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Chevrolet Malibu Electrical/Lighting
kurtamaxxxguy
Member Posts: 1,798
in Chevrolet
Given the problems people have had with turn signals, I serviced all of mine yesterday:
Headlights:
Removal is easy; upper two bolts holding light to chassis and the assembly lifts up and can be flipped over. Lamp covers are round lids that turn easilly to pop out exposing the bulb holder, which also turns easilly and pops out. The connections in both of my headlight turnsignals were ok (no corrosion). however, I replaced the blackened turn signal bulbs and cleaned the lamp contacts with a good electrical contact cleaner before reassembling everything.
The headlights could indeed bounce up and down if the two tabs holding up the underside of the lights are bent downward (were flimsy sheet metal). Either using shrink wrap tubing on the pins under the lights, or plastic foam on light housing underside, would help quell any vibration.
Taillights:
On Maxx, undo two screws and the assembly simply pulls out. Same deal with the sockets and blackened bulbs and contact cleaner.
Headlights:
Removal is easy; upper two bolts holding light to chassis and the assembly lifts up and can be flipped over. Lamp covers are round lids that turn easilly to pop out exposing the bulb holder, which also turns easilly and pops out. The connections in both of my headlight turnsignals were ok (no corrosion). however, I replaced the blackened turn signal bulbs and cleaned the lamp contacts with a good electrical contact cleaner before reassembling everything.
The headlights could indeed bounce up and down if the two tabs holding up the underside of the lights are bent downward (were flimsy sheet metal). Either using shrink wrap tubing on the pins under the lights, or plastic foam on light housing underside, would help quell any vibration.
Taillights:
On Maxx, undo two screws and the assembly simply pulls out. Same deal with the sockets and blackened bulbs and contact cleaner.
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The problem seems to be one of dealerships. Surely GM must have a standard calibration procedure in order to set up the EPS correctly? Are the technicians not trained in this? Or, being electrical and electronic is the steering system beyond the comprehension of the average mechanic. I don't know but it sure is giving a potentially good system a bad name.
No wonder there is talk of returning to hydraulics. From what I understand of the new hydraulic system is that an electric motor will drive the steering pump. This will give the same efficiency as the EPS because the motor will only pump on demand thus saving fuel. Also, it might produce a system that any shadetree mechanic can understand with no complicated setup procedure.
Problems, the crd (and its liberty build problems) makes this malibu a pleasure to own.
Original steering, discount tire road force balancing when new found no adjustment to be made. Torque wrenches are $12 to $20 and one tire rotation(by me) front to back at 10k-15k miles and no rotor problems. If you don't do your own then check the torque at home after anybody else touches the lug nuts.
Yes, we can induce torque steer with a heavy pedal. The bridgestone standard tires are usable as original tires. The crd came with goodyear st-even goodyear ranks them at the bottom of their own list. A lot of crd'ers had to buy tires right after buying the vehicle.
Two broken remotes. Broken battery clips?
I believe new engine in 2007 was enough to tip the scales on the heavier Maxx to require the HPS system. Not sure exactly why though....weight or HP increase or a combination.
Anyways as order guide states the sedan body style still has "EPS" on everything but the "SS" model.
Same here. I've grown to like the electric steering. It makes parking such a breeze. I can put up with the overly light feel on the road in exchange for the maneuverability in tight spaces.
Still, Hydraulic's a step backwards; several other cars with higher HP have electric systems that work fine. A pity Chevrolet could not do the same.
I liked the EPS the 1st time I tried it. I think it's very progressive and a great idea. I cant understand those who complain about it. I do hope it proves to be reliable long term.
I should imagine that a car with a heavier engine than the Malibu would draw even more amps when stationary and this could be a limiting factor with heavier cars.
You are correct, megafuse is a slo-blow, bolt-down type of fuse. Actually 80A is pretty small for the Megafuse style which go up to 250 Amp size. I think smallest is 40 Amps.
If you want to learn more I suggest you could visit www.littelfuse.com.
As far as cooling fans underhood, they will only come on when engine coolant temperature reasches certain level or based on a/c refrigerant pressure.
It would seem possible that a portion of your ignition "RUN" circuit might be inoperative. This is one of the power feeds out of your ignition switch. It goes to 2 distribution points. One of them in right hand IP center feeds both the power windows circuit breaker and HVAC blower switch fuse.
Since the vehicle still starts the problem doesn't go further back that then ignition switch itself.
