Owners/service Manual Problems of Chevrolet Malibu

This car has the auto/stop function. There is no way to cut this off according the the owners manual or online research. Not everytime but it happens alot. Be driving stop at a red light, the auto stop kicks in. When the light turn green, step on gas car is suppose to start, does not start. You have to put in park, turn key off, attempt to crank again before you can go. Meanwhile people are avoiding hitting you in the rear not knowing you are not moving etc. On the Malibu forum you will see muliple compliants from Malibu owners 2014-2016 with this same complaint! I called gm no response . Its going to take someone getting killed or injured for gm to do a recall. This is not safe to drive- people could rear end me , sitting in middle of a road not moving!! this has happened to me at least 6 times in the last few months. There is nothing in owners manual telling how to disable this function. . Its useless. . Death trap! please force gm to have a recall on these vehicles before there are lawsuits involving deaths!!! I will never buy another gm product!!.

See all problems of the 2014 Chevrolet Malibu 🔎.

Vehicle stuck in reverse shift lock had an internal failure and was replaced by the chevy dealership. Replaced shifter due to stuck lock. Pulled up to car wash put car in reverse shifter locked and was unable to move out of reverse. Toll truck came and driver was able to manually move cable under the hood so I could put car in neutral.

See all problems of the 2017 Chevrolet Malibu 🔎.

I have been driving my car everyday and on Sunday 11/24/19, I reversed from driveway and when shifted to drive the car would not move. I tried neutral and manual and nothing but the reverse was fine. An odd thing is that it is the transmission oil supply line, a small piece that doesn't move at all so not sure how it was damaged which is causing the car to not move when in drive. This definitely is an issue with GMC cars as I have researched it in multiple chevy blogs. If a mechanic is not familiar with this small cause they would suggest to replace the entire transmission unnecessarily which is a very expensive repair for something simple.

See all problems of the 2011 Chevrolet Malibu 🔎.

I started the car and reversed out of a parking space. After shutting the car in drive, I pressed the gas and the car barely moved. I pulled off to the edge of the parking lot and put the car in park, turned it off, waited a minute or 2, and restarted the engine. I put the car in drive and it went forward. I had to stop and slightly reverse because a car was coming toward me on the street I was turning onto. I put it back in drive and tried to turn out of the parking lot. Again the engine was running but the car barely coasted. It acted like it was not changing gears. I pulled across the street because a car was coming into another parking lot. We were almost hit because the car would not go. I parked the car turned it off. Waited a few minutes and restarted it. I got out and the engine sounded slightly off . . . It was clicking almost like there was a timing issue. I got back in the car reversed out of the parking spot and went forward. The car started forward and I turned back on to the road. Suddenly the rpm shot up to over 400 and the car lurched forward without applying additional gas. I applied the brakes and kept driving. The rpm ran higher than normal on the way back to kokomo. It was not driving correctly and still acted like it was not shifting gears correctly. I drove it to the nearest dealership in kokomo, in. Erik's Chevrolet and they could not find any issues. When pressed they tried to say it was overdue for an oil change which is not true. The indicator just came on right before this happened. It has ~7200 miles but it has fully synthetic oil. Then they tried to say it was low on oil and the oil life was zero and that caused the issue. Again not true because it was at 4% and I checked it periodically as stated in the manual. There is a recall related to an ecm malfunction. I am concerned this is related and the fix may not complete.

See all problems of the 2018 Chevrolet Malibu 🔎.

