Reduced engine power occurs while driving and will indicate a traction control issue and the check engine light will engage. The first time it happened, it was during a snowstorm on 2/24/2022, but it has occurred two other times while driving on a highway on sunny days (3/3/2022 and 3/8/2022) with no snow on the ground, road completely dry. Car speed dropped from approximately 55-60 mph to 20. I have to pull the car off the road, turn it off, and let set for at least one minute turned off before it will have engine power restored. Code for car was checked, and it was P2138, throttle/pedal position sensor switch.
2018 Chevrolet Malibu acceleration complaints
Page 3 of 5: complaints 41 to 70 of 114, newest first, as owners wrote them.
As I was driving down the highway at 60 mph the road was clear at the time of any debris my car suddenly had two lights on the dashboard. On the left was the traction control light and the right side was the engine light. On my computer display was the words “reduced engine speed”. My car suddenly slowed from 60 to about 30 mph in a matter of seconds. It was like I had slammed my brakes. This all happened simultaneously I attempted to pull over safety and turn the car off and restart it. The lights remained on. My car was not able to get over 27 mph There was no warning what so ever If anyone would have been behind me I would have been rear ended At this time I took it to a mechanic who put it on the computer it was coded at the pedal position sensor. He was able to save the code, clear it so I was able to drive the car and advised to drive it locally for a while in case it would do it again as it is unsafe. The closest Chevy dealer is over an hour away from my town and at the time of day it was not safe to drive the car to the dealership for confirmation.
Vehicle continually throws reduced engine power code which includes while traveling at high speeds and winter weather. Vehicle resets once powered off to throw a code sometimes again immediately or within a short period of time rendering the vehicle virtually unusable. Difficult to get to a safe spot to turn vehicle off to attempt to re-set. This puts occupants in danger of being rear ended, stuck in snow/mud or hit from behind while pulled over trying to reset vehicle. This has been an ongoing problem since purchasing the car new. Was fixed under warrant once. Fix didn’t last long and have continuously had issues
I was driving on a crowded city street in St. Louis and my car suddenly reduced power and I saw a message on my dash that said Engine Power Reduced! I could not go faster than 15 miles an hour and had to pull into a gas station. I restarted my car and still had the message. I restarted again and the check engine light was still on, but I was able to drive at a normal speed. My concern is that I was a short distance from getting on a busy interstate highway and it could have happened while I was on the highway and could have been struck by a car.
My 2018 Chevy Malibu has been working fine then all of a sudden the warning light came on and the message warning light read ENGINE POWER REDUCED While I was driving on the freeway at 60 mph dropping my speed to 25mph instincts told me to pull over, so I did! Then I tried to drive again still no power it was like a strong pullback! So I again pulled over and turned my car engine off! Let it sit a few hours before driving up to local automotive parts store to use the ODII code reader and it read the code P2138 Throttle/ Pedal Position Sensor Correlation The part to order is $120.00 I am not able to get it today so I googythe problem and found out that this is a possible RECALL ??!!??
Driving on my way to work and the check engine light came on with the traction control light. A message was displayed that said the engine’s power was reduced.. My speed also decreased to about 20-25 MPH and it was hard trying to get it back about that without the car sounding all funny.
I have owned this vehicle for 3 months now, since week two "engine power reduced" has been a big problem for me I took it in to mission bay chevy in san diego the problem went from every once in awhile to non stop. I was uable to get an answer from them in weeks. Finally I went back to the independent dealership I purchased the vehicle from 4x to fix this problem. And it keeps comming back after days. Im paying $500 monthly for this car and im runnin gout of options this is causing my vehicle to reduce power on the free way at speed of 23mph to 35mph. There was already a classaction law suite for this problem. And I can not afford to keep getting it fixed its clearly a defect that keeps coming back, I have read several consumer reports with the same issue. I need a functioning car and I dont know where else to turn
Reduced power mode warning came on and 3 seconds later I went from 70mph to 10mph on a freeway and could only do about 10 from that point on, the accident that was avoided would have been deadly if I wasn’t in the right lane to immediately pull over Took it to the mechanic and he said that there’s a recall that the dealership REFUSES TO ACKNOWLEDGE even tho we got a reading of #n1-82188250-01 told the manufacturer and there fixing it Monday My question is why has this not been recalled?? I do not feel safe, I do not want this car I WANT THIS PROBLEM ACKNOWLEDGED by ppl who care and can do something, what is Chevy waiting for someone to die before this is addressed??? This is so criminal put a RECALL OUT
My vehicle had the reduced power dash warning and check engine light on while I was driving down the interstate at 65 I lost my power speed reduced to 45 and my stability light came on as well it could have caused a serious accident had it been day time with traffic flying at 70 to 75 mph rear ending me I was able to get off the freeway safely last night when the incident occurred and safely make it to a parking lot there doesn’t seem to be a current recall on my car with my vin number at this time but it is a year and model that has known issues also the other issue is vehicle not registering into park even when I put shifter in park possibility is a loose shifter cable
Vehicle slows way down and loss of power. Engine power reduced. On heads up display. Seems to use alot of gas when this happens. I need to pull over and shut off car. Wait a bit and then restart. And get back on road. It did this 3 times in my commute to work. Also was snowing that morning and was slippery out so very dangerous almost was involved in an accident but luckily not. Seems to do this more in the colder Temps. It has happened however in summer also but not as often. I have read many complaints about this issue. I am not sure why GM has not figured this issue out yet. Very concerned.
