Four problems related to radio/tape cd player have been reported for the 2004 Chevrolet Malibu. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2004 Chevrolet Malibu based on all problems reported for the 2004 Malibu.
After starting engine, engine will turn off and radio display screen will read �engine power reduced. � engine will not start for several minutes, but the lights, radio, dash lights and everything will still work. This has happened in my driveway. The first time this ever happened I was on a busy main road at a stop light in the left turn lane. The car shuddered and the engine lost power. Again, the display screen displayed the same message. The car was rolling backwards and would not accelerate. After several attempts the engine did start again. Thankfully it was 6:00 am and I was on my way to work so there was very light traffic.
After purchasing my Malibu I have had multiple incidents where I was unable to unlock my doors electrically from inside/outside (after a fight with the dealer that issue was fixed after being told I needed to bring the car back and forth for 3 weeks), since then I have had to replace my turn signal bulbs once a month, my left turn signal socket looks like it has been burnt and is very black in color, still cant get gm to acknowledge that there were problems with this on these Malibu's even though there are service bulletins on this issue. Next I have had my dic system show me messages saying locked and my radio shuts off erratically and my ignition will shut off. Gm dealer will not accept responsibility, next I have had the message on my dic show no power steering and 3 out of the 4 times I have lost steering all together and luckily was backing out of driveway, had to shut car off and wait for system to give me back steering control. The 4th time I veered into a guard rail going about 25 mph and crunched my front passenger quarter panel when the ps assist failed and I had no steering. Again, shut car off and had to wait for system to reset and again had steering control. I am now having issues where my entire console in the vehicle is always hot to the touch and my ignition switch inside the car is extremely hot even right after the car is started. Gm will not address this issue either when I have contacted the dealer where I bought the vehicle. I am now having steering issues where my Malibu wants to go left when I am attempting to make a right turn and when making a left turn it wants to go way left all by itself. I have multiple recalls on this vehicle and to no avail they are not being addressed. I am wondering if I have to be in a worse crash and be injured severely or another person in order to get anyone to fix these issues or take this car back.
In June the drivers seat began listing to the right and rocking. The dealer looked at it and said it is a broken weld and quoted me $800. 00 to fix it. Then in sept of 2012 I was trying to maneuver out of a parking lot and the power steering locked up. It was really scary, it took all my might to get to a safe place to stop without hitting anyone. When I restarted it was okay and my mechanic did not see any obvious problem with it. Also the cd player no longer will load up cds although the other functions and info on the little screen work. Also the side mirrors no longer can be adjusted in the vertical plane although they still move horizontally.
2004 Malibu customer has had problems with loss of electric power steering and wants out of the lease without penalty* the radio was inoperative, the cruise control was inoperative at times, it would turn off, but not engage. The pcm was replaced. The passenger side directional lights and brake lights were inoperative. The dealer replaced the bulbs. The heated seats came on by themselves. The intermediate shaft was replaced, because the consumer stated there was a noise when turning the steering wheel. The transmission cooling lines were leaking, the rear defogger on the passenger side was inoperative. When the windshield wipers were on intermittent, they would go full speed by themselves.