I bought the 2017 Malibu premeir with 5 miles on it in sept 2017 and have had problems from the start. 2018 while riding on interstate my car just stopped went straight to dealer they said nothing was wrong after keeping car for 2 days. Went to leave dealer ship and car stopped in parking lot ,sensors went out on front of car. Fixed 2019. Next my car kept getting water in tire well and I went to dealer and they told me it was not a recall. So I kept bailing out water and parking in garages. Three months later recall . I was without car for 4 weeks as carpet ,headliner and complete trunk carpet and molding had to be replaced because of mold,2020. My car tells me to shift to park when car is in park and I have to turn car off and on nd move from d to p to get it to work. Tells me when 'I'm driving no key found in vehicle or put key fob in pocket. ,yesterday sept 5. 2020 went to get inspection sticker and attendent told me you have no backup lights. Never noticed it. So went to auto zone and bought light and went to mechanic shop to have put in. While sitting in car went to open sunroof, it wasn't working and it had been months since I remember opening it, so 'I'm reading owners manual and went to turn on map lights. No lights. So mechanic comes and says there is nothing wrong with your bulbs. Let me check fuses, usually when both light go out at same time its a fuse problem told him about sun roof and map light, he checked every fuse inside and out. There is nothing wrong with my fuses or the lights. They just wont come on. Neither will sunroof open. My car has 56000 miles on it and I've had problems since 25000 miles. I thought I would keep this car for at least ten years as it cost a pretty penny for the car.

Heater will come on full blast, on it's own, after starting car while parked. This has happened more than 3 times and the heater wasn't even turned on! I have to turn heater off manually. Unk if this is an electrical problem. Dealer said they have heard of this but think it's something in the airwaves? I notice that I have been by a driveup bank when this happens.

See all problems of the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu 🔎.

Driver side door will not open from inside or outside. Door locks all work go up and down and the other three doors lock and unlock and open, but driverside never opens. Happened once before but after manually using driver lock it caught and worked for close to a month before happening again and now it won't open. Both times happened parked and closing the door the door wouldn't latch shut, after 2nd attempt to close the door it latched shut but then would not open again.

See all problems of the 2010 Chevrolet Malibu 🔎.

I was parking my car and I proceeded to put my car in reverse "r" but the gear control would not stay locked into position, nor would the car reverse. It was moving freely between gears but would not lock into position. I then placed the gear control back into park "p" where it would stay push the emergency brake down and turned the car off. When the tow company arrived he manually put the car "shift cable" back where it needed to go in order for the car the gear control to function properly, but once again it would not stay into place. Thankfully I was in a parking lot when this occurred, but this is extremely dangerous, because if the car were to stop in the middle of the road and the shifter cable came loose I would have no way of putting the car into neutral or anything to get the car to a safe place. I had the car towed to my mechanic and he was able to partially rectify the situation.

See all problems of the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu 🔎.

Malfunction indicator lamp came on while I was pulling out of the doctor's office. Vehicle completely shutoff, and nothing was working. I had to manually open my door to get out of the vehicle. I popped my hood to check whether or not my battery cables had become loose, but everything was ok. After returning to the driver's seat, the car started with ease. This was the second time my car had completely shutoff while driving it. In November 2015, as I entered an onramp, it cut off. This almost gave me a heart attack. I took my car to auto zone for a free check, they did not find anything. Today (7/20/2016), I went to auto zone and they ran a different test, gave me a printout that indicated the ecm needed to be replaced. I took it to the dealer (bohn GMC), where it is presently. When my vehicle completely turned off in traffic, I and my passenger, could have been seriously injured or killed. I consider this to be a serious safety hazard. In my owner's manual, it states that if the light comes on and stays own, 'diagnosis and service might be required'. No where does it indicate that the vehicle could turn off while driving.

Power locks do not work properly on my 2009 chevy Malibu. I can sometimes get driver's door to unlock with remote, but rarely the passenger or back doors. The switches inside are of no help either. We have to manually pull up on each lock and then push them down when we exit. This is obviously a safety hazard for me and my passengers in the case we have to enter or exit the vehicle quickly. The locks do occasionally lock when put in gear, but do not always when in park or when the ignition is turned off. With small children, this is dangerous. I have changed remote batteries, reprogrammed remotes, and have changed the fuse for the locks. Nothing has changed. When troubleshooting online, I saw dozens of complaints about this same issue. This is obviously something that Chevrolet needs to fix. They should have a recall immediately and take care of this issue. Customers buy vehicles in good faith that the makers will take care of these known defects. I can understand the ordinary repairs, but this is a problem that the maker is aware of and continues to make no changes.

