Four problems related to starter have been reported for the 2012 Chevrolet Malibu. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2012 Chevrolet Malibu based on all problems reported for the 2012 Malibu.
My car won't turn over after I turn it off sometimes. Sometimes it will be most other times it doesn�t. The battery is new, spark plugs are new, sensors are new. Starter isn't the problem. Don't know what it could be? it was stationary when this happens, when I try to turn the car back on.
Car would randomly not start up. Starter would engage with key turned, but engine would not fire off and run. No codes from diagnostics. Never heard fuel pump energize with problem present. Car would eventually successfully start. Bench tested fuel pump relay with no issues. Disassembled fuse box in trunk and found the brown wire connecting the fuel pump to its relay was significantly heat stressed. The black plastic wire harness that houses the brown fuel pump wire was also stressed and deformed, and was no longer retaining the crimped connector for the brown wire. I had to clean up the metal crimp connector and pinch down on the end so that it would "grab" the relay terminal once reassembled. Car has yet to repeat the starting problem a year later.
My chevy Malibu would turn over slightly, but then would die. This happened about 3-4 times and then I had the battery replaced; thinking it was that. The car continued to fail, so I had the fuel pump replaced after checking with a fuel gauge and there being no fuel pressure. The car ran about 3 times driving it for shorter and a bit longer distances, but then the car would not turn over at all. The starter would try, but there was no ignition of the car. At my local chevy dealer, don mccue, they diagnosed that the rear fuse box and a few terminals were burnt out. They replaced the rear fuse box and a few terminals, and the car now runs successfully.
Early October 2014 I begin to smell a burning plastic smell after car is stopped. Self inspection found nothing, mechanic inspection found nothing. Around January I took car in for brake light recall, had service tech inspect; said they found a melted bag on exhaust (I saw no such thing). Late January 2015 my car won't start after sitting all night, car was jumped and started fine. Late March 2015 passenger side headlight sometimes fails to turn on at first attempt and after a 2 hour drive, next morning car won't start; after waiting 20 minutes car starts. 4/4/2015 car is left on (engine off) with radio playing while cleaning out car, after 10 min service esc comes on dash, I immediately turn off car. I try to start engine, no ignition. The car wouldn't even try to turn over. I took car to autozone where they tested the battery and the alternator where both were found to be in perfect working order. I can hear the fuel pump attempt to engage and if the battery and the alternator are fine then that leaves me to believe it is the starter. . . However, if the smell wasn't a plastic bag but instead a wire melting, then I would have a short which could also be causing this. Bought this care as a safe mode of transportation for my son and I, I find myself more stressed out wondering if I will be able to get us were I need to go than with the old car I use to have. If this turns out to be a malfunction I hope gm is willing to make it right. The problem is increasing and no one has yet been able to figure it out.