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10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
3 / 1
Injuries / Deaths:
2 / 0
Average Mileage:
20,366 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.

2018 Chevrolet Malibu engine problems

engine problem

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2018 Chevrolet Malibu Owner Comments (Page 12 of 13)

« Read the previous 20 complaints

problem #24

Jun 122019

Malibu

  • 39,000 miles

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

The contact owns a 2018 Chevrolet Malibu. The contact stated that the vehicle would vibrate and shake each time after being refueled. When the contact attempted to restart the vehicle, it stalled. There were no warning indicators illuminated. The vehicle was taken to coggin Chevrolet (10880 philips hwy, jacksonville, fl 32256, (904) 342-6447) where it was diagnosed, but no failure code was found. A week later, the vehicle was taken to beaver Chevrolet (3494 philips hwy, jacksonville, fl 32207, (904) 398-3036) where it was diagnosed that the purge valve and the charcoal canister needed to be placed. The vehicle was repaired, but the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken back to the same dealer, but was not diagnosed or repaired. The dealer contacted the manufacturer and informed them that a failure code could not be found. The manufacturer provided a case number. The approximate failure mileage was 39,000.

- St John's, FL, USA

problem #23

Jul 232019

Malibu

  • 18,000 miles
I have had my car in twice for my issue now. When attempting to accelerate the engine light comes on and I have to push the gas to the floor to get the car to move. First time it happened as I was getting on the expressway last time was pulling out onto a busy road during rush hour and almost got into an accident because of this. Both dealers I have taken it to for this issue have pulled the same trouble code and neither will repair the knock sensor that the code is for. I keep getting told to just drive it until it happens again and the engine light is on to bring it back in. My issue is when you restart the car the light will be off and they never have any appointments available for at least a week. I have contacted GM directly and basically been told the same as the dealer to just drive it til it happens again. I feel that not only my saftey but the safety of others on the road is in jeopardy because of this. I dont know what else to do at this point/ between insurance and my lease payment im paying $500 a month for a car that im now nervous driving not just that now if I were to get into an accident because of the issue that ive had it in for twice im gonna be stuck with trying to come up with an extra $1000 for my deductible. Any help I can get would be greatly appreciated

- Saint Clair Shores, MI, USA

problem #22

Jul 312019

Malibu

  • 23,000 miles
23000 miles on a used vehicle. Acceleration/low power, the vehicle does not receive any power until 4000 rpms, gas pedal can be pushed down and still takes it time to accelerate. Mpg is currently averaging 18 mpg advertised as 27-37 mpg

- Las Vegas, NV, USA

problem #21

Jul 242019

Malibu

  • 5,000 miles

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

Vehicle frequently has an issue accelerating. When pulling out into traffic or departing from a red light, the vehicle fails to move more than approximately 5 miles an hour for approximately 5-10 seconds. You can have the gas pedal pushed to the floor and still the car has serious hesitation and delay of acceleration. This is extremely dangerous. It is a mystery if you are going to pull out into traffic and not move or maybe the car will accelerate normal. You will not know until you try!

- Foxboro, WI, USA

problem #20

May 252019

Malibu

  • miles
Takata recall - when I put in park and turn off engine, it is still running. I have to jiggle the park several times until it goes off. This is reoccurring more and more. Bayside in prince frederick, md has said others have come in with this problem also.

- Mechanicsville, MD, USA

problem #19

May 152018

Malibu

  • 13,000 miles
My car is lagging when I come from a complete stop. It sputters at times when I accelerate. My car is also making a vibration noise when I accelerate, slow down, turning, on highway, city streets and when I'm coasting. This start happening when my vehicle reached 13,000 miles. I almost got into four accidents due to this issue. There need to be a recall asap! I'm pretty sure that is not going to be one until someone dies because of it.

- Lenexa, KS, USA

problem #18

Jun 172019

Malibu

  • 7,500 miles

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

While driving my 2018 Malibu with only 7500 miles on it, the car would not accelerate. I pushed the gas pedal to the floor and the car had no power and I almost was in a crash with another vehicle. A lot of lights came on the dashboard and the gauges went to zero. An error message displayed that said something like engine power reduced and the check engine light came on. The gas gauge and others acted like the car was shut off. This is very dangerous for me and my family as traffic in the northern Virginia area is very heavy. I pulled to the side of the road and shut the car off. I tried to restart it and it would not restart for 10 minutes. When it did restart the check engine light was still on and the car still had very limited power. This needs fixed asap. It is currently at the dealer where I bought it from in November of 2018. I told them about the power problem when I had the first service oil change done and they said there was nothing they could do about it. I bought a new car so that I wouldn't have any problems and now I have to deal with this product that no one wants to fix. Please find a solution to this problem as it is life threatening.