My ‘18 Malibu LT has over 39K miles , and just tonight, i started my car , the engine light and traction control light both came on, followed by a message saying “Engine Power Reduced”. I then decided to drive for a little to see if i notice any problem. After driving for about 4 minutes , my car went from 37mph down to 20mph . It felt like the engine was forcing itself . So i then pulled over to the side of the curb, turn the car off, then back on. i noticed the warning engine light was still there but the traction light weren’t there no more. So i drove back to my place , turned my engine off. Then i plugged my diagnostic device to see what code(s)were they, and 1 code came up and it was P2138. Which is Throttle/Pedal Position Sensor. Oh by the way, I also would like to mention one more thing which is the “Shift to Park” message i started seeing whenever i park my car (putting the gear in park) and this first happened when my car was at 38K Miles (about a month ago).
REDUCED ENGINE POWER I have had this issue happen 3 times since owning this car. The last time it happened, my son & I were on the Interstate going 80mph. My 2018 Chevy Malibu quickly slowed to 50mph with no further acceleration. Luckily, I was not far from an exit that we could find a safe place to park. I read to pump the gas pedal a few times, so I did, let the car sit for about 20 min., then we were able to limp to our destination by using cruise control. I have read several complaints online of consumers having this same issue. This is a very dangerous issue to have go on while driving & GM is not seeming to want to fix it. I did not feel safe this last time, for myself nor my child. The time if day was around 4:30-5pm, during heavy traffic. It only takes someone not paying attention or an 18-wheeler, who can not stop well, to cause a major accident.
While driving 70 mph, I get an Alert that stated reducing speed. And my check engine light came on. This is not the first time. Lucky I was able to get off the Highway without getting into an accident. Also my car sometimes will not cut off because it says my car is in shift even though I have it in park. This is dangerous to have a car reduce speed while driving 70 mph to Abruptly go 40 mph. Last time this happen a month ago no codes came up and the check engine light eventually went off. But now my check engine light is back on again.
My engine power reduced signal on my 2018 malibu lt comes on on my dash. I have almost been in a few accidents because of this on the highway. This is an issue that needs to be recalled asap. I have already gotten the entire gas pedal replaced. This is ridiculous because they already know about this problem but are too cheap to do a recall on it. Someone is going to die one day because of this and it will fall on the hands of the car company.
Was driving the malibu on the interstate traveling 75 MPH and all of sudden vehicle started to slo dwn and on the dashboard appeared - engine power is reduced. This could have resulted in an accident and not safe as I do travel back and forth to college. I had to make my way over to breakdown lane, turn car off and then turn back on and drive again. This has happened several times so far with the most recent may 7, 2021
I was driving on the highway this morning at over 65 MPH when suddenly my 2018 malibu started slowing down and would not respond to accelerator. I saw that the check engine light and traction control light were on and there was a message saying "engine power reduced." was not able to accelerate past 30 MPH. Highway was busy but was able to get out of the fast lane over to the far right lane and get to work. After a few hours, I started car and the check engine light remained on, but the "engine power reduced" message was gone. After seeing so many complaints for this issue, I feel gm should permanently fix this issue as it could have dangerous consequences.
While operating my vehicle at approximately 50 MPH on a busy highway I received a check engine light, traction control light and a warning that the engine power has been reduced. After all of those warnings my vehicle immediately slowed to 20 MPH and would not speed up.
When driving my 2018 chevy malibu it stalls out while I'm driving reducing my speed to 20 MPH when I'am on the freeway. As I continue to drive home I seen a notification that said power reduce system it happens very often and as a result of the stalling I was rear ended from the rear and it is very dangerous for me to continue driving this car.
