Chevrolet Malibu Engine Problems

phatmatttrip60

I drive a malibu 2000 and when i start it up the engine taps for about five minutes or until it warms up... dont know what the problem is, could someone help me out is it bad or good or cant be good

01malibu

Yes, there is bulletin on this malibu condition. Yrs 2000~2001.
Bulletin # 01-06-01-005
Actually it is a GM problem with Chev,Buick & Pontiac 3.1L engines.
It is not serious, only a noise.It's called Piston Slap or Cold Engine Tick.
GM calls it a "Customer annoyance issue" and will not affect the durability or life of the engine.
You see the Einsteins at GM thought is would be realy funny to put a polymer coating on only 2 of the 6 pistons
(cyliders 1~4 uncoated)on this motor, hence the racket it makes when you start it up cold.
When I bought my new '01 malibu in 2001 I heard this noise after it had about 3,000 miles and was convinced it had a bad valve train. Fought tooth and nail with the dealership.
Finaly the dealership admitted and showed me the official GM bulletin on the problem.
The fix is to replace all of the pistons.
But the choice was up to me as long as it was still within the 1st 36,000 miles or 3yrs.
Guess what I chose. Yep! I chose to have it done.
But the noise came back after it had about 70,000 on it.
I must say it doesn't burn any oil even with 150,000 miles on it.
It would be kinda nice if the engine ran better.
It runs like garbage and is unreliable.

04bu

Here's one I had for a period of less than twenty four hours. After a couple minutes of operation from a dead cold start after sitting at work, the temperature gauge does not indicate the engine is warming up. Then I hear the engine fan running non stop. WTF? I have heat (thank god). The next day I was out and the same thing is going on so I took it straight to the dealership. Amazingly the fan continues to run and the gauge is not responding. So they know I'm not nuts. Later they call back and say it's working. "What did you do?" "Well, we pulled the thermostat checked it and put it back and it worked." So you didn't really change anything?" "Nope. But it's working".

And it has been working since. And again Chevy sends me a questionaire about the dealership but again fails to ask me what I think of their car. What I think is next time it will be Toyota.

7589

i have a 2000 malibue that had the same cold start noise 3 months later damn thing sounds like a diesl engine all the time so im just waiting for the shop to tell me that the bearrings or piston rings are shot car is a piece of [non-permissible content removed] it has 95000 miles on it :mad:

jonkholm

I have a 1999 malibu and am swaping out the bad engine with one I found from a 2000. The wiring connection for the injectors is different. Does anyone know if someone makes an adaptor for this? Mine has two plugs - one 8 prong plug and one 2 prong plug. The new engine has a single 12 prong plug. Please help!

gonogo

Can you just put the old injectors in, I doubt you will find an adaptor.
You could try the dealer for a repair plug, but you would need to do a lot of splicing.

retiredarmy02

I have a 1972 Nova and a 1977 Malibu. I'm trying to still the engine and transmission from from the 1977 Malibu into the 1972 Nova. Does anyone know if the this swap will work? Also if it will work is there any modifications that must be done to the wiring, or anything? Or is it a plug and play swap?

Karen_S

You might get a quicker response posting your question in Crazy Engine Swap Questions.

jonkholm

barky

My 2002 Malibu has 69k miles on it, and today I brought it into my dealer for an inspection prior to a 1500 mile road trip next month. Dealer calls me back and tells me there's oil in the coolant, and the culprit is the intake manifold gasket. WTF?? How does oil/coolant relate to the intake manifold? My son suspected this was BS, so we go down there to see for ourselves. The mechanic said it looked like someone recently poured oil into the coolant reservoir (hmmm, could it have been him looking for a fat commission?). So I raise a little stink, told the service manager this never happened to my Toyota or Honda, and would Chevy cover the cost, as it has only 69k miles? He goes off and thinks it over, punches some computer buttons, and says Chevy will cover it if I pay a $200 "deductible." Otherwise, with the 6.5 hours labor, parts, flushing, oil change, etc., it'd have been over $1100. What do you guys think of this problem? Ever even heard of it before?

ranger1998

I have a 2001 Malibu and at 50K miles I had to replace the intake manifold gasket. Now I have around 100K miles and guess what the same problem is happening again. I have spoken to GM and they have not offered any relief or taken responsibility even though I know GM issued an internal service bulletin about this very problem. So... I have joined a class action lawsuit against GM and perhaps something will be done.

