This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
The contact owns a 2005 Chevrolet Impala. The contact stated the ignition failed to start until after numerous attempts. The failure recurred seven times. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer, who stated that the ignition switch would need to be replaced. The vehicle had not been repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the defect. The failure mileage was unavailable. Updated 8/19/14 the consumer stated the steering mechanism failed also. Updated 09/5/2014
I recently purchased a 2005 Impala in April of 2014. There was no check light engine on for about a week, but the light did come on and also with the airbags light. When braking both lights will disappear. At times of accelerating, the lights will appear. Also, I have a faulty ignition switch that is affecting my headlights, radio, interior lights, and my key will barely turn.
Found out my horn stopped working while driving. Nearly got in several accidents because I couldn't sound my horn as warning. Found out from shinee la fleur at the dealership that Chevy put in a update to cover the horn from water damage. This should have been a recall not an update. The horn shorted out because water got to the electric part of the horn. This problem could have shorted out my entire electrical system but luckily it only shorted out the horn. The dealer wants to charge me $425 for there mistake. I would like this car to be on a recall for possible damage by water because the shield they put on now protects it. Why wasn't this shield sold with the car from the beginning. The tech stated that this problem does exist on all these cars but Chevy does nothing about it.
- Tacoma, WA, USA
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The contact owns a 2005 Chevrolet Impala. The contact stated that while driving at night, he noticed that the instrument panel failed to illuminate. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer for diagnostic testing. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 180,000 and current mileage was 200,000. Updated 7/22/14 the consumer stated there was an issue with the ABS and ignition. Updated 07/29/14
I've heard a lot about the recalls regarding several Chevy vehicles in regards to the ignition and I was wondering why Impala are not on the list. You can look at numerous web forms with people having trouble starting their Impala's like my self. You can also read that there is really no explanation or fix to the problem. The problem in general is a good majority of the time older Chevy Impala's have a hard time starting or just won't start for a good 15 minutes. From the many Impala owners I talk to a lot of them are wondering if this was the start of the issue with the recalled Chevy vehicles. I have yet to experience any other described issue related to the recall but again I am worried if this is a sign of the issues or slightly related.
Vehicle shut off while driving, this has occurred twice, able to direct vehicle to side of the road safely. At time had multiple keys and items hanging from keychain. Now drive with just key alone in ignition has not occurred since.
I was driving at approximately 40 mph on a straight roadway with brights on when the headlights went out. This occurred in the early morning while it was still dark out. The parking lights remained on. Pulling the headlight switch on the left side of dash to the "manual on" position did not help. I turned on the fog lights and returned home using the fog lights only. Upon arriving home, I was able to get the headlights to work again by switching to high beam and back. This has been an intermittent problem for this vehicle in the past month. The multifunction switch felt like it was fully engaged and gave an audible click when pulled. I have ordered a replacement multifunction switch to repair this.
I noticed a strange smell like melting plastic coming from my passenger side dashboard under the glove compartment. Took it straight to the dealer. They discovered my back window defrost shorted out the fuse box on the passenger side. Completely melted it and ruined the box. If I had waited any longer it probably would have started a fire.
Speedometer stopped working properly. Would register zero or off the scale. Never correct. With so many complaints you would think that something would be done as this is a necessary instrument but obviously GM doesn't care and ntsb is too busy until someone is killed.
While driving on the interstate with the cruise set to 65 mph, the needle on the speedometer started to slowly show a decrease in speed eventhough the actual speed of the car did not change. Over the next 50 miles the speedometer continued to decrease until it was below 0 although the cars speed stayed a 65mph. Since then similar problems appeared with the RPM gauge where the needle shows it redlining even though the car is idling.
During a snow storm, traveling with traffic at a safe speed. I was cut off by another vehicle because my horn failed. I was not able to alert the other driver that it was not safe to merge into my lane. Resulting in my car entering the ditch to avoid a multi-car accident. I have researched 2005 Chevy Impala horn failure, and I have found many have burned out. My mechanic states he believes it is a known issue with Chevrolet due to the placement of the horn itself, the horn is in an unprotected area, it can and will "burn" out due to rain water, snow, etc. This is a safety issue. As important as any other. The cost to replace the horn is over $200 with labor because of the additional labor to get to the horn.
This has happened a few times now with both the speedometer and temperature gauge. I start the car and start driving and happen to look down and either the speedometer or the temperature gauge will be giving a false high reading. Seeing as the car had just started it could not possibly be overheating. I find if I shut the car off and cycle the key from off to on without starting engine I can get it to drop back to where it should be. I hear this is a very common problem and it will fail eventually. I drive highways mostly and not knowing my correct speed when trying to enter and merge with traffic is very dangerous.
Noticed a smell and started seeing smoke coming out of the glove compartment. Turned off car and checked to find out the blower motor, resister and harness melted.
Car has just rolled over to a little over 165, ,000 miles and when we bought it at the time we didn't think anything of it and then turns out a year after we bought the car it started smelling like gas big time but we didn't know where it was coming from then when I went to put the car in park the check engine light came on so im like thinking now what and so we take it to a garage and they say oh your entire exhaust system is rusted out and that there's a dollar size hole near the front of the exhaust but we didn't get it fixed becuz we couldn't at the time so they just told me to drive it as is and I have been but I've been noticing that it sounds louder and louder almost like how a car does not have an exhaust system and I really don't feel safe becuz its loud and it smells like gas on the inside and im afraid of it catching on fire one of these days and as for the resistor blower module for the A/C and heater we already had to replace that three times becuz it kept going out and I really don't want to have the car catch on fire becuz the blower motor resistor module isn't working properly and I don't have any money to keep fixing things on my car.
The contact owns a 2005 Chevrolet Impala. The contact stated after adding gasoline to the vehicle, the fuel gauge displayed an inaccurate reading. The speed odometer remained at zero regardless upon the speed the vehicle was driven. In addition, the temperature gauge would fluctuate. The failure recurred whenever the vehicle was in operation. The manufacturer was not notified of the defect. The approximate failure mileage was 160,000.
It started with the tachometer not reading right, then it started working, then stopped, now the speedometer and tachometer is not working right, if I turn off the car or be at a non-moving state it will read anywhere from 10-20mph, if I am driving it will read or not at all, nothing is accurate...good grief my car has under 41000 miles on it. It seems like to me after looking at the extensive complaints on this problem with the Impala, Chevrolet would issue a recall and fix this ridiculous issue. It certainly makes me not want to buy another Chevrolet again! I would think they would want to have more of their cars on the road than foreign and realize the american people are more informed and do research before buying large purchases such as a car, and we base our decisions on what we hear and read on companies customer satisfaction, and most importantly the safety issues!
My Impala is having traction control and ABS issues making it harder to feel safe on the road. ABS starts working for no reason when stopping lightly and the traction control also starts working when taking off in normal conditions making the car hesitant.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Columbus , OH, USA