See all problems of the 2009 Chevrolet Malibu 🔎.

We got up this morning, went to get into our car and as I tried to unlock it I noticed my keyless entry would not unlock the door. I asked my boyfriend if his was working, and his wouldn't open the car either. So I unlocked the door manually and no alarm sounded. The dash didn't light up as it usually does either. I tried starting my car, the idiot lights came on as did my stereo, but the car never tried to turn over. We had no interior lights, no headlights, and not even hazards!! I thought hazards we're supposed to work in emergencies but apparently I was mistaken. Thank god we weren't broke down in the middle of a road or freeway. I've noticed other years of this particular car have a recall for an ignition switch, why not this one? because their stories sound just like mine. This car is being towed to the shop tomorrow morning. If it is the ignition switch, chevy will be hearing from me.

Rear door lock fails to open or close. Must be manually unlocked or locked. The safety concern is the inability to lock or unlock the door in an emergency. Must physically climb into back seat to reach the lever to unlock the door as the lever is located at the rear of the door. This may seem to be more of a convenience issue, but it could very well become a matter of life or death particularly if the occupant is a child or a person with a disability. Furthermore, I read numerous accounts of door lock actuators failing on these vehicles. It is indeed a safety issue. Must a person die before corrective measures are ordered?.

The driver side door failed to open from the inside of the vehicle, despite being unlocked. The door was unaccessible from the outside of the door. Manually locked and unlocked, used the lock/unlock device on the key ring, pressed childlock on and off- unsuccessful. There are several instances noted on on-line blogs with the same issue. The car dealership stated there is an issue with the latch, costing ~$367 for repair. This issue is not covered under the 30k or 100k mile warranty. Does a recall need to be issued?.

The door locks on this vehicle will not secure and must be secured manually when entering or exiting the vehicle, also unlocks and locks during driving. . Very unsafe vehicle at this time due to these door lock issues. Not able to feel comfortable as much with this vehicle due to these issures. Please fix.

This is the second report I have had to make about a problem with my 2002 chevy Malibu. I went to start my car yesterday and the car would not start and instead would just crank. After reading in my owner's manual that the passlock anti-theft system in the car needed to be reset, I had to sit with my car key in the on position for 10 minutes; then I turned my car off and my car started fine. I just had my car towed last week to a dealership where they found nothing wrong with it because I did not know about this problem. If you do a simple internet search anyone can see this is a flaw in the 2002 chevy Malibu and other years of this same make and model. I do not always have time to wait the 10 minutes to reset this problem and am afraid it is only going to get worse and worse. In the event of an emergency what would I do if my car wouldn't start and I had to get somewhere urgently. I wish this organization would do something about this major problem because some hard working americans cannot afford to be late or miss work because of a flaw in our car's design.

See all problems of the 2002 Chevrolet Malibu 🔎.

Door locks and unlocks while driving as well as when no key in ignition. . . . . Continuously!!!!! :I can not even manually lock my doors. . . They will just unlock.

I had ignition recall serviced on 10/15/2014 at Chevrolet dealer. Two days later, key would not open driver's door (manual locks), also stereo and heat would not come on until car was turned off. Problem has just gotten worse, now driver door will not open from inside or outside. I am forced to crawl across front seat to passenger side to get in and out. Also, now stereo stays on when car is turned off, parked and locked up. I called the Chevrolet dealer after the recall service, they said it had nothing to do with them shaving the key down and they would gladly check my car for $149. 00. I called gm and they refused to help. I have spoken to many people online and in person who also own Chevrolets and they are having the same issues. I feel this is a safety issue and needs to be investigated. The chevy dealer and gm dropped the ball on this issue.

