It has been there for years, stated the previous owner when I bought it. The noise is terrible popping knock as you turn the steering wheel. Just bought the car used with low miles 85k and after new tires it as become very noticeable scary to drive. Every time you turn the wheel clunk form the steering shaft. I noticed the recall thanks to site but when I called GM they of course it doesn't apply to my car.

Wow GM wake up. My old Mercedes is at 206k miles and never had a steering shaft issue. My dads MBZ is 40 years old and still on the original steering shaft.This a dangerous part to have break. If it should break you would be unable to steer the car.

It should be made to last for ever. No recall wow! Back to driving my old Benz until this car is fixed.

My car has the same popping, clunking sound while turning that many many 2007 Malibu owners have complained about. I took it to a front end shop and they told me it was the intermediate steering shaft and they would fix it for $750.00. I recently noticed Chevy had a recall #105346 September 2014 to replace the intermediate steering shafts on approx 7,000 2007 Malibus. When I called the Chevy dealer he asked for the last 8 digits of my VIN and told me my car was not one of the vehicles to be recalled. The front end shop told me the shaft was unsafe but until Chevy steps up to the plate and recalls ALL 2007 Chevy Malibus I will continue to drive it. Wish me luck!

I bought an '07 malibu in 2010, started out as the best car ever - that changed a yr and a half ago. The car was a rattletrap, sounded like it was falling apart (something actually did fall off the swaybars, but thats another issue.) 6 months ago, I brought the car in because there was a clunky popping noise in the steering rack & my mechanic tells me it's a huge safety issue as it means that as you"re steering it's popping in and out and could've caused a very serious accident. I pay the $585 to get the complete rack & pinion fixe - complain to Chevy & the CS gives me some crap about why this car can't be recalled. Present day (7/11/13), the rack is popping again - it was so torn up, my mechanic thought I had been offroading and he had to replace it (along with many other repairs) again at 55,567 miles. This car is a POS that has already cost me over a $1000 in repair in 3 yrs! Luckily the rack was still under warranty from 6 mos. ago. I am never buying Chevy again and am sticking with foreign cars.

since I came upon this car complaint site, I see that their are a lot of people out their with the same steering and clunking problem I have. I had it fixed at the dealership here in Gainesville, but the clunking returned before the year is out. Now today 8/2012 they said I only had part of it fixed, how was I to know that this steering problem had two different parts that need to be put on, it was not mentioned at the time I paid them almost $200 to do what they said that had fixed the problem for me. So tell me what is my next step. This 2007 Malibu is starting to get scary when I have my grand in the car all the time.

I noticed clunking and jerking when turning very slow. Brought it up to dealership and they could not reproduce it. Imagine that. Now I have 52,000 and I am considering trading and they noticed it right away. Car has been taken care of with every maintenance needed, clean, low miles, loaded and I am getting a terrible trade because of this "known issue" that I didn't think much of because I was told it was nothing. This has made my mind up to never buy Chevy again...my last vehicle was a trailblazer and it caught fire 2 miles down the road after picking it up from the Chevy dealer and it was burned beyond recognition by the time it was put out. Chevy took no responsibility. I should have learned my lesson.

I do expect some breakdowns of mechanical objects from time to time, but I had this same problem with this car about 2 years ago at 40,000 miles. It clunks while driving, and makes scraping noises in the steering column when turning. 2 years ago they replaced the steering column, now 40,000 miles later I'm taking it in for the same thing. Thank goodness I got the extended warranty. I really like this car, but will probably trade it in before the warranty expires if Chevy doesn't admit the fault and come up with a fix. This isn't the only problem it's had, either.

I bought my 2007 Malibu in July 2011 with 34, 246 miles. Unfortunately I bought it with no warranty. But I don't understand why there was not a recall on the popping noise I hear when turning or stopping. I was told it would cost me $470+ to replace the intermediate shaft. After only 34,000 miles I think this is totally ridiculous. I have a Mitsubishi with over 150,000 miles and have never experienced this problem. I don't have $400 to fix this problem and shouldn't have to. It is so annoying to hear popping when I turn a corner on a car that is only 4 years old. WHY WAS THERE NOT A RECALL?

I bought my 2007 Malibu as a program car in March of 2008. The popping in the steering started in March of 2009. When I was told it was the "lower I-shaft" which was replaced under warrenty. Since it has conitued off and on until June 2011 when I lost the ability to steer my car. I took it in and was told they couldn't find anything and reset the "electrical power steering". Following this visit it happened again on the 6th of July when again nothing was found. I have found several complaints about this issue and contacted GM about it. They were not very helpful, well it happened yet again yesterday and now I am told it is the steering column and gear that need to be replaced and that it is NOT covered under the warrenty. I think this is crap!! There are enough complaints that this should be considered a recall!! Contacted GM again and they said they "may be able to give assitance for the repair", "may"? I think it should be completely covered!! This could cause a major accident and I am a single parent, if my daughter is hurt due to this issue, I will seek legal help!

I purchase this car in 2008 as a used car. I continued to ask the dealer for the car fax and they said at time they did not have access to getting one. I realize after purchasing this vehicle something was wrong. I returned it to the dealer to have this problem fix in the steering system in June 2008. I had to have this same problem fix again in October 2008. I have all reports on this car. Then I was told by the auto mechanic that it appeared that the vehicle had been in a car reck. I have continue to ask the dealership to help with this problem. Now this same problem has returned and there is no warranty on the vehicle. The dealership has sold me a lemon and I'm stuck with this car and no one wants to fix this problem. The car makes a sound from the steering with jerking, popping, and clunking noise it was doing it when it was under warranty and continue to do so now. Please help me with this problem.

when going over bumps the steering wheel moves left or right on its own and it made terrible noises. Sounded like the driver side tire was going to fall off. that started about 4-5 months ago. Car was under warranty and so I took it in to local dealership. Dealership stated they replaced everything under front end, which they did fix part of the noise. I have been told by the dealership that the remaining noise is coming from the steering column. "GM" is supposed to be deciding on how to fix this issue, and there have been several more Malibu's with this same issue. I was also told that GM was not going to recall this issue, which means they want pay to fix it.

Well, now it has become hard to turn the steering wheel. feels like there are 2 gears in there and they are locking together. I want GM to get this issue fixed. I drive my 2 small children in this car everyday.