lineup

Today I'm told that my 01 Malibu has the gasket problem and I have a big repair bill. Can you give my some info about the class action suit? (Canada) Thank you.

malibujeff

When I took my '97 Olds Cutlass GLS (same as later Malibu) 3.1 L some years ago to a local mechanic that was GM GoodWrench certified, he showed me a pile of gaskets that had been disolved by their long life orange coolant, and strongly advised changing to standard ethylene glycol green coolant. Heeded his advice, and the car has over 150k miles on it with no intake or head gasket problems. When both '05 and '06 Malibu's are out of warrantee, the same change over to "simple green" will happen to them also.

malibujeff

If you haven't finished by now and figured it out, I can say with experience that the swap will work. Depending on whether or not the '77 has the 5 wire distributor, you may want to use the one out of the '72 if it is electronic. Other than that, they are a simple swap out for the V-8 models. Be sure and swap the exhaust manifolds because the Nova pipe out pattern is typically different than the Malibu.

ladymylady

I just bought a car last week that apparently has been affected by this coolant problem...but they never mentioned a word of it - then again I should have read all of this before I bought, rather than after....meanwhile this is what I found on Consumer Affairs (google it)

Just reading up on problems with all GM cars caused by radiator and Dex cool coolant (orange stuff) blowing gaskets...leaking etc..

did you check to see what's in your radiator?

google Consumer Affairs GM Dexcool

hundreds of complaints..

one guy says he solved the problem:

M L of San Rafael CA (08/26/06) *WE'VE FIXED THE PROBLEM(S)!!
And while it's irritating to look back and see how much $$ I've needlessly thrown at my '92 K1500 Chevy Blazer, several radiators, head gasket, heater core, trans cooler lines, uptake gaskets, pretty much everything that has come into contact with cooling fluids has either corroded or slowly disintigrated. All due to what turns out to be a basic electrical design flaw at GM.
radiator guy hates Dexcool, suspects that perhaps it's the electrolisis that causes the Dexcool to turn to a jelly goop.
Says the higher the amp reading in the radiator, the more goopy Dexcool seems to be.

My story: The original radiator in my '92 Chevy lasted a good while (hint: older radiators had A LOT more copper in them). The trouble really all started and in a big way, after replacing the original radiator. I did pay the $500.00 for the new GM radiator. (hint: the newer made radiators have little to no copper in them. They are mostly aluminum and steel) Within a couple months, I started having to dump money into my K1500 Blazer, LOTS of it!
When radiator #3 started leaking, I got fed up with my mechanic, who kept saying, it's a high milage vehicle. I should expect this. Not thinking it was even slightly odd that everything seemed to be connected to the cooling system or somehow come into contact with it, even though nearly every repair seemed to require draining the radiator?? So, I looked for the oldest, greasiest, busiest, radiator shop in my area. First thing the guy did, after hearing the list of repairs I'd made, was to drop a probe in the radiator to check for a charge, in other words, electrolysis. An acceptable reading is .03 amps. I was running at .38 amps!! Turning the engine off it would only drop it to .27 amps.
So, he replaced leaking radiator #3, and rechecked it,.. .58 amps!! It went up! He shrugged and said, new one must have even less copper than the last one. I've seen a lot of these GM's with this crap going on. I've been doing this thing that seems to fix this problem. Then an off-duty local cop pulled in with his Blazer, newer than mine. We got to talking, he'd had most of the same problems and this radiator guy fixed it for him 3 years ago, and hadn't had a problem since.
Here's what my guy did...
#1 - Attached three, braided ground cables, randomly to the radiator and the block, and grounded them.
#2 - Then took a piece of copper pipeing aprox 3 long, with the same hollow as the heater-core hose, soddered a copper ground wire to the side of it. Midpoint on the hose running from the radiator to the heatercore, he spliced this small copper pipe into the line using hose clamps. Then using the ground wire he had soddered to it, grounded it to the engine block.
#3 - Drained and refilled the cooling system with DISTILLED water and GREEN coolant. Dexcool in his experance is CRAP, and I quote him. He did all this very quickly, then dropped the probe into the radiator and poof .02 amps! It cost me $100. He has me come in to recheck the amps once a month. And still 6 months later, .02 amps, and no new problems. I was averaging 1 problem per month, a leak here, a suspicious gasket there. Now nothing. So, it seems to me that there are really two problems. One affecting the other. A cooling system grounding problem, electrolysis resulting in corrosion and dissintigration of parts and gaskets. And then Dexcool which is unstable in an electrically charged enviroment and turns to goop. Maybe I'm wrong but my '92 K1500 Blazer now has 212K miles on the original engine