- Woodbridge, VA, USA

problem #17

Apr 292019

Malibu

  • 14,000 miles
I bought the vehicle in April 2019 with 14,000 miles on it. Since then, the vehicle experiences low power/hesitation at low speeds. This is especially evident when turning/pulling out onto an intersection from a stop. There is no acceleration at all. I took it to the dealer & test drove it with the mechanic. During the drive, the car displayed the symptoms. However, when the mechanic drove it himself, he could not duplicate it. I mentioned the technical service bulletin #19na-032. According to them, this bulletin is not applicable to my vehicle's VIN. In doing my own research, my VIN falls within the tsb's range. This is a serious safety issue as I've almost been hit multiple times by oncoming traffic. A recall definitely needs to be released before someone gets injured or killed.

- Muscatine, IA, USA

problem #16

May 292019

Malibu

  • 3,100 miles
My car was bought new in December 2018. Starting in April of 2018, with a little over 3000 miles on the car, I began to notice that when I drove the car with a cold start (mornings and after a full day of work) the car would not respond to me pressing on the gas pedal. I would push down, and it would take about 5-8 seconds for the car to actually accelerate at all. This has been happening almost every day for nearly a month. Multiple times, I have pulled out of a driveway and was almost hit by cross traffic because my car literally wouldn't go. We have taken it to the service center twice now, and they haven't been able to pull any codes or find any issues wrong with it. These needs to be resolved before someone is seriously injured. ## VIN passed ## Chevrolet, Malibu, 2018 ##

- Lakewood, CA, USA

problem #15

Jan 072019

Malibu 4-cyl

  • 4,700 miles
Purchased 2018 Chevy Malibu with 4,200 but new due to it being a dealer courtesy car on 12/18/18, on 1/7/19 the car would not accelerate while stationary in a parking lot attempting to pull out of the parking spot. I put the car in park and when shifting back to drive the transmission slammed into gear and the accelerator barely responded and the car revved to over 5,000 RPM's. I took into superior Chevrolet on 1/8/19, on 1/11/19 they still did not know what the issue was and were unable to duplicate it. On 1/4/19 the dealership said they were connecting the car to a machine that would supply the smallest specs of the car to send to GM engineers, on 1/16/19 the GM engineers advised to replace the tcm (transmission control module). Tcm was replaced and the car was picked up on 1/18/19. On 5/22/19 while driving through an intersection the accelerator failed to respond again and revved to 5,500 RPM's. it took approx one minute for the accelerator to respond in the meantime I was almost rear-ended by the car behind me. I took the car back to superior Chevrolet on 5/23/19 reporting the accelerator did not respond again as it had in January. The techs were unable to duplicate the issue again and the service manager drove the car home to see if it would duplicate, it did not. On 5/24/19 I was advised they updated the computer and that should resolve the problem this time. The first failure happened at approx 4,700 miles. The second occurring at approx 11,700. The consumer stated upon the 3rd failure the onstar diagnostic stated that there was an issue with the engine and transmission system.

- Greenbrier, AR, USA

problem #14

May 232019

Malibu

  • 31,000 miles

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

I bought my car a few weeks ago, my check engine light come on and off I have a certified warranty. The warning that pops is when I start my car say 'reduce engine power' and it messes with my lights as well as my gas pedal to where I can't go. It's very dangerous, especially when on the highway.

- Hagerstown, MD, USA

problem #13

May 232019

Malibu

  • 14,000 miles
Car will lose power when driving. I was turning left crossing traffic and it lost power. Car would not accelerate for 3 seconds essentially it felt like the car stalled even though it was still running. I have had this happen 3 other times as well.

- Cincinnati, OH, USA

problem #12

May 182019

Malibu

  • 7,500 miles
The vehicle loses power after warming up. Vehicle sputters during acceleration and sometimes will not accelerate at all. This almost caused me to get into an accident as I pulled out and pressed the accelerator and the car would not move. There are no lights or codes present. According to online forums there is a tsb for this (19-na-32); it needs to be a safety recall...this is very dangerous.