A few other things to check to see if any other stuff not working associated with this same circuit (your vehicle might not have these options): Sunroof, Cruise Control On/Off Switch Indicator(you don't have to test function just turn on ignition and push On/Off switch to see if indicator lights up).
Finally to check out the other portion of same circuit which goes to some underhood electrical center features.... Does your Daytime Running Lamps and Rear Window Defogger work?
After looking over stuff in this case I have to recant my first comment and say that it is likely that your Check Engine Light and Oxygen sensor code are also being caused by same issue although I would have expected a bunch more fault codes. Did anyone provide you the exact code?? This power circuit underhood also feeds both oxygen sensor heater elements, and the fuel cannister vent and purge solenoids. If you have a 4 cylinder only one of the oxygen sensors is a heated type.
The only thing unexplained by this problem would be cooling fans being inoperative.
They just went DEAD.
(They had been working just fine earlier in the morning).
I turned left anway, then right. After having applied the brakes a couple of times, I used the turn signals again and this time they seemed to work ok.
E2 or anyone, what the heck is going on here? Is there some connection point that is going bad that would cause this?
I have NEVER owned a car where turn signals die and come back on like this.
4-5 times in rapid succession, once after I got out of the
car with it running to get sunglasses it locked me out of
my own car! Luckily I was at home so i used the spare key
to open the drivers door. I know if i bring it back to the
dealer they will tell me " checks out fine now". These
issues must be all related to the BCM (body control module
) The f-ing software in these things got more bugs than
a hornet's nest...
I am an ex radio ham and I also worked on high power commercial medium wave, short wave, fm and television transmitters and know what radio interference can do.
If it is rf interference causing the problem a few decoupling capacitors in the right place on the car wiring would fix it up.
it's time for a trip to the dealer. I live 1/8th mile from
the city comm. tower so I tried it at 2 diff. spots, same
result. BTW my dad was into ham radio big time had a tech.
license at the time. When he cranked up his 3000 watt final
it could blast through anything!(telephones even a stereo
that wasn't on!
And yes, I know about the stereo blasting away even if it's switched off. It has happened to me as well. Of course once again I say I am just speculating as to what the cause of the erratic behavior of the BCM might be. Oh yes, I have also had the occasions where the car did not respond to either of the 2 key fob's commands and then out of its own started to work again!
Just enjoying the ride. After the CRD this Chevy can fall apart if it wants to - I know the engine and tranny will get me home. We replaced the CRD with a '06 H3 for my wife's daily ride. Had fords and a jeep - had enough of their problems. Owned toyota's, even a subaru once. Was a car salesman in '87 - Chevy and then Honda. Chevy dealer great people - run from the honda dealer if you know who I am talking about.
I have a Olds Cutlass GL-1999 which shares the same engine with Chevy-Malibu.
Sometimes the Check engine light comes on and the engine makes more noise, also recently the temperature gauge had its red light on and I could not increase the speed.
Is the temperature light problem got to do with a loss of coolant.
Your notes will be appreciated.
If you are losing coolant, fill the overflow tank with a 50/50 mix of Dexcool coolant and water. Then monitor the coolant level. If you continue to lose coolant and there is no coolant on the ground, you probably have a bad intake manifold gasket and needs to be replaced (very common problem).
Thanks for your comments, I took the car to service and there is a list of problems and
bad intake manifold gasket is just 1 of them.
Other problems are water pump, thermostat, serpentine belt, valves cover gasket, couple of bolts, battery cable corrosion and it seems 1 problem led to another.
Its a 99 Cutlast I bought in Apr-2000 and have only 54 K miles, but its a 6 1/2 years old. Service bill is $1,500.
After 6 years, all these problems are quite common.
Will keep you guys updated.
I see that Malibu Maxx has 23 cu. ft. of cargo capacity which is nearly 7 more than Malibu and also the wagon partition has 2 levels, rear seat that slides and reclines giving hug space.
But in sales, its not doing well. Any idea.
I like that car a lot. May be wagon type vehicles are not popular, but are becoming popular now a days.
US drivers generally do not like hatchbacks from USA makers. Only exceptions are the wagonettes Dodge Caliber and Chevy HHR. Sporty, high-powered Euro hatches or very cheap import hatches do OK.
As mentioned, Maxx goes bye-bye at end of 2007 model year.
Chevy will soldier on with the EP2 chassis-ed Malibu Sedan.
You can find spy pictures of that somewhere on Edmunds.
The Saab Aero is similar to the Maxx (same chassis, stiffer suspension, different engines, worse reliability). I do not know if Saab is discontinuing that model.
Jiggle appears to be gone.