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10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
2 / 2
Injuries / Deaths:
2 / 0
Average Mileage:
32,891 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

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.

2017 Chevrolet Malibu engine problems

engine problem

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2017 Chevrolet Malibu Owner Comments (Page 2 of 12)

« Read the previous 20 complaints

problem #208

Jun 222023

Malibu

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

Engine reduced while on the highway.

- Shreveport , LA, USA

problem #207

Jun 202023

Malibu

  • miles
Shift to park warning continues to come on daily when I go to put my car in park. I have to fidget with the shifter to get the computer to recognize that my car is in park and the car will then shut off. Recently I was stopped at a red light, tried to accelerate at the green light and my car completely shut off, while I was still in drive. I could not accelerate and had to place my car in park. Then my stabilitrak sensor came on, along with a notice that my battery saver was on. I had to call a police offer to help me off the road. The car was then able to turn on and I drove it home but this is not safe.

- Chandler, AZ, USA

problem #206

Jun 112023

Malibu

  • miles
I was driving my car at a normal rate of speed when all of a sudden it slowed down to a crawl and almost caused an accident, reduced engine power and engine came one after getting the codes they were 2122 and 2097

- Milwaukee, WI, USA

problem #205

Apr 082019

Malibu

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

The day I bought the vehicle in 2019 the engine light came on, I took the car back to the dealership and was told they couldn-??t do anything. I took it to them and the shop here in town and I was told by both shops on multiple occasions they could not fix any of the issues. They treated me like I-??m just a paycheck for them. My car for 3+ years now shuts completely off when I slow down or stop, including on highways. -??Engine speed reduced-?? message comes up every time I drive. Now I am being told my brakes are going to go out and nobody can help me. I have to step on my gas after I start the car or it just sputters.

- Baker City , OR, USA

problem #204

May 252023

Malibu

  • 95,000 miles
The contact owns a 2017 Chevrolet Malibu. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the reduced speed warning light and the check engine warning light were illuminated. The vehicle decelerated and the brake pedal became stiff while depressed, while the RMP-??s fluctuated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where the vacuum pump was replaced; however, the contact stated that the RPM-??s was still fluctuating. Additionally, the contact stated that while driving, if the accelerator pedal was not depressed, the vehicle would shut off. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to exceed 60 MPH while driving. The contact stated that a DTC code for the camshaft was illuminated. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 95,000.

- Anaheim, CA, USA

problem #203

Jun 072023

Malibu

  • miles
Reduce Power Engine appears on the dash board. The car starts slowing down, I can-??t speed up, I Have to park on the side of the heavy traffic in the Highway. I have to wait around 5 minutes and then drive. I still have the engine symbol on. This happens regularly like 2 to 3 times a week.

- New Windsor , NY, USA

problem #202

Jun 022023

Malibu

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

My car has reduce engine speed. I-??m driving on the highway and out of nowhere the car shots down and a symbol appears on my dashboard that says Reduce Engine Speed. Literally the car slows down to a minimal speed until I can-??t drive anymore. I have to stop and turn off the car for 5 minutes until I can turn it on and drive to my destination in a reduce speed.

- New Windsor , NY, USA

problem #201

Jan 262023

Malibu

  • miles
My car Engine failed on me and I have Taken this car Back to dealership over and over again and they kept telling me nothing was wrong and kept clearing my codes on the car and now out of a car I have to still pay on this car cost me 22,000 dollars I bought the car with 34,000 miles in Dec of 2019 and have had problems since the first power loss i cant remember exact date I found out this car had a recall and at 3,300 miles with the valve and gotten fixed I had loss of power with the gas pedal which was also recall car felt like it was gonna stop on me multiple times with power loss engine was riding rough I wold smell a burning smell at times my shift into park as well needed fixed the dealership said I needed a new computer and they couldn't do nothing about it I even Contacted GM and nothing was done before my car engine went out on me every time I took the car in the codes that came up was in the car history which i asked why do codes keep pop up in history if you keep clearing them that means something wrong and they couldn't give me a answer My extended warranty denied my claim they had a inspector come out and take a look due to consumption of oil and bent valve is a part in the engine they wont cover and I even asked my advisor all the times I brought my car in this could of been issue and he said possibly I have all my invoices as well have I dont have a way to upload them at the moment

