Comments: 1-15, 16-27
At less than 23,000 miles, I noticed one evening a light coming from the glove box. (the glove box had never closed all the way. There was always about a half inch opening at the top.) This was one year to the month since I had bought the car for our daughter. The glove box light had been burning day and night for one year! When I took the car to the dealership where I had bought it, they wrote on the Service Invoice that the glove box door will not close tight and the light stays on; adjust door.
The tail light bulbs and brake light bulbs blew out (melted or burned) at about 25,000 miles. The dealership where I bought the car replaced the entire circuit board apparatus that the bulbs connect to. The service manager told me that many of the Malibu cars had this same problem.
At about 26,000 miles, the steering wheel started jerking and vibrating when the brakes were applied. The dealership replaced the front brake rotors and pads. The service manager told me that many other 1998 Malibu cars were also having brake problems; that it was fairly common.
Starting about 26,000 miles, sometimes the car would fail to start the first time. Then when the second attempt was made to start it, the anti-theft system would come on and it would fail to start again. My daughter said she would have to wait 15 to 20 minutes before the car would finally start.
Several times the ABS light would come on.
Sometimes the air conditioner would come on and shut off by itself.
The alternator and battery went out at about 50,000 miles.
The front tires wore out prematurely.
My daughter told me recently that the brake rotors need turning again, for the steering wheel is jerking again.
I bought this car for our daughter at a price of $14,000. After I had owned a sluggish Dodge Caravan and a gas-guzzling Ford Pickup, trying to save money in the years past; I decided to give Chevrolet a try. This family owns five Chevrolet vehicles. The service has been good with all but the Malibu.
The Malibu was almost a new car, at 20,000 miles, when I bought it for our daughter. I was meticulous at keeping her car maintained. I would change the air filter for her, inspect the drive belt, check the fluids, get the oil and filter changed, have the tires rotated for her, etc. I did this the first two years for her, until she moved away. Now when she comes home, I don't check anything. There have been so many things go wrong with this '98 Malibu, it doesn't matter to me anymore. I consider it somewhat a miracle when she even "arrives" safely.
There have been so many trips to the Chevrolet Service Center to have this '98 Malibu repaired, it has almost given me Parkinson's Disease. I actually feel my head jerk slightly when I think about how in the world could someone take $14,000. for a car like this? Well, I suppose the manufacturer doesn't know about this problematic '98 Malibu. They got their money for it, and that's all they care about.
Well, I suppose I was fooled by the name "Malibu". The Malibu cars I saw in the old days were good cars. All you had to do was keep them maintained and keep plugs, points and condensers in them. You could burn rubber as often as you wanted with the old Malibu cars and still get 200,000 miles or more from one easy, with no problems other than what was normal wear. I bet if one was to burn rubber in this '98 Malibu a few times, it would probably burn up or blow up with one big boom.
The glove box wasn't adjusted properly. The repairman had put a long piece of copper wire from the apparatus that the glove box latch hooks to, around and back, putting stress on the mechanism in order to pull it back where the glove box door latch would meet it properly and close. The glove box never closed properly. After the faulty wiring job was done, to close it, one would have to hold out on the handle and at the same time push the box in; then while one hand was holding the box in, pushing real hard, the handle would have to be released. Then one would have to push on the glove box door three or four times real hard until a "click" was heard. If a click wasn't heard, that means the latch wasn't closing, and you would have to start over at step one. I had about quit smoking until I saw the broken copper wire that the Chevrolet dealership repairman put on.
Our daughter came to visit recently. She said the copper wire holding the glove box apparatus in place had broken. I went out to look. The glove box had fallen down and the light was off. How was the light off? She had an ink pen wedged in between the open glove box and the light switch. I unhooked the light switch, looked at the unprofessional broken copper wire up inside the glove box. I thought to myself "They 'adjusted' it so it would last through the warranty, then the wire broke, allowing the latch-catch mechanism to fly back and break the latch." The plastic latch appears to be part of the glove box, and it may not can be replaced separately. I wouldn't be surprised if I get a call saying "Daddy, the whole glove box will have to be replaced, because they said the latch and box are one component, and they said it will cost $_ _ _._ _.
My answer would be, "Hey, that's not a bad deal. Remember when your alternator had to be replaced recently and they charged just under four hundred dollars to replace it?"
My prayer is that this Malibu money- getter will last her through college. I was hoping it would last her ten or twenty years, like the old ones, but these days I suppose some Malibu owners are not hoping for years; they are hoping for weeks or months.