shadow5599

When you say "amps" I gather you mean volts. I suspect the probe was to measure voltage. Amps is a current rating which measures current flow whereas a voltage measurement is measuring the static voltage. I've never done it so I may be wrong but you may want to clarify that for others who read this.

ladymylady

Perhaps I was not clear in what I wrote. That is not my post about the amps - it is a post I found on consumer affairs purporting to have solved the problem in his car, and I repeated it here... I'm not mechanical, I mean I can use a screwdriver and hammer, but am looking for opinions and advice about what to do myself about this dexcool problem.

It's in the used car (2002 cadillac) I just bought and I see that the fellow who owned it had a blown piston and gasket ast 17,000 miles when it was brand new...had that replaced under warranty and then the hoses too...so I'm guessing he had the same problems.At 35,000 miles he had the car in 35 times......so it sounds to me like this stuff went all through his engine system into other systems too.

Just thought I'd be helpful and point people toward consumers affairs complaints which lists a litany of problems similar to that the other poster mentioned.

shadow5599

Oops...sorry for not paying attention. But yes, good information for people to know since the electrolysis problem is contributing to alot of leaking rads and heater cores. I first read about it on another forum, for another car of mine and I'm sure the measurement was in volts. One would need a fairly sensitive and accurate voltmeter to test such a thing.

carguy999

I drive a 2005 Malibu LT 6-cylinder with 33,000 miles that I've owned for a little over 2 years. It's been a great car -- up until now, the only problem I've had was a slight shudder in the brake pedal that was cured by resurfacing the rotors.

Lately, I've noticed that when I start the engine in the morning, it first idles very rough at low rpm, then suddenly shoots to over 2000rpm, then drops back down to 950rpm, all in 2-3 sec. After that, the idle is fine, including after being parked at work all day. I suspect the idle air control valve, but I'm curious if anyone else has had this problem and found the cause.

gonogo

No IAC, it has electronic throttle. Take it in, still under warranty.

carguy999

Thanks for your reply. I'm planning to take it in, but I wanted to get some ideas first so my dealer can't try to sell me some useless remedy first (like cleaning the fuel injectors). I'll let you know what happens.

gonogo

Thanks, would be interested in knowing.

carguy999

The idle problem with my Malibu appears to have been caused by the Shell regular gas I've been using. I switched to BP for my last fill-up and the problem immediately disappeared, but my fuel mileage also dropped 1 mpg. I plan to buy Shell again next time and see what happens.

gonogo

That's strange, Shell is a GM approved TOP TIER Detergent Gasoline.

wvsummertimelo

I just had a new fuel pump and fuel filter replaced on my 2005 Chevy Malibu after the fuel pump went out coming home from vacation and 4 hours from my home. The gas tank had to be dropped and the tank was full of bad gas. They emptied and clean the tank, replaced the fuel pump and fuel filter and cleaned the injectors. On the way home from the repair shop the check engine light came on? What now? I check the gas cap lid and tightened it. BUT the light is still on! Help???

sister2

I let my sis drive my car and she didn't want to give it back. She didn't want to buy it either. so she says be careful what you back into as the cops and I get my car back. 5 months later I was bumper to bumper with my son's cadi and now I have no cruise control and the engine light is on and blinking. I took it to a shop and they said I should have no problems driving it this way for the next 1000 miles of my trip. Said I probably just bumped a sensor. My question is could my sister and her boyfriend have sabotaged my car and if so, how?? Please help - I'm on the road next Thursday.

gonogo

A blinking check engine means the catalytic converter may be damaged if the engine is not repaired ASAP.
I could not understand a lot of what you wrote.