- Desmoines , IA, USA

problem #200

Apr 242023

Malibu

  • miles
I purchased a 2017 Chevrolet Malibu LT for my son Memorial Day weekend in 2019. The first night we got the vehicle home it rained overnight. We checked the trunk and found water in the trunk. After a search online we found that this was a known issue for the Malibu yet Chevrolet/GM did not issue a recall. After putting pressure on the dealership that sold the vehicle to us they agreed to send us to a Chevrolet dealership to have the issue fixed at no charge. Last Monday, April 24, 2023, my son was driving his vehicle and the StabiliTrak came on and his car would not accelerate. He took the car into the dealership and they determined his pistons were cracked and it would be $6,900 to repair the pistons/engine. After doing an internet search I found a letter on a commercial attorney's website and on the GM website that was sent to Malibu and Cruz customer's in 2017. The piston damage was a known issue. The letter from 2017 stated it was a misfiring of an ECM module that could lead to piston damage. Owners of the Malibu and the Chevy Cruz were given to March 31, 2019, to come in and have the module reprogrammed and new oil placed in the vehicle. We bought the care at the end of May 2019 so there was no way to know of this issue. There was no recall so the information was not readily found. I did not find out this was a known issue until I did the Google search last week. I have reached out to Chevrolet and filed a claim. Chevrolet at first said they could maybe pay 20% for the repairs. They should be paying 100% due to the fact they knew of the issue and should have issued a recall.

- Mint Hill, NC, USA

problem #199

Mar 272023

Malibu

  • miles
2017 Chevy Malibu has P2138 showing up.. I was on the highway loss half the power to my car, almost causing a major accident, went from 65 mph to 30mph in seconds.. This is a safety issue & needs to be address ASAP!! I have my vehicle at the dealership, the service teams seems to have no clue that there is an issue with the mailbu's !! The P2138 is defined as -??Throttle/Pedal Position Sensor/Switch -??D-??/-??E-?? Voltage Correlation.-?? It is triggered when the vehicle's Engine Control Module (ECM) detects that the signals from the two throttle position sensors or the two accelerator pedal position sensors don't correlate.

- Thornton, CO, USA

problem #198

Feb 232023

Malibu

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

2017 Chevy Malibu over 15 times this happens since we owned buying it brand new it has "Reduced Engine Power" error come on and the car can't accelerate over 30 miles per hour. This is a continued problem all the time and very dangerous when we are on the tollway that has a 70-mph speed limit, and you can't get the car to over 30 mph. This same problem happens on our 2018 Chevy Malibu over 5 times since we owned it too and it's getting worse! This is extremely dangerous and takes you a long time to get home when you can only go 30 mph or less because of the "Reduced Engine Power" Limit. Same 2017 Chevy Malibu also has the "Shift to Park" Error so we can't shut off the engine because the car won't go into park, you have to back up and keep trying to get the shifter to let you put into park if you're lucky it will finally after many shifting attempts back and forth to get rid of the error so you can shut off the engine to exit your car. GM should be responsible for a recall on these two very important errors that these Chevy Malibu cars are having on both of the problems are very dangerous "Reduced Engine Speed" and "Shift to Park" can't shut off the engine is dangerous.

- Ingleside, IL, USA

problem #197

Feb 052023

Malibu

  • miles
-??Engine power reduce-?? error on dash as well as check engine light. Driving on highway at fast speeds when this message displayed and my cars mph dropped to 30mph. I-??ve had this issue fixed once already with the dealership and it turned out to be the sensor throttle or something with the pedal. Yet, 5 months later, I am having the SAME problem. This is very unsafe

- Mansfield, OH, USA

problem #196

Oct 012022

Malibu

  • miles
The contact owns a 2017 Chevrolet Malibu. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the check engine warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic to be diagnosed. The mechanic retrieved fault code: P0138 (engine control module (ECM). The vehicle had unknown repairs completed; however, the failure recurred. The contact made the independent mechanic aware of the failure; however, the vehicle was not taken back to be diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was unknown.