Hindsight is 20/20. If I had it to do over, I wouldn't have bought it for her. I wish there was a way to get a class action lawsuit on the '98 Malibu. You can bet I would be in the heat of it. Don't buy a Malibu. Now the money I saved for so long to purchase this car is gone and what do we have to show for it? What will go out next. Oh yes, I have put two sets of tires on it from 36,000 miles to 52,000 miles. The first set of tires, apparently the originals, lasted exactly until the warranty expired. She forgot to rotate the front tires at exactly 6,000 miles and the front tires wore down slick as ice while the rear ones were still like new. The bottom line is: Has the world gone crazy?
We should get a class action suit going.
I have had all the same problems.
Brake rotors rusted out at 15,000 miles. Dealer said it wasn't their problem. They didn't fix under warranty. Had I done something untoward to the car?
Air conditioner intermittently on and off, Fan positions 1 and 2 don't work. Dealer looked like he had never heard of such a thing, but fixed while car was still under warranty, but won't fix now.
Alternator died one night at 55,000 miles in snow storm. (no warning lights came on to indicate imminent failure).
My family has owned GM products for 3 generations, BUT THIS CAR JUST STINKS.
I also agree. I own a green 1998 Malibu and I've spent a lot of money trying to fix Chevrolet's problems. So far I've had to replace tires, rotors, brake pads, get settings 1 and 2 on the A/C control fixed, and it still randomly turns on and off, the pass seat rattles, dash and other parts rattle, ABS light randomly comes on. I wish I'd done more research before buying this car because for every problem I fix, it seems two more come up. Oh well...
I too own a 98 chevy malibu and have had similar problems. Now the Check engine light is own and it seems to be mis firing. I replaced the battery and alternator recently and also had to spend 250 bucks on an A/C control unit because the A/C came on and off intermittently. This car is a piece of crap.
Well I see the made no improvements with the 98's. We have/ or have had all the same and then some. Just be forewarned if your coolant light starts coming onand the tank is bone dry, get the head gaskets checked first thing, or you will be replacing the engine, with in 6 months.
Thanks for the warning. I have the Olds version -- the 1998 Cutlass that is really the loaded Malibu with different tail lights. I have had identical problems (the dealer claims never to have heard about any of them), and now have the coolant light on -- although it's been checked twice in the past 2 weeks! I also had the power steering pump just die at 67K a couple weeks back, so be on the lookout, since we all seem to be on the same path. I'm taking it in for the coolant light tomorrow. Too bad it's such a piece of junk, since it's so comfortable and solid. I've never had a car fall apart with such low mileage.
I too have a '98 Malibu and I did do research on it at the time I was buying it. Everywhere I went back in 1999 I read positive things about this car. I think Motor Trends gave it a very good rating. Now in 2003 after people had time to see the whole picture and I read all of these I know that you can't believe everything you read, because people who suppose to know something, doesn't know squat!
I have had the same problems as everybody else. Brakes need changed about once a year. The rotors are so thin that they can't even be turned you have to get brand new ones each time. My Air-conditioner is out. Not just 1 and 2 but the whole thing is broke. My backlights have had to be replaced many times for burning out or a circuit going out. The place caps on the tires melt and make it very hard when you have to replace a tire. The dashboard rattles on hot days. Oh and many more, that I can't think of right now. Currently as I type my Malibu is in the shop getting fixed. It was running just fine in the morning and in the evening when I tried to get it started it was DEAD. My gauges were going crazy and jumping up and down, but no clicks nothing trying to turnover. Just dead and it wouldn't even jump-start. I had no warning at all. No lights were coming on, nothing! I hate this CAR!
To ALL Malibu owners who have had problems with the Chevy Malibu:
You need to contact GM and let them know about the problems you are having with your Malibu.
Go to www.chevrolet.com and click on the links to the contacts. Make sure you let them know that you are not very happy (in polite form) and tell them that you would like something done about this.
If we can get enough complaints against GM then they may do something about it.
GOOD LUCK!
Now I realized that I earn money for fixing my car.
I also agree. I own a 98 Malibu and I just had to get the head gasket replaced, at 70000 miles! Not only that, but since then I've been having the problem where the theft system light comes on and won't let me start the car for like 20 minutes. This morning, the theft light came on and the car wouldn't start again, so I waited. When the light stopped blinking, ten minutes later, I tried to start it again. The stupid car did the same thing. I have to drive from school to school for my job, as I'm a tech at a school district. Now my car is stuck at another school a mile from my home office. So, on my lunch, I get to walk a mile and pray that my car starts. Thanks Chevrolet!
