general problems of the 1997 Chevrolet Malibu

Tl- the contact owns a 1997 Chevrolet Malibu. The contact was included in NHTSA campaign id number: 03v527000 (steering), received the recall repair and weeks later the failure recurred. The contact stated that while making a turn, extreme force had to be applied to the steering wheel and the vehicle was unstable to drive. The vehicle was taken back to the authorized dealer who refused to repair the vehicle. The authorized dealer indicated that someone damaged the subframe and bolts along with the quarter panels being rusted. The vehicle was taken to an independent repair shop who indicated that the authorized dealer needed to replace the bolts, subframe and the quarter panels which were rusted. The vehicle was taken back to the authorized dealer provided an interim fix of welding the brackets to the frame and within weeks the components fractured. The vehicle was towed back to the authorized dealer for further inspection, diagnosis and repair. The bolts were broken and the engine was sitting on top of the steering rack due to the fracture. The contact was waiting for approval from the manufacturer to remedy the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 158,160. Dyd.

We bought this 1997 Malibu from my dad less than a year ago for my son to drive to college. My dad is meticulous in caring for his vehicles so all the scheduled and routine maintenance work has been done and it still only has 70xxx miles on it. My complaint is this : last night my son was parking the car when it suddenly became very hard to turn the steering wheel. He finished parking, but a short time later as he started to drive home, he realized that the power steering was completely gone. There have been so many incidents like this one that there was finally a safety recall issued in 2004. The paperwork I have states that the dealer "replaced steering gear pinion bearing and reset toein". Obviously,that remedy failed since the power steering went out anyway. I'm so thankful that no one was hurt, that it didn't happen while he was driving to or from school, and that he was home for christmas break when it happened. We'll be taking the car in to the dealer on Tuesday and, because there have been so many of these incidents in the '97 Malibu (and other '97 gm models) that they had to issue the recall, I expect them to fix it free of charge.

While making a left turn the vehicle fail to turn. Without prior warning the vehicle kept strait he was able to the vehicle by his brakes ts.

While making a left hand turn at 25 mph the vehicles steering wheel suddenly locked up.

Consumer states that while driving at any speed and no warning the steering bolt are lose and it is causing the steering wheel to jump around causing it to be hard for consumer to steer the vehicle. Dealer notified. Nlm.

Consumer was making a slight turn to avoid something in the road ahead when the steering wheel became very loose, and driver lost control of the vehicle. Vehicle spinned around 3 times before landing in a ditch.

Steering wheel makes a clicking noise when turning. Steering wheel has to be fully rotated twice before the vehicle goes into that direction.