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Chevrolet Malibu Electrical/Lighting

208 messages,  Last post on Feb 27, 2013 at 1:46 PM

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What is this discussion about? Chevrolet Malibu, Lights, Electrical, Sedan

Messages Page 12 of 22

#104 of 208 Re: 2001 Malibu [prdm] by bateejeff

Mar 02, 2007 (10:13 pm)

Replying to: prdm (Mar 01, 2007 8:23 am)
This is a reply to prdm.
 
I respectfully disagree with what you said. By no means I was trying to condemning GM or the entire domestic automobile industry. In fact, my company makes parts for Ford and GM. If GM or Ford collapses, my job could be in jeopardy, which is one of the reasons why I always buy Ford or GM. On the other hand, I've become increasingly disappointed by the quality of GM and Ford. The 2001 Malibu is my first GM vehicle. Prior to that, my wife and I owned a total of 5 Ford Escorts over about 15 years. The performance of the Ford Escorts was mediocre at best. For example, the tie rods worn out very quick. They tend to develop problems like transmission and water pump leaking relatively early. When we sold the vehicles, we got very little money back.
 
After we got rid of the 2001 Chevy Malibu, I was going to buy a 2006 Malibu, because I wanted to save money (I had almost $3000 GM credit card rebate) and also because I tried to cash in on the GM supplier's discount program (As I mentioned earlier, my company is a GM supplier). However, due to our bad experience with the 2001 Malibu, my wife disapproved of buying another Malibu. I tried to defend GM by saying that the 2001 Malibu didn't do well because it was the early model year and so GM didn't have the chance to debug everything. I argued that the 2006 Malibu had been re-designed and so all the bugs in the early models had been worked out.
 
Despite the disapproval by my wife, I visited a Chevy dealership near my home at Akron, Ohio. Before the sale rep showed me the 06 Malibu, he was touting that the vehicle had won some kind of JD Power's Initial Quality Award. I jokingly replied, "Please show me the initial quality before you brag about it". What happened next is hilarious! None of the four 06 Malibu’s on the dealership's lot would start because the batteries were dead. Perhaps because the vehicles had not been test driven for a long time (presumably because few people care buying a Malibu). I questioned the sales rep, “Where did the Initial Quality Award come from? The cars don’t even start!” The sales person had to borrow another vehicle to jump start one of the 06 Malibu’s. Even after jump starting, the sale person was afraid to get bogged down and insisted that I test drive the vehicle on local roads instead of highway. I think he simply had no confidence on a new vehicle which he bragged about being an award winner. Since it was getting dark, I agreed with him and took a local road (Rt. 261 near Rolling Acre Mall of Akron) for test driving. After a few minutes on the road, I noticed that at the roadside ahead of me, there was a shining, new-looking, but bogged down vehicle with its hood open. I joked to the Chevy sales rep who sat by me, “Hopefully, that’s not a Chevy bogged down”. He said, “no-no, that can’t be one of us.” Gues what? When we drove by the bogged down vehicle, I saw clearly the Chevy cross logo, and, surprisingly, the vehicle looked brand new. I said to the sales rep, “Is that bogged down vehicle from your dealership? Is it anothe vehicle with a dead battery? No wonder you don’t want me to test drive on highway.” The sales rep offered no comments on what I said. After test driving, I parked the 06 Malibu near the dealership’s main door and turned off the engine. But, the sales person changed his mind and wanted me to park the car back to where we picked up the car, the reason being that the dealership was about to close and he didn’t want to leave the vehicle overnight near the main door. Following his instructions, I tried to re-start the engine. Guess what? The engine wouldn't re-start because the battery became dead again. At that moment, the sale person became very embarrassed. I could see his face turning red like a tomato. What a bizarre day of car shopping for me! When I told friends about what happened that day, they all burst into laugh. Some had difficulty in believing and asked whether I made up the story.
 
Discouraged by the "Initial Quality" of the 06 Malibu, I became hesitant to buy any Chevy. Eventually, I bought a 07 Buick Rendezvous in November 06 in order to utilize my GM credit card rebate. So far the Rendezvous has been running OK. There have been only a few minor issues.
 
When my wife changed her car last year, I was unable to convince her to buy a GM or Ford. She simply had enough bad experience with GM and Ford and couldn't take any more. She bought a 07 Toyota Avalon, and so far she loves it.
 
In closing, I was not trying to condemn the domestic auto industry. I wish GM and Ford would listen to customers about their concerns and improve the quality of their vehicles. I want them to succeed.

