2017 Chevrolet Malibu: misfire or rough idle

6 of the 705 complaints about the 2017 Chevrolet Malibu describe misfire or rough idle.

owner complaints: 6
of this car's complaints: 1%
recalls: 0

Is there a fix? 254 service bulletins cover this area of the car. See below

Misfire or rough idle by model year

2022
1
2020
3
2019
2
2018
3
2017
6
2016
14
2015
1
2014
4
2013
3
2012
9
2011
2
2010
8
2009
3
2008
2
2007
3
2004
1
2003
2
2001
3
2000
2
1999
2
1998
1
1997
2

What owners say

Filed May 6, 2024 · Engine · AZ

P0301 Error - Cylinder 1 Misfire. First the Check Engine light and Service Stabilitrack light turn on. Then seconds later, the car began to violently shake and sometimes the gas will not go resulting in the car being stuck in the middle of the road for about 60 seconds before moving again in stop-and-go traffic. These warning lights turn off and on. The dealer says this is the result of a plastic piece breaking due to general wear-and-tear and the only solutions are to replace the pistons or replace the whole engine. Multiple smaller repair shops say this is a known issue and it doesn't have any open recalls. [XXX] [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Filed May 1, 2023 · Engine · NC

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 $6,900.00 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.

Filed Jan 27, 2022 · Engine · 76,484 miles · WA

The contact owns a 2017 Chevrolet Malibu. The contact’s daughter stated that while driving approximately 35 MPH, the vehicle started to misfire. The contact stated that the check engine warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic to be diagnosed. The contact was informed that the engine needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was informed of the failure but offered no assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 76,484.

Filed Apr 20, 2021 · Engine · 66,000 miles · NJ

August 31, 2019 - purchased a 2017 chevy malibu at the dealership april 4th, 2021 - my car had a rough running engine with the indicator lamp on. I immediately took my car to be inspected (attached below), a technician found dtc p0300 set along with a misfire low compression in one or more cylinders. He concluded the condition was caused by a damaged piston. My mechanic showed me a bulletin from gm describing this exact issue and then recommend me to get in touch with the dealership that I bought the car and or the manufacturer. April 5th, 2021 - the gm reps that I talked to concluded that my warranty ended and denied any assistance from the manufacture. They claimed to not find the bulletins that I attached to this form.

Filed Jun 2, 2019 · Driver assistance, Engine · 15,000 miles · NC

Intermittent issue while driving at highway speeds (70mph) car will pop up service stabilitrak error message on front display, the traction control light will illuminate, while cel begins flashing. At this time, car will lose power and speed will begin to fall. Continuing to depress accelerator in an attempt to maintain speed will cause car to shudder. Entire incident lasts only 1-2 minutes, before drivability returns. In-the-moment onstar diagnostics show no issues. Purchased car brand new; only been serviced at the original dealership, only use shell v-power gasoline. 1st incident- dealer said wet roads/rain to blame; did not run diagnostics, did not attempt to service 2nd incident- dealer noted cylinder 3 misfire, swapped coil pack and spark plugs on cylinders 1 and 3, changed oil. 3rd incident- on my way home from dealership following above service, dealer noted cylinder 3 misfire, opened a case with gm, and performed decarbon service to engine, said carbon build-up to blame. 4th incident- dealer noted general engine misfire code, along with several communications errors codes; replaced ECM and reprogrammed car. Dealership told me using non-top tier gas is to blame. Car has total of 27k miles on it- issue began to occur around 15k miles. I have dashcam video and all service records.

Filed Mar 22, 2018 · Engine · 46,000 miles · IN

Car has always ran a little rough, we were told by chevy there was nothing wrong everything was normal. On our way home from family vacation in the mountains, the car lost power, engine light came on. Thankfully we were able to make it to an autozone and we were told it was misfiring in cylinder 1. We then took the car to chevy, we were told they couldn't see the problem and the mechanic who takes the engine apart to check was bust the next couple of days. So the car was in the shop for a week before were told there is a cracked piston and they will be replacing the pistons and gaskets. If I didn't work in the car rental business, I would think my car was great and ready to live forever, but I do. So I know, we have had several malibu's and cruz's with the same engine have the same problem and after 10k miles the pistons crack again. We get the car back and it is running more rough than it used to, now were waiting for the engine to cut out again. I am not looking forward to my cars engine cutting out on the highway again because chevy cannot find a fix for their bum engine. With only 12k miles left of the warranty.