52132

:lemon: :lemon: :lemon: :lemon: :lemon: :lemon: :lemon: :lemon: :lemon: :lemon: :lemon: :lemon: :lemon: :lemon: :lemon:

gonogo

ASAP " as soon as possible" The catalytic converter, which is in the exhaust system can be damaged by a faulty engine. Hence the blinking light and no cruise.

josephus

So, now that my 2005 Malibu reached 50,000 kms and 3 years (exactly); I'm having weekly issues, such that the dealership will soon know me by name.

First, my remote start failed. Then I had a brake issue; and today I was driving home from work when I noticed my temperature gauge wasn't working at all. No big deal, I figured, I could get that looked at next time I pop in for service.

When I dropped my carmate home, she noticed when she stepped outside that my car was unusually loud. Looked like the fan was going in overdrive. I drove home and when I shut the engine off I noticed the fan kept on going for about 20 seconds.

I guess I'll take it in tomorrow....sound like a thermostat?

myvassiliou

My 2003 malibu is currently sitting in my driveway like a piece of junk,
the upper and lower intake manifold gaskets, and the exhaust manifold gasket, and the head cylinder gasket are shot, they all went in a short period of time. I have about 67000 miles on it. It is going to cost about 2grand to fix. It has something to do with dexcool eating the older gaskets. Many people are trying to get gm to acknowledge and fix or reimburse, but they are not budging.

dgarr121451

Bought my 2000 Malibu LS used with 102,000 miles. That was 2 1/2 years ago. It now has 223,000 miles and still make a terrible tapping noise when you start it cold. But, it still gets almost 30 mpg consistently and takes me 160 miles roundtrip to work each day. The tapping is no big deal.

jappetto

I own a 2004 Chevy Malibu w/ the 3.5L V6. When I am driving the car at about 35 mph and let off the gas to coast, the rpm naturally goes down to about 800 rpm. When i go to accelerate again the rpm revs up to around 1800 and then goes back down to normal rpm for accleration. Is this normal or should I be worried?

Thanks,

Jake

gonogo

Sounds about right to me, the converter goes through a unlock and then lock phase.

jappetto

This only happens sometimes. Only certain times I drive the car, then the next time it might not do it. You feel a slight jerk when it revs up and then comes down. I am not sure if it is just at the shift points or what. I fugure if there are no lights on the dash that are on then I shouldn't be worried?

gonogo

Well the slight jerk does not sound right. That is one smooth transmission, the only time I get a rough shift is when down shifting the L under about 50 MPH.
Take it in if under warranty, some codes will set without a light.

nb25

nb25

My daughter bought a 2000 Malibu with 100,000 miles to drive and from college. It runs well but the temp gage seems a little high - in the 190 f range. The coolant level seems fine. Does this sound like a problem? Would a radiator flush help?

marked1

2000 malibu 100k mileage suddenly started having loud rattling sound, engine
light came on. Looked and sounded like engine misfire. checked the codes and came up with code P0304 cylinder #4 misfire. checked cylindrer 4 compression and spark-ok.
Fuel injector found also warking. PUZZZLED. With the engine, running removed
ignition wire from spark plug #4 -got electricuted ( DON'T DO THAT) but the noise
gone- interesting. Removed front valve cover and found 1 bolt backed out from rocker arm hence not putting any pressure on the valve spring (not sure intake or exhaust) . it explains why cylinder comression was ok- the valve was closed all the time. torqued the loose bolt and installed front valve cover. started up and it's fixed.
Why the rocker arm bolt was loose- probably because it wasn't torqued wright when
lower intake manifold gasket was replaced in 2002 by an independent repair shop.
that's my 2 cents. Have a great day.

marked1

So your temp gauge shows a tad over long middle mark (180 f). you might need
to addres this issue before it gets bigger. Radiator flush- big no no. if it was my car
i would replace thermostat and coolant as preventetive maintenance. you are better
of to use a-c delco thermostat and match the coolant that you are having now, most
likely red colored dex-cool. ( be 100% sure not mix different coolant types).
Next, is your engine overheating when driving at free way speed or idling, let me know.

beldaran

Every once in a while my 2001 Malibu would idle really high, where I had to stomp on the breaks to keep it from lurching forward at a stop light. We're talking 2000 rmp when stopped. I tried to take it in twice and it quit doing that before I got it in, so no one knows what was wrong with it.

