gmarcucio

Has enyone experienced severe stone chipping on the rear quarter panels in the lower front portion of the rear wheel wells. It appears that the road dirt is getting thrown onto the panels by the front tires. It's hard to believe that I only have 300 miles on the HHR and the chips already look the equivalent of about 30,000 miles of road use. It is very noticable.

TOMS HHR

Everyone without the running boards is experencing the chipping unless they don't drive their HHR.

Big Issue right now.

long_tall_texan

I have the same issue in down here in Texas. I had my blue 1LT for 1 month when we got a 2 day ice storm in Dallas. They sanded all the roads for the ice. I only drove on the sanded roads for 2 days. Once everything dried out and I washed my car, I found out I'd been sand-blasted. Rear fenders and rocker panels had a frosted look. I only had 1500 miles on my HHR then. My local dealer did not hesitate to say it was a problem. They immediately offered to repaint it for me. They did some investigation with GM and no official word from GM on it. My dealer installed the molded splash guards, repainted the rear fenders and rockers, and provided me a loaner from Enterprise at GM's expense. I suggested that they leave the plastic guards off of the rear fenders and cover them with the clear vinyl paint protection similar to the clear bras. I have been told by several sources that the vinyl would be more impact resistant than the paint or those plastic protectors that GM installed initially. They said they didn’t think it would be necessary after having the mud flaps installed, but said they would do it if I saw the need after trying the mud flaps. As I expected, the mud flaps did help deflect debris from the rear fenders. However, after extensive testing, (washing my car and intentionally running through puddles at a high rate of speed) I found that there was still going to be a problem with debris hitting the fenders and chipping the paint. The spray pattern only covered about 1/3 of the way up the fenders now, but was still there. So, I contacted my service manager again. He gladly added the clear vinyl to the rear fenders and rockers. Their vinyl cutting software did not have a template for the rear fenders of the HHR yet, so they did a custom job. They covered the entire fender from the point it flares out all the way to the wheel well. They covered a much larger area than the pre-cut sets you can get at www.invisiblemask.com and others. Can’t even tell it is there. Looks great. I just hope it holds up next winter when I run through sanded roads again. If not, I will be going back to them again…

I am very happy with my dealer's response. I have to say, I have had great dealer support. I hate to hear that many of you do not have the same luck. To my knowledge, they didn’t go through the district GM rep at all. They just did it and charged it to GM as a warranty issue. I hope GM will eventually step up to the plate across the board for us though.

MalibuMaxxSS

they already did ahile ago

cj krause

i have had running boards and splash guards from day 1 and never had a problem at all. not one and the HHR is 15 months old and 29000 miles
here is a how to a lady on our forum did installing them
http://hhrchevyfamily.19.forumer.com...opic.php?t=729