HHR Door Handle and other quality issues

two2go · 01-01-2012, 08:26 PM

HHR owners. Are you having good luck with your car? Here is a tale that might help you.

I just had the second $400 surprise in less than a year. The inside driver's door handle suddenly flopped uselessly back and forth, and having to lower the window to reach out to open my door via the outside handle was not fun. So the shop calls me to say that the handle, which is all plastic, is broken inside the panel, and they could try to glue it together but could not be sure it would be strong enough to last. The handle itself cannot be replaced (they said). The replacement assembly from GM is--get this-- the entire interior door panel to which the handle assembly is ingeniously(?) attached as an integral part at $315 + tax + labor= $387.

So I pay for the supposedly better option and get my old door panel to take home and play with. I would love to whack the fingers of that crack GM engineer who designed the handle, in plastic, with a weak cross section at the pivot point, and then had it all be an integral part with the door panel.

Studying the handle, I was able to remove it from its panel sub-assembly in 2 minutes, although I did break the plastic pivot pin in the process. I studied the broken bits, did some filing and grinding to remove the chrome plating around the break, and epoxied the two pieces back together along with a screw through the narrowest part epoxied in place. When the glue is hard, I will go back and add some reinforcement and more epoxy. I can reassemble it using a long thin bolt as the pivot shaft. I think this will be my replacement waiting in the wings if the new handle gives up the same way.

I wish I had gone to the shop to look at the part first. Maybe I could have saved myself some money. Considering how the handles are built, I would bet this is not an uncommon issue, and maybe on other cars as well?

The other surprise was a pin in the shifter link. The button on top of the shift knob would not move. I could still shift, but I couldn't turn the key full off or remove the key. That was over $400 to fix.

The HHR is a nice little car and great toad, but it's kinda costly to maintain.

Clifftall · 01-02-2012, 04:13 AM

Sorry for you, but no issues with our 09 so far.

RUNDLC · 01-02-2012, 05:51 AM

I have an 07 ( bought used) a year or so ago. and the only thing so far is my cig lighter fell out (retaining clip) I guess. So far since I don't smoke I just use the rear one. I will fix it soon though.

I have heard of the broken handle so I use mine very gingerly.