Now the issue is back, combined with what seems to be the opposite problem, when accelerating, I can't get it to go past 45mph on occasion. I can get the rmp up to 5000, but I'll be stuck at 45. I'll let off the gas completely, the car will lurch a bit, and then I can coax it up to 50 or so. Then it may do it again, or it may accel. smoothly up to 60 for me.

Anyone have any ideas on where to start looking on this one? Are the issues related at all?

zbleski

it seems like a transmission problem but its been changed. when going up a hill the car will sometimes fluctuate anywhere from 250rpm to 500rpm when trying to accelerate uphill. this also seems like its thinking about downshifting but doesn't shift and occasionally when it does downshift it will still seem to do this please give me some feedback on this issue thanks

06malibune

Last night my husband and I went out to eat. When we got in my 06 LT-V6 Malibu with 61k it wouldn't start. I have never had a problem with my car and I bought it 2 years ago and it was only 6 mnths old. We called a friend who came and gave me a jump and she started right up. My husband and I booked it home so she wouldn't leave us stranded and I noticed the temp. gauge wasn't working, but I just figured that I was because the battery was low/dead. We got home and changed out the battery for a new one and now my check engine light is on, temp. gauge still won't work and she starts really rough now. I went through the computer and turned off the auto-start thinking that might help and it didn't. I'm going to make an appt. today to see if we pull any codes, but if it comes up something major besides a fuse or a relay I'm selling the car. :confuse:

beldaran

For the record, my issue was a completely clogged catalytic converter. I got that replaced and it runs correctly, idles correctly and had better be good for the next 2 years.

pao

dont know if a bad cat or not would be the problem since you had a bad battery first......the temp gauge is another issue...mine stopped workign once...never at it looked at and started back operating correctly in a few days......I beleive its associated with the ECM...they may have to reflash it......suggest it and see what the service manager might do for ya

01malibu

2001 Malibu 3.1L V6 (218,000 miles).
The idle randomly races to 2,500 to 3,500 rpms and passing gear seems to dissapear but I can still manualy downshift with the gear selector.

If I shift it into nuetral and coast and turn the ignition off then cycle the igintion key on and off several times then restart it ussually resets the idle but restorts back to high idle shortly thereafter.
I seem to get better results if I stop, turn it off then turn the key to the ON postion and move the gear selector from P to 1 several times and cycle the key ON and Off it does temporarily reset the idle.
It does this everytime I drive it ussualy after it's warmed up. I've replaced the Air Idle Control with no results and is getting worse.
Please help with this...........

dbishop31

i have a 2000 chevy malibu 3.1 v6 engine
had to replace headgasket,intake gaskets,valve cover gaskets all that stuff. started it up the idiling was rough it wanted to die on me took it to be check was told it was 3 different censors changed them but it is still idiling like it has a miss in it but only when sitiing still and it does it in all gears but runs good if the gas is being pushed
could someone please help me on how to fix this problem

06malibune

My Malibu does that also, but not as bad. It's an 06. Have you checked your plugs and wires? I know with my car I can sit there and watch the Tack and it'll bounce, but it has always done that since I bought it. I've taken it to the dealer and had Dios ran and they tod me that it's normal. I disagree, so asked about the plugs and wires. The dealership told me that Idon't have to change them til I hit 100,000. I believe in changing them at least once a year. I have yet to do it for The plugs and wires are expensive, but I know that when I get it done it'll be so much better. One last thing what kind of gas are you running? Stay away from Ethanol. That is also very hard on your engine. These cars were not built for that kind of fuel. If I run Ethanol I only get 25 to 28mpg, where as if I run just reg. fuel I get anywhere between 33 and 38mpg. Hope this helps you.

eggmo

took the car in twice now...first time they said I had 2 bad injecters, one pushing too much gas one not enough, replaced the injecters said it was good to go.....it wasnt. second time in they said it was carboned up..did an upper cylinder wall cleaning and steam cleaned it then replaced one plug...said it was good to go. still the same problem,any sugestions besides going to a different dealer to have it looked at?

civilcougar

I have a 2000 Chevrolet Malibu. When I try to start it, it keeps turning and turning, but never starts. However, If I step on the gas pedal slightly while trying to start it, it will start and it revs like normal. However, as soon as I take my foot off the gas pedal it dies. I had the battery checked and it is good. Any thoughts?

civilcougar

I am so happy for you that you have gotten 223,000 miles on that car with 30 mpg. That is awesome.