- Summerville, SC, USA

problem #195

Jan 312023

Malibu

  • miles
Engine light comes on, reduced engine power message displays. Have had numerous issues with this. Replaced gas pedal, was fine for a year. The issue is back. Why has'nt NHTSA acted on this well known issue? Car goes from 70 to 40 on the highway. GM has done nothing to fix the problem! First started around 10,000 Miles.

- North Adams, MI, USA

problem #194

Jan 242023

Malibu

  • miles
My wife has had this happen three times now in her Malibu: she's driving on the interstate and the engine suddenly loses power. A light comes on that says "engine low power mode, " and the check engine light comes on. She has to complete the journey at low speed (less than 30 mph). Once she gets home, shuts the car off, opens the door, and when she comes back and restarts it 10 minutes later, it's fine. Today, it didn't shut the check engine life off, so we brought it in for diagnostic. We researched online and found the class action suit for "accelerator pedal sensor" being faulty. We believe this is what's going on. It's currently at the garage getting diagnosed. This is a known, dangerous issue that GM should take responsibility for!

- Saint Albans City, VT, USA

problem #193

Jan 022023

Malibu

  • miles
Driving vehicle like normal and then the check engine light comes on with the stabilitrak light, and get message "reduced engine power". Car goes down to less than 50 miles per hour and is struggling to go must faster while I am on the freeway. The RPMs keep going higher and higher even though the car is not going very fast. Get home and let it rest. Keep having same issue on and off past two weeks. Sometimes it comes on and goes off, has been on past three days acting the same way. Check engine light says Pedal Sensor issue. Known recall for it listed with letter sent out in 2019, but of course this was only if you were having the issue at the time (which I didn't) and it is only covering for cars under 150K miles. My car has 192K miles, so they will no longer cover it, even though it is a known issue has been for some time now! It is very expensive and unfortunate that they will not cover this issue regardless of miles, knowing that this can happen to the 2017 Chevy Malibu's at any time. Still driving it the way it is. Did try to clean out the Throttle body and see if that helped, but issue still is there. Will try to replace sensor at some point and see what happens.

- Houston, TX, USA

problem #192

Oct 182022

Malibu

  • miles
The contact owns a 2017 Chevrolet Malibu. The contact stated that while pulling into a gas station the vehicle lost motive power without warning. The contact stated that she was informed to top off the fuel and the vehicle was able to restart and drive with no further issues. The contact stated that the vehicle was able to restart several hours later. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer or independent mechanic for diagnostic test or repair. The contact stated that recently while driving approximately 20 MPH, the brakes locked up as the brake pedal was depressed and an abnormal noise was heard. The contact stated that the vehicle stopped as the brake pedal traveled to the floor. The vehicle was inspected by an independent mechanic that diagnosed the failure as a defective brake vacuum pump that needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure however, no assistance was offered. The failure mileage was unknown.

- Houston, TX, USA

problem #191

Nov 152022

Malibu

  • 88,000 miles
The contact owns a 2017 Chevrolet Malibu. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle lost motive power with the engine power reduced message displayed and the traction control warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, who diagnosed that the air intake system was faulty. The mechanic cleaned the air intake system; however, the failure recurred. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 88,000.

- Bloomfield, NM, USA

problem #190

Nov 262022

Malibu

  • miles
The check engine light came on and the stabilitrak came on. I went to nearest car mechanic and the mechanic told me it was safe that-??s normal and it was safe so I proceeded to goto work the next day. The next day I-??m on my way to work and 30 minutes on the highway my check engine light come on this time saying engine power reduced I went from driving 60mph to 20mph with four wheelers speeding pass me. Being far away from home I pulled over side of the highway to not panic. I turned on my hazard lights and proceeded driving and made my way home because I didn-??t want to be stranded.

- Syracuse, NY, USA

problem #189

Dec 012022

Malibu

  • miles
Engine shuts off while driving and sometimes will not restart. This is not the regular start/stop functionality. My car shuts of when it should not and creates a crash hazard.

- West Sacramento, CA, USA

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