Well, here I sit….
ever hear that youngster rhyme?
Hear I sit broken hearted, came to shit but only farted.
I’m sure there is more to the child’s rhyme, but I don’t know it. None the less, here I sit waiting on yet more car repairs on the HHR. This little fix is running $385, thereabouts.
I really cannot complain, so far it has been a great little car. We purchased in July with 63,000 miles on it. Right off the lot we had to put rear shocks and a sway bar, complete with front end alignment, on it. The garage told us that we would not have gotten very far before the tires were chewed up, maybe 200 miles. We had the shocks and front repair done, along with a front-end alignment. There was a clunking noise in the front, and they thought front struts would take care of it.
Then came the front struts and mounts. It certainly improved the ride and drive of the vehicle but the clunking in the front end was still there, driving me nuts. We had several people look at it, no one seemed to find the issue. Meanwhile, I’m racking up the mileage with the occasional clunking that seems to be getting louder. Why is no one able to figure this out.
Fast Eddies Oil Change
I had to have an oil change, so I decided to get it on my way to work. I stopped by Eddies. Four young men descended on my car, elbows and wrenches the only thing visible. As expected, they went through their sales pitch, new wipers? “No”. Then they got to the cabin filter and engine air filter. They were both beyond nasty! They told me they thought it was pretty likely they were original equipment. I said, “absolutely replace those!” Premium filter upgrade? “No”.
The oil was pretty dirty as we had somehow mistakenly exceeded our last oil change by a few thousand miles. An engine cleaner was recommended. I agreed. Then came the fuel injectors. Because there were black spots in several places on the engine air filter, they suggested cleaning the fuel injectors. From what I had been seeing it was likely that this car was not kept up with on maintenance. The recommended cleaning was every 15,000 or once a year. I agreed to have that done. Here I sit, car repairs.
$285 later…
At the end of the process, I had to rev the engine to 2500 rpm and keep it there. In the beginning the car spit and sputtered, backfired and almost died. All the while white smoke was billowing out the tail pipe and from under the hood a little. The guys told me that was the carbon burning off. My God, it must have been bad!
As I was getting ready to leave, they told me that smoke should not have come from the engine compartment and that probably meant I had a small leak in the exhaust, by the manifold. They recommended taking it to a muffler shop to have it welded.
Lentz’s to the rescue
We took the vehicle to Lentz’s. They did not discover an exhaust leak, but they did locate the reason for the clunking. What?! I’m finally going to be rid of that nuisance. The culprit was the tower mount of the strut; $300 cost, an appointment was made.
Which leads me to today…
I arrived for the AM appointment to find that the parts that were ordered for the HHR had been sold by another person. The different guy behind the counter asked why I was there since the mounts on the car looked new. I repeated the complaint, he disappeared.
When he reappeared, he had a different explanation for the clunking than his coworker had determined. This time it was sway bar bushings. Why didn’t Belle Tire find that when they did repair on the vehicle initially? I was skeptical at this new information and wondered if they weren’t playing me. So, when the tech asked if I wanted to take a look at it, I said yes. I asked him which side of the car the noise would be on with the new issue. When he started going over it, providing visuals for the complaint, I determined it would explain the location of the noise.
so here I sit, car repairs… with an hour left to go in the two-hour job… By the way, the car now has over 76,000 miles on it and has proved to be a great little car. I would recommend this make/model to anyone looking for a great get around car with good mileage.