#105 of 208 Re: 2001 Malibu [bateejeff] by prdm

Mar 03, 2007 (7:59 am)

Replying to: bateejeff (Mar 02, 2007 10:13 pm)
To be honest, I'd be very reluctant to buy an American car again in the future.
 
The above is your quote. I don't normally respond to these I'm never going to buy another (insert brand here) type rants because mostly they come from the kids on here but you sounded more educated and eloquent. Despite that, because of some anecdotal evidence, you take the same stance. Extrapolate that out a bit and nobody would ever buy a car again.
 
I have no particular brand loyalty. A car is a tool with a job to do and at the moment a Chevy Maxx is doing that job fine. I've had VW's, Datsuns, BMW's, Ford's etc. some better than others but at no time would I paint a car company with a broad brush derived from my narrow experiences.

#106 of 208 Re: 2001 Malibu [prdm] by bateejeff

Mar 03, 2007 (11:02 am)

Replying to: prdm (Mar 03, 2007 7:59 am)
To prdm,
 
Thanks for your comments. You were making some good points.
 
However, I'd like to point out that even though I had very bad experience with 01 Malibu and 06 Malibu as I described in earlier messages, I have nothing against GM. In fact, as I metioned, last November I bought another GM vehicle, i.e., Buick 07 Rendezvous. Some friends said I was crazy to buy another GM vehicle despite all the trouble I had gone through with GM.
 
If the Buick 07 Rendezvous doesn't do good for me, I will try a Japanese car to get a comparison. Maybe the lawn is indeed greener on the other side of the town. Or, may be not.
 
Good luck with you Chevy Malibu Maxx. I sincerely hope you won't have to go through what I went through with my 01 Malibu.

#107 of 208 2000 Malibu Electrical Issue by ffemtp628

Mar 15, 2007 (6:46 am)

#108 of 208 2000 Malibu Electrical Issue by ffemtp628

Mar 14, 2007 (11:04 am)

I have a 2000 Malibu standard with 74k on it, V6 3.1L. Recently I have had some interesting issues on startup. The engine will crank and start just fine, however the fuel gauge, coolant temp gauge, A/C blower, daytime running lights, high and low beam headlights, radio, and power doors and windows all will not function. If I turn off the car and restart it, it may happen again, or it may be completely normal with everything working. In other words, this is an intermittant problem with no rhyme or reason. Other than having no headlights at night, it doesn't seem to affect the driving characteristics of the car.
 
Thanks,
-Chris

#109 of 208 Re: 2000 Malibu Electrical Issue [ffemtp628] by prdm

Mar 15, 2007 (6:46 am)

Replying to: ffemtp628 (Mar 14, 2007 11:04 am)
Check and test the battery. If it's original definitely change it.

#110 of 208 Re: Rear turn light (05) [rvoth] by yury

Mar 27, 2007 (8:01 am)

Replying to: rvoth (Feb 19, 2007 7:42 pm)
Yes the left turn indicator flashes faster than when the right signal is used.
 
I had the same problem with the left turn bulb and the rear right stop signal bulb. 05 LS.
The solution I came up with was incredibly simple It looks like there are pairs of contacts in a socket. One of them had wider spacing than the other on both sockets, hovever the bulb has the same thickness at the base. None of the bulbs had actually burned out.
So I took a thin screwdriver and bent those plates so they are closer to one another. And I also had to sand the wires on the bulb to remove the black resedue.
 
Works so far. I did the turn signal abobut 3 weeks ago and the brake light 2 days ago. Not sure if it will last, on the other hand don't see why not.....

#111 of 208 Turn Sugnal Problem by sean74

Mar 29, 2007 (6:23 pm)

The left turn signals, both front and rear of my 2005 Malibu have broken twice during the past year. The dealer has changed bulbs for me. The rear brake bulb also was broken once. I doubt that the left side circuit or the bulb socket has deficiency. Does anybody have similar experience? Thanks for your advice.

#112 of 208 Re: Turn Sugnal Problem [sean74] by yury

Mar 30, 2007 (6:42 am)

Replying to: sean74 (Mar 29, 2007 6:23 pm)
have you read my post just prior to yours ? i fixed my problem by simply bending the contact plates in the sockets.
 
do your bulbs actually burn out ? I found that in my case they don't.

#113 of 208 coolant temp stays on C by gonogo

May 20, 2007 (8:30 am)

04 new style. I found some old posts on coolant temp intermittent, no fix reported.
I had my not move off C for a whole day, next day it worked. Anyone know of a fix, or TSB.

Messages Page 12 of 22

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