I was so surprized to see all of your comments. I have a 98
Chevy Malibu. It has about 40,000 miles on it,and I too have tried to keep up on it's maintenance. Well the check
engine light just came on. I'm at the dealership so much they already know me by name. I'm so dissappointed in this car I will never buy another Chevy car. If you do decide to make a class action law suit count me in. Lucy.
I have a 99 malibu and I have To replace my motor. I already had to change my brakes every. and also my rotors.
Wow. I thought all my Malibu problems were due to my idiot husband attempting to wash the inside of the car out with a hose when I'd had it a few months, thus presumably frying the electronics. But you guys are all reporting the same problems I have.
Man oh man, I wish I had not been stupid enough to get a 7-year-lease on the car. I still owe $10K on it and I've had it for three years. Thus far I have had to replace the serpentine belt, the head gasket, have the cylinders rebored due to a cylinder gasket failure that was letting coolant into the cylinders, the right rear door power switch, a taillight, the braking apparatus (after having had to replace brake pads every three months because they were wearing out ludicrously fast), and I've had to permanently turn off my car alarm because it works so erratically, and stop driving the car in the summer because the AC won't stay on. Oh, and the car stereo tape deck died about two months after I got the car. Oh, and one time my battery melted down overnight for no reason. (Jumping it set my battery cables on fire. This was not "I left the headlights on", this happened for no reason whatsoever.)
I had such good luck with my 94 Chevy Cavalier. Now that was a great car. It did die of head gasket when it was only 6, but I'd driven it to work through nasty weather conditions, 90 miles a day, for five years and then it died at the end of the sixth year a week after I stupidly drove it in a hurricane, and for a car abused like that it gave me amazingly few problems.
Is the Malibu a real one-off for Chevy or is it a sign that Chevys are getting unreliable? I have always had Chevys (including my first car being a 77 Malibu) and they have always performed very well for me, until this one. Now my husband has bought a gently-used 99 Lumina and we have already had to replace the alternator within the first two months of having the car. Should I expect a future with the Lumina like I've had with the Malibu?
I recently purchased a Malibu and I had heard good things about it. I have had the car about 2 weeks and I have already noticed little things beginning to happen. The first week I had the car the ABS light came on for no reason, and the second week I had the car the car would not start in the morning and the theft system light kept coming on, it took about 10 minutes for the car to finally start. I have had a lot of bad cars in the past all which have started out with little problems leading to big ones. I bought the car as is with no warranty so I am very worried now that I have heard all the problems that other people have had with the car I just hope this car lasts me a while. By the way does anyone know why in the world the ABS light would just come on for no apparent reason?
I will have to agree with the majority of 98' Malibu owners, when it come to problems experienced with the rotor replacement, 1 year (if not less) brake pad life, fan setting 1 and 2 not working, and the ABS light flickering on and off like fairy bulb lights. I was surprised myself when I experience all these problem with my 98' Malibu, as I have read up and even rented a malibu before I bought my own. It was "suppose" to be a reliable car. I can say that it's reliable in making me have to purchase new brake pads and rotors almost every other year though.
If all of you are considering that class action suit, please let me know also.
I own a 98 Malibu, that I bought brand-new. I have experienced problems with the brakes vibrating since the car had 500 miles on it. I have had the rotors replaced 4 times and are going to have them replaced again here at the end of the week. I am on my third AC dash control because it keeps switching back to fresh air from re-circulate. Now it is doing that again, and it's stuck with the air blowing on my feet. I missed being able to have Chevy buy this car back with the lemon law by one trip to the service department not because it wasn't in need of repairs, but because I could not request to come in late for work again with out getting into trouble. Other problems that I have had are; leaking coolant, alternator malfunction, a pulley seized and ruined my water pump, misalign doors, tie rods, leaking coolant, window break light fell out of window, trunk leaked, radio had no reception, thermostat sensor went bad, and a few other minor repairs. The worst part is their service. I would bring the car in and they would tell me there was nothing they could do or there was no problem. When I had my thermostat sensor replace they charged me a diagnostic fee even though the car was under warranty because they couldn't find the problem. I brought the car back the next day for the same problem and they hooked up the diagnostic machine to my car's computer and found an error code. The mechanic said that it was the same code he had found the day before, but it read that my engine temp was at -1000 degrees so he thought it was a mistake. Since it was my thermostat sensor that was malfunctioning it was a good error code. They would not refund my money for their mistake.