time lurking here the last ittle bit alerted me to the install issues and didn't want to face them myself.

Drove it home last night from the dealer, no issue, could feel the extra zip and boost but no real chance to let it out.

This morning, again, no chance to really let it out, but stomped on it a few times and one of the times, while pulling, seemed to be fluttering a bit, looking for correct boost level. But otherwise PSI good and certainly noticeably more power.

This afternoon, had a good chance to let loose, and it did well the couple times I stomped on it, and just in general power on demand.

Tonight, after dinner, with roads a bit quieter, chance to stomp down again, but this time, the dreaded cut off of power after a couple seconds of boost, and keeping the pedal down did nothing for power except rev up the rpm. 4 or 5 more times, same issue...a spike in boost, then a sudden cut out and feeling like you're in the wrong gear for the pwoer band.

So, 30 hours in and already seem to have install issues. I noticed around here some people have thier issues in different temps etc. Was colder this AM then this evening. Started it this AM with remote starter, and did again this evening. So no real differences tonight then other times in the past day when I drove it.

With the weekend now here, no chance until Monday to get it back in. This dealer isn't the closest one to me either, the opposite direction from where I work.

No CEL light yet, so what issue do I have, in techncial terms? The MAF sensors not properly connected? Just want to know so that I can properly communicate it to the dealer.

hyperv6

It sounds like a clearance problem on the lower T Map.

If it is too close the car runs fine till you hammer it. It will pull power and boost for a second or two than spike the boost and then drop down to 0-4 PSI. It then resets and runs fine till you step on it hard.

Note this often happens and low to moderate speeds.

What happens is the engine has a higher load on it and the engine torques back on the mounts. [the front of the engine goes up and lifts the intake tube] This in turn makes the T map connector hit the AC line on the Compressor.

You can check this easy and put a piece of foam or cardboard in place to keep it from contacting. Then take it out and step on it hard and see if it still cuts out. If it runs fine they need to shim the IC forward under warranty.

It is one of those things that you just can see under the car as the condition only happens under a load with the car on the ground.

It still could be something else but this is easy to check out on your own. I used a piece of cut roll bar pad to hold the tube forward and not let it come back. It stopped the cut out and the dealer fixed it in one day under warranty. 2.5 years later still no issues.

Note it will never set a Cel if it just hits the connector.

Give this a try and it may solve the issue and tell the dealer just what you need to solve this fast and easy.

In general there are two things to check the clearance and the connector. In you case I am betting clearance.

Please note it will not hit all the time in most cases just at lower speeds. If you step on it hard at 60 MPH adds are it will pull away fine. but at 20-30 MPH the load on the engine mounts will make it hit.

CGYHHRSS

Thanks.

It's worth a look anyways (once I search the forums to find the exact location of the lower TMap). My driving last night was at all speeds, then stomping on it, but from the problem you describe, its certainly possible to have things shift with the engine, and have the sensor contact the AC line.

I assume them moving the IC as you mention, is covered under warranty as part of the Upgrade install? My factory warranty on the car itself expired 4 days ago.

Edit: I found the GM Tech Link article, and then the expanded install instructions, taking about the potential for rubbing/contact of that lower sensor, and that the little plastic nub (boss) should be trimmed on HHR SS's and Cobalt SS's. That should be enough for the dealer to go on to fix the issue, although I assume all they will do is fiddle around with that, not move the IC (if that it what my issue is, of course)?

asanti

Hyper, by now we need to have a mod just sticky your reply and post it up in our SS section lol. I can almost recite it verbatim anytime the question comes up and I see your name in the post section.

Later
Allex

russruth

Hyper is right. About everything he says will fix the problem (at least for now until your motor mounts wear down).

Still you can take the techlink articles and another 200 pages into your dealer and I doubt seriously if they'll read them, much less act upon them.

I did that and all they did is put straps on the IC to pull it away from the tmap.

Those broke in two weeks.

The problem with the stage 1 kit isn't the kit, or the money (or lack of) that GM had when they introduced it. It isnt that it doesn't really fit or that the dealers have little experience or actually give a damn about fixing it.

The problem is it shouldn't have been needed in the first place.

These cars were more expensive SS performance vehicles and should have come with 290hb the day they were born. I'm just guessing, but I believe GM was more worried about their 10 year 100,000 mile warranty claims than they were the actual performance of the cars.

That's why there were so few of these sold, though actually lack of advertising (money) also played a big factor.

People can't buy something they don't know exists.

But back to the SS stage 1 kit. I've done everything (and more) than Hyper6 and even yesterday threw a check engine light warning.

Luckily I have my original tune on a computer and I just reninstalled it, re wrapped the connectors to make sure there was absolutely zero resistance and now I'm back to good . . . well for now.


In contrast i have an Impala SS and a Trailblazer SS and out of the box they are pretty much good to go. The Impala I added a custom tune which did up the horsepower, but changed the vehicle driveability 100%, the Trailblazer is just fine as is.

I guess I'm becoming a broken record, but GM really does need to address high performance lower costs cars that have good storage, handle well, decent build quality and most important less worry about what will or will not break.

I know BMW is a much different car in price and build than a Chevy SS, but as the sales levels can attest BMW sells performance and seems to do it quite well.

Along with that comes reliability.

IMO