The door locks began locking and unlocking while vehicle was running and in park. After turning ignition off and then back on, door locks continued locking and unlocking while driving as well. Then, the door lock switch on driver's door stopped working. Last time this issue started and continued with key fob no longer working, and only way to lock doors was manually and unlock driver's door with key and manually unlock remaining doors. Dealer replaced door lock actuator and key fobs to fix problem. Why is this happening again and within a few months of already having been fixed once? is there a recall for this? I do not want to pay for same repair repeatedly.

Started the car and alarm bell rang. Gas gage was dead and power steering was gone. Had to stop the car and re start it and everything was back. Then we got out on the highway going 70 mph and all the gages went dead, which has happened many many times before and have the routine down now. I pull over and shut the car down, which won't start back up until I do several things. I sit in the drivers seat, take the keys out of the ignition, open the door and lock it like I am leaving the car. Then I sit there until the dome light and the alarm light goes out, once that happens I manually unlock the door, open it and when the alarm goes off I put in the key and start it. Also been having issues with the break lights staying on when I'm not even hitting the breaks.

See all problems of the 2006 Chevrolet Malibu 🔎.

Turn signal isn't operating correctly, it no longer cuts off automatically, three of my four door latches aren't working--don't respond to key fob (the one that works), have to lock all three doors manually. Check engine light comes on after filling up car and has been on for about 7 months with no one at the dealership knowing why. Also have a problem with water settling in my car every time it rains. Key fobs both went out also but only one is now working at 75%. All of these problems have been going on since I first got the car with the dealership either pretending as if I did it or that they do not have enough staff to correct the problem. I know this was only done because I am a female and the car was under warranty. I am so disappointed!!! I bought this car brand new with only 100 miles on it and it seems as if gm wants their dealerships to do this. I know so many people with the same problems from the same parent manufacturer (tahoe, enclave, impala, Malibus) this car seems to have a lot of minor/major problems that all rear their ugly heads at various times of ownership. . Thinking about getting rid of it even though it was my dream car and almost paid for!!!! gm needs to get on the ball!!!.

As I was leaving work at night, I unlocked my doors with the key remote and I went to reach for my driver's side door handle and couldn't open the door. I tried locking and unlocking the door a couple times and I even tried to unlock it manually but could not open the driver's side door. I finally had to climb in through the passenger side door to get into the car. I have noticed that in the past when I went to shut my door it would just bounce of the latch, and I just attributed that to it needed lubrication. I have been looking at the chevy Malibu forums and noticed that this is quite a common issue. . Read more...

Living in arizona, when the weather is hotter than 90 f, the electric door locks do not unlock and have to be manually unlocked.

Door will not open. I was locked in my own car at the gas station. I manually pulled up on the door lock and still couldn't get out. I rolled the window down and pulled on the outside door handle release and nothing. After pushing every button several times and putting the car in and out of park I finally managed to get out. 2 days later the same thing happened but I was outside the car. I had to crawl from the passengers side to get into the drivers seat to get to work. Since the door locks were acting up I pulled the fuse and decided to do it old school and use the key to lock and unlock my car. Good idea until I was leaving work and the key wouldn't open the door. Great!!! hey, I will just unlock the passenger door and climb in. Did you know there is no place to insert a key to unlock the door on the passenger side? I do now. After much cursing I managed to get in using the key but then the door wouldn't close. Oh my god I thought. I had to use 2 bungee cords to hold the door close so I could drive the car 25 miles home. I didn't mention that the back door quit working over a year ago did I? I think it is time for a recall. Being locked in your car in not a good thing. Imagine if the first responders couldn't get you out of your car if you were in a accident because of faulty door actuators. I see multiple complaints of this defect and now it is time somebody has to step up and do their job and address this issue. Apparently somebody has to die first and sue everyone involved to make something happen.