- Middleburg, FL, USA

problem #11

Mar 012019

Malibu

  • 15,000 miles
I was recently getting on the highway in my 2018 Malibu and had absolutely noooo engine power for acceleration! luckily I was able to get onto the median before I was rear ended by the fast moving cars! simultaneously the 'engine power reduced', 'service traction control', and 'the 'transmission' service lights came on! then as I was getting off the highway at the next exit, I went to stop at the light and I had noooo brakes! luckily I pushed as hard as possible and got my car to stop without a second to spare! I have no doubt that 99% of drivers would have either been seriously injured, or seriously injured someone else in the process of crashing their car! I have a pretty good knowledge of cars, from racing multiple C5 and C6 corvettes, but this problem had me stumped for a while. I took the Malibu to multiple GM service departments, and none of the mechanics could come up with a reason why all those systems failed simultaneously, and multiple mechanics all said it was either the brake booster or the master cylinder. I just didn't see either of those parts being the reason for that much of an effect on the car, and luckily I remembered that GM trucks were having a major issue losing brakes due to the vacuum pump. So after an inspection I felt pretty confident that was my brand new Malibu's problem, so I went to the parts counter and dropped $330 on my warrantied Malibu, and sure enough the car was fine after that! however, a major concern of mine is that the oe vacuum pump was missing chunks of metal, and clearly those chunks of metal are floating around in my engine! so despite my regular maintenance, and even extra maintenance, my confidence is not very high, and I'm constantly waiting for the car to have another problem with the new vacuum pump, engine or brakes!

- Pompano Beach, FL, USA

problem #10

Apr 052019

Malibu

  • 43,000 miles
I've had the car for about 54 days as of today and at 47 days into owning the car, it is starting to shut off completely in the middle of traffic while stationary when the auto-off shuts the engine off and I would have to wait at least 20 mins minimum until the car would start again. While trying to start the car, it would say battery needs recharge/service stabilitrak. Since having this issue the A/C also stopped working.

- Miami, FL, USA

problem #9

Mar 122019

Malibu

  • 18,036 miles
The contact owns a 2018 Chevrolet Malibu. The contact stated that the vehicle decelerated while driving. Once the engine was restarted, "reduced power" appeared on the instrument panel. There were no warning indicators illuminated. The vehicle was towed to serra Chevrolet (28111 telegraph rd, southfield, mi 48034, (248) 354-6001) to be diagnosed, but the test could not read the codes. The dealer performed a system update. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 18,036.

- Redford, MI, USA

problem #8

Feb 122019

Malibu

  • 3,350 miles
I have had this car 6 months and it has been serviced 3 times for the same issue. While in motion the vehicle does not accelerate properly. When pulling out in traffic with the gas pushed down it slows and then lunges. It also can happen when going with the speed of traffic. (feels like it's slipping). The first time they found pump plunger damage and loose pin in fuel cam follower. The second time they reprogrammed exam with latest ca liberations. I am here now for the 3 time. This vehicle is extremely dangerous and I worry for the safety of myself and kids when driving.

- Conway, AR, USA

problem #7

Jan 072019

Malibu

  • 5,670 miles
Car was not accelerating would not go past 20mphtook to dealer ship took 2 months to figure out it was the knock sensor and also the ECM were out mind you my car had less than 6K miles I'm the first and only owner of it! I bought this car from don ringler with 4 miles. My car was on the high way when this happen.

- Killeen, TX, USA

problem #6

Dec 012018

Malibu

  • miles
Bought this car brand new in August 2018. When I drive it sometimes it looses power when I'm driving from a stop or while picking up speed and it doesn't matter if it's on the freeway or on the street. The only way I can describe it is it's like the transmission gets stuck in a high gear and slowly builds speed up. It is very dangerous to drive it like this.

- San Bernardino, CA, USA

problem #5

Sep 282018

Malibu

  • 5 miles
I bought this car brand new 9/28/2018 with 2 miles on it. Every once in a while the car will stick at 3400 RPM's, making almost no power, while trying to accelerate. The car will do this from a stop or trying to pass a car. Brought to dealer for 4 days, they couldn't duplicate the issue as it doesn't happen all the time(eye roll) it is a major safety concern as it will give you a false sense of security when moving into or around traffic and is very dangerous. Monitoring the car thru the obdii port I personally found it not building boost from the turbo when it's having this problem, unfortunately the dealers can't see this problem...

- Fort Wayne, IN, USA

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