The car us under 60,000 miles three years old and already breaking down. The air flow sensor out of self-test range, turbocharge engine underboost problems and mass air flow sensor performance is also problematic, making the car stop instantly and sporadically creating a high imminent danger of crashing and serious injuries. Luckily the car behind me was far enough to stop before rear-ending me. Had it been a semi-truck I don't think I would have been so lucky. These issues need to be immediately recalled and corrected!!!
I turned on my car and it said 'reduced engine power' on the screen and I could only accelerate up to 35mph. I was going up hill it felt like my car was barely moving. Turns felt much slower going uphill when driving in residential areas.
While driving engine power reduced message comes on and speed is cut to below 35 MPH.
While driving the error message " power reduced" and will only do about 30 MPH. I have looked on line and at least a couple of law firms have clients for the lemon malibu 2018 model. First time this occured, I was going up a hill with a truck behind meand nearly rear ended me.
I was driving at approximately 55mph on a highway when the vehicle gave a warning of 'engine power is reduced'. My car quickly dropped to 20mph and I was unable accelerate. This happened while there was another vehicle behind me and I was scared I was going to be rear ended. I put my hazard lights on and parked my vehicle. I shut the vehicle off and turned it back on which allowed me to operate the vehicle again but only at a capacity of 40mph. I had the vehicle repaired later that day it needed something with an electronic throttle control and pedal sensor replaced. I also learned that this is an issue that gm is well aware of and feel that they need to recall vehicles affected by this issue. There's no reason a vehicle should be dropping to 20 MPH unexpectedly on a highway.
While driving my engine and traction light came on and a sensor popped up that read 'engine power is reduced'. I was driving down the highway and my speed was reduced. I can't and could not speed up.
After pulling out of a convenient store, onto a main road for about a half a mile my car immediately lost speed and a display appeared in my dash engine power reduced , check engine light and traction control light appeared. I couldn't drive no more than 20 miles per hour .. Scary moment, so glad nothing was coming behind me. Car in shop! This need to be fix it's a many people having the same problem with this year kind of car somebody is going to get killed fix the problem for free gmc
While driving 65 MPH car issued warning reduced engine power and check engine light popped on. Car then would not drive faster than 30 MPH. Very sudden and with no previous warning this happened. Took to repair shop and after diagnostic was told acceleration pedal sensor was bad. This is not a covered repair and cost $800. This sudden reduction of power is very dangerous and a safety hazard to me and other cars on the road
Car died in the middle of a busy intersection and wouldn't restart for approximately 2 minutes. Check engine light came on and reduced engine power on dash cluster was visible when it restarted. Dealership placed new battery & it went away for about a week then returned while driving in the 45 MPH range, reduced engine power, then slow acceleration from a stop sign. Seems there have been multiple class action lawsuits for this issue with no recall in place at this time.
I started to accelerate and the check engine light came on and reduced engine power was on my information display and my car would not go over 30 MPH. Just happened out of the blue. I have approximately 64,000 miles on my malibu. This happened on a city street and not in heavy traffic, but could have been very dangerous, if I was on a highway. Then after I limped the car home I turned it off and turned it back on and it seemed normal, but check engine light is still on. I am getting rid of this car has had 5 recalls of various problems so far. On one occasion the dealership had my car for 2 weeks...trying to fix a problem with the accelerator.
On january 11 2021 while driving my 2018 chevy malibu to work I received a check engine warning on my dash, my message stating "reduced engine power" came on and my car suddenly and significantly reduced speed from 50 to 20mph. I was almost hit from behind by another motorist and had to manuever my car to the side of the road. I turned the car off, reestarted it and was able to continue driving. The check engine light remained on. I called the chevy dealer and brought it in for service the next morning. I was told it was a sensor issue and it was covered under warranty. I received the car back on january 13th 2020.today, february 1st 2020 while driving to work my car experienced the same problem. I was able to avoid being hit again and stopped on the side of the road. My car is now back at the chevy dealership. After expecting the issue was fixed and wouldnt happen again, I am extremely fearful for my safety (and those around me) in this car. I am a working mother and need to rely on my car to get my family to work and school.
When I drive I'm losing engine power where my speed is reduced significantly. This is very dangerous. I've looked up this issue and there is a recall on malibu's 2016-2018. I haven't got a recall on my car yet but this defect in these cars are ridiculous. Someone needs to get in touch with me asap about this defect. This is very serious and dangerous on the roads. My speed is reduced while I'm driving.
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