Suddenly the door locks on the drivers side of the vehicle, front and back, began working intermittently. The remote key fob does not work, and the manual button to lock and unlock the doors does not always work. The locks only partially lock, resulting in the doors being able to be partially pulled open from the outside. Sometimes the two locks on the drivers side do not lock at all. Also, the electric windows started malfunctioning - the passenger window cannot be raised and lowered from the drivers side. This appears similar to a recall in the news covering door lock malfunctions in other gm vehicles, but the 2009 Malibu is not included in the recall as far as I can tell.

Recently, I experienced a failed door locking actuator in my 2009 chevy Malibu while driving my 2yr old to daycare. I was turning right out of my neighborhood, when my door(driver’s door) swung open. I grabbed it and tried shutting, but the locking mechanism was locked, so it wouldn’t shut. I pulled over and had to manually unlock the door so my door would shut. I couldn’t even imagine if this situation occurred to a door in the backseat with my daughter sitting there in her child seat. Fast forward one week, and now 3 of my 4 locking actuators are failed. I did some research on the internet and noticed that there are numerous complaints from Malibu owners about these failed locking actuators. I then started to wonder if there was a recall on this. I called gm and they said there isn’t a recall and that is just normal part failure. Normal part failure?!?! I’ve had the car for less than 4 years and have only put 45k miles on it. In my opinion, this is a major safety issue.

I am having the same issue as many on the chevy. Com website. The issue has to do with the door locks not locking. The power door locks attempt to pull the lock down but have lost the ability to consistently do so. It is tot he point where the only way to lock the door is to manually do so. This wouldn't be an issue if the car hasn't already trained you to be use to the doors automatically locking when the car is put in drive and lock with the key fob while walking away from the car with a click and a honk. There are some safety issues here as you aren't quite sure when you car is locked or not. The number of complaints of this same issue was disturbing when I logged onto the chevy. Com forum which discuss such issues. A recall seems inevitable and very much needed for safety reasons.

I was traveling to brighton, CO from ft. Morgan, CO to seller my 2000 chevy Malibu. Our intended purpose was to take the funds from the sell and pick up 1996 chevy s10. Prior to this trip my car had difficulties starting but never failed to start after several attempts. The car engine stalled coming off of the off ramp at around 30 mph. When the car stalled I had to manually steer the vehicle to get it to the shoulder of the road (I just had carpool tunnel surgery and it was painful to do so). After about 2 minutes I attempted to restart the car and it restarted after about the forth attempt at turning the key on waiting 30 seconds for the fuel pump and then turning the key over the rest of the way. After about 2 city blocks the car stalled again going around 20 mph. This time it took much longer before the car would start again. About 25 minutes, we let the engine cool and again it took several attempts to turn the motor over but it final did start. It traveled about a mile and stalled again going about 5 mph. This time we let the car sit for an hour and re attempted to start it. It went another mile and stalled again. We contacted a mechanic who suggested it may be the fuel regulator or the fuel pump. We have replaced the regulator and that did not work we have tested the fuel pump and it is working fine. I have read several documents involving this issue and I am still no closer to figuring out what the problem is. I only know I am not the only one having this issue. This car also has a faulty check engine light and does not appear to be over heating when it stalls. The theft light comes on intermittently but I have check the VIN on my car with chevy and there is no recall for my car. Why is this happening at 115k. This could be very dangerous and I have half a mind to call a news station. I'm sure chevy would love the new advertising. Please fix.

See all problems of the 2000 Chevrolet Malibu 🔎.

Rear doors will not lock when put in gear or at highway speeds or unlock when put in park. Only will lock or unlock manually. The dealer told me that there is no recall on this problem. The rear lock solenoids go bad. And that they have been selling and installing a lot of them. The solenoids are part of the rear door latch. I paid for two new solenoids and installed them . Problem fixed. The parts number has been updated four times? I feel gm should have repaired this at no charge. Why is this not a safty problem ?.

