Door Latch problems of the 2004 Chevrolet Malibu

2004 Chevrolet Malibu maxx. Consumer writes in regards to solenoid/lock failure and poor attitude of customer service agent. The consumer stated the hatch would not open, using the remote. The same part failed twice.

Driving down the roadway and my child who is 4 in the backseat opened the passenger side door. There is no rear child safety lock on the 2004 and 2005 chevy Malibu's. Yet 02 had them.

The contact's child opened the rear passenger door while in motion. By the time she pulled vehicle over the child was still in car seat hanging out of the door. The contact complained several times to dealership that the car did not have child safety locks on it. The dealer told her that it was not possible to install the child locks at this point.

As a former gm development engineer I would like to identify a door latch wet freeze condition that under certain conditions jeopardizes customer safety. The issue occurs on some vehicles using the delphi version of the gm global door latch, and there have been several customer complaints in us and canada. The failure mode occurs when the vehicle has been washed, or exposed to water, and the vehicle is frozen afterwards. When water enters the latch, and ice forms the door latch becomes inoperative, the door can be opened and but the latch will not relatch. There have been instances reported in canada in which the customer had experienced this condition and the a passenger almost fell out of a moving vehicle due to the door not relatching. This condition happens primarily on rear doors and effect the following vehicles (Chevrolet Malibu, cobalt, Buick lucerne, Buick lacrosse, Chevrolet equinox, Cadillac srx, Cadillac cts). The issue initially surface in December 2004, and remediation plans to resolve this issue we proven ineffective, yet management continued to believe the problem was solved. Once the winter season was over, the problem was long forgotten. The next winter, winter 2005 the problem resurfaced. To the best of my knowledge there is one full model year of vehicles in excess of 1 million vehicles in the field that when exposed to water and frozen become an occupant hazard. The condition can be easily replicated by washing one of the vehicles and putting it in a cold cell , and then operating the door. I urge NHTSA to look into this issue before any injuries occur.