ok so i have been searching around forever now on the net and on here and several other sites, i am finally going to break down and ask for help to see if anyone has found a reason or fix.


2008 chevy hhr
basic am/fm/single cd stereo
LEFT(driver) side speakers are intermittently working. no rhime or reason. the RIGHT(PASSENGER) side is constantly working with no issues.
one day the right side will work and everything is hunky dorey.
the next the are not working at all.

in turn this effects the door chime as well.

i have seen this all over but no one has any one single solution.
can someone please help me out here?
i want to say thank you in advance for any and all help.


additional info:
bought used 2 years ago less than 77,000 miles on car.

 

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This may be due to a connection issue. I recommend consulting with a certified technician for an official diagnosis. They will be able to provide more information after inspecting the vehicle.

If you need assistance locating a technician near you, please PM your zip code.

Louis
GM Customer Service

 

maybe i am not being clear, i will elaborate more, as i have seen several people with the problem what has anyone else found to be the issue. i am not taking it to a dealer since i am perfectly capable of fixing the problem myself. what i am looking for is what should i be looking for like a wire that is bad or a ground that is bad. is it on the radio side or the speaker side, and i shudder to think that it might be in the harness.

louis i appriciate your response, please understand i will consider but only if i can not fix it myself, i really do not have the money to take it to a dealer currently.

so to the people that have had the issue
1.) what was the fix for your vehicle?
2.)did it work?

 

Hey. I am new to this forum...but I would suggest checking out the other forum at hhr.net. There may be some more threads on this.
I hope I don't get in trouble for posting that link....lol
Chevy HHR Forums

 

why are most of the answers "see the dealer"
I have a 2009 hhr with the same problem, but my driver side speaker is the only one that works. the speakers cant all be bad at the same time so it must be the head unit.

 

Same as above but the tweeters work too...

Oh and the other day... THEY ALL WORKED!!! Not anymore!

And I called a buddy with a 07 Burban and his radio started working that day, and no longer works!

I'm selling the HHR but would love to fix it first! And I have the SAME PROBLEM with MY 2007 LT2 Suburban and it is the same thing that is happening on my friends 07 LS Suburban...


I wanna know what is causing this... Maybe a BCM???

 

After extensive research on the web, I have found that the speakers on HHR's as well as other Chevy models tend to fail after a few short years. Mine worked fine after I bought the vehicle with 38K miles in 2009, but have now gone completely out. The symptoms are the door speakers will start cutting in and out randomly, and eventually stop working altogether, while the tweeters in the door posts continue to work. The solution is to buy a decent set of aftermarket speakers (4 ohm) and replace them. 1aauto.com has videos that show how to remove the door panels, which is surprisingly easy when you know how. There is no need to spend an exorbitant amount of money at the dealer when they tend to be clueless anyway.

 

Thanks for the info and link to the video, dwlee
I had the dealer tell me just last week that I needed to replace the radio in my 08 HHR for the exact problem in this thread.
The speakers are going to be much less expensive than the cost of a dealer radio.

 

my left side speakers worked sometimes. Finally went out as did the right rear. Installed 4 new speakers and problem solved. Sounds like a brand new system! 08 HHR with around 90, 000 miles.

 

Although I haven't replaced the speakers or tested them yet, the testing that I've done so far seems to back up that fix. All 4 of my door speakers have been working intermittently for a long time. It seemed to me that a wiring harness connector was loose based on the symptoms so i started down that path.

The first connector I checked was on the back of the stereo. Mine has 2 connectors (single CD version). Coincidentally the left connector only handles the door speakers. Due to this, I thought I was onto something. Carefully probing the conductors with a test speaker, I was able to get signal for all 4 problem channels. This ruled out the stereo connectors. (unless all 4 decided to start working at that moment)

The second connector I checked was below the dash right in front of the drivers left knee. Unplugging this dropped out the front left tweeter but not the right. Carefully probing the conductors with a test speaker, I was able to get 3 channels of sound which covers the left side of the vehicle.

So at this point I was scratching my head. If I'm getting audio out of stereo and to the left side, why would both sides have problems unless 2 downstream connectors were loose ?

I really don't like to mess with door panels (let alone all 4 !!!) but thanks to this forum it looks like the next best place to test for signal.