Passenger doors will not lock (or unlock ) with the remote or manual push button switch on drivers arm rest. The only way to lock (or unlock) rear doors is crawl over front seats to manually pull up lever on back side of door. Or. . . . . . . Use the electric windows and lower rear windows to reach in from outside. . . . . . Which anyone that lives in a cold climate knows you don't lower an electric window in cold weather. . . . . Have been to the dealer numerous times and they refuse to cover anything. . . . . What if I have my grandson strapped in a car seat in the back seat and an emergency arises ? how do I "quickly" get him out??? this is a very common situation with the chev. Malibus. Plus there are numerous issues with the front end and steering components.

The car is a 2003 chevy Malibu. Occasionally, the "theft system" light will turn on for no reason, and the car will not start. The manual reset is to wait 10 minutes and try to restart the car. This was discovered after several expensive repairs, including fuel pump and ignition, were done. It has been inconvenient and sometimes dangerous to wait around for 10-30 minutes to restart the car. The theft system is flawed and there needs to be a recall to help owners fix this without having to put hundreds or thousands of dollars into fixing things that will not resolve the problem.

See all problems of the 2003 Chevrolet Malibu 🔎.

The power door locks do not lock or unlock when the vehicle gear shift is put in park or drive. The first lock became disabled while under warranty and was repaired. . Now the remaining (3) three power locks do not function. . They stopped functioning when the warranty ended. . . I did not repair them because the cost is a few hundred dollars per lock. . I have to turn the car ignition off while the transmission is in drive and then put the shifter in park. Otherwise I have to go around to each door and lock them manually. . Very embarrassing. . Not certain of the possible safety hazard though.

When first got car doors locked and unlocked with remote for apps 1 week. Then over appx month stopped working 1 door at a time. At this point the power locks inside (on door) do not work and lock/ unlock intermittently and even if I can unlock manually my drivers door it still stays locked even when lock is in fully unlocked position. Quite scary for someone that drives alone at night and my doors are unlocking themselves. God forbid I do get into an accident and need to get out of the car quickly. Also this makes it so my panic does not work on my fob. Yes I've changed batteries multiple times. Also my power steering has been cutting in and out while moving most often during turns. What happens if I am moving on a highway and I cannot steer correctly? feeling very unsure of my safety at this point.

The driver door locks stopped working. When I brought to the dealer to repair, it was determined the actuator no longer worked properly and it was repaired under warranty. After another six months, the passenger side went out, the unit was no longer under warranty. The following year the same problem recurred on the driver side. Today, neither side works nor do the key fobs. The cost to repair is $350 per lock. After reseraching this seems to be a recurring and noted issue with gm. The manual states "unlocked doors can be dangerous". Many Malibu owners have lodged complaints on independant sites including Chevrolet Malibu forum.

Previously submitted this report/complaint on this site, to gm and to the ftc around 2004 with no response. The Chevrolet Malibu from 2000 has similar ignition and engine issues now reported on the news in the cobalt and other cars. Owner had to replace the intake manifold several times, the ignition,starter, key system, idle control valve, and other parts numerous times due to the car engine smoking, "turning off" or not starting after stopping, parking, and not starting upon inserting the key, idling high or timing off. This began within 2-3 years of owning the car. The engine light came on when driving or starting the car. Multiple times the security light would blink and owner would have to wait 15 minutes to turn it on. Gm even has this listed in the manual (in security feature/lock system). Owner first told it was due to problems with the engine, then key, then it was a security programming issue, then it was the intake manifold (not covered under warranty for some reason). Some of the repairs cost hundreds of dollars and costs for towing. Eventually the car will not start at all and it must be reprogrammed, worked on by dealer. The Malibu and other cars such as Saturn have this issue. May be related to the engine and ignition issue mentioned in the news. At times owner was stuck far from home and had to tow the car. Highway driving was nerve wracking because you never knew what the car would do. There are hundreds of internet complaints about the Malibu from 2000 and onward related to engine and ignition failures.