2001 Chevrolet Malibu sedan from North America - Comments

I have a 2001 Malibu and I have had all of the same problems mentioned above. Signal lights not working and of course the blower working on setting 4 and 5. Fortuantely these were fixed under warranty. However my biggest issue is with the caliburs - I had these replaced 16 months ago and now they are "faulty" again. They are leaking and making huge noise when I stop. I paid for the replacement 16 months ago and now they want me to pay again. Aren't caliburs suppose to pretty much last the life of the car. I have only 72Kilometers on it. Geesh...

I just bought a 2000 malibu and I have had it 1 month and there is a horrible whinning noise coming from the front end and now my ABS light came on. The car also jerks while I'm driving randomly, and gas goes really fast. This is not cool someone needs to go public with these malibus or maybe a big lawsuit because this is happening to a lot of malibu owners.

HELP!!!!!!

My mom owns a 2001 Chevy Malibu and has had nothing but problems with it for the past 2 years. After it died driving down the road, no one knew what was wrong with it, until the tow-truck pulled up and told us the keyless entry was to blame. We were dumbfounded until we made the dealership repair the entry locks, and the problem went away. Now we're dealing with a hazard/flasher button that likes to click all day long. we've replaced it twice and it still won't go away. The store where we bought the last flasher button said he sold 17 of these replacement flashers for these cars just last year. Obviously we're not the only ones with this problem. Anyone out there know how to fix it?

I just don't get it. Why are so many people having problems with these cars? With the exception of one person all seven people that I know including me that have owned these cars swear they're reliable. We do have two common complaints though:brakes suck, and the gas mileage needs improvement (highways is decent though). Other than that we've no problem.

Blow Motor issues:

A friend of mine just inherited a 2001 Malibu from a family member. The car sat for a month and the blower motor seized up and fried the resistor card that controls the blower speeds. The blower was relatively easy to remove and unseize with oil and spray grease. It's located just behind the glove box. Very poor design. The motor sits in the bottom of the duct where it is exposed to condensation drainage. They will fail. The resistor card is located just in front of the fan motor next to the firewall. You'll need a 5.5mm socket to remove the card. Unfortunately, I fried a new resistor card troubleshooting the problem. This item retails for $35. I find it troubling that the seized fan motor blows the resistor card and not the blower fuse.

The car is cheap, shoddy construction, careless design, typical GM second rate trash. When it's working okay, the car is fine if you can ignore the details. Oh, the car also has a troubling engine knock with only 109,000kms. Sounds like the beginnings of a bad rod bearing. Bit of a time bomb unfortunately.

I'll be waiting for the signal switching problem to manifest and the brakes to fail. I think the front wheel bearings are also on the way out.

It baffles me that people continue to buy vehicles from GM.

I have a 2000 Chevy Malibu. It was purchased in March of 2001 with approximately 11,000 miles on it. In the seven years I have owned the car, there have been several fixes that others have mentioned: turn signal/hazard light issues; a/c blower issues; tire issues; and I had an issue with the theft system. As far as the signal/hazard light issue is concerned, I had to pay nothing for repairs because it was covered by the recall. I have had to replace the tires more than usual but I strongly believe that is because of a front-end weight distribution problem with the 2000 Malibu. The front tires wear excessively fast. I replaced my a/c system at 160,000 miles.

My only major issue with the car was a problem I started having about two years ago where the car wouldn't start at all. I'd put the key in the ignition and the lights would come on but nothing happened engine wise. I had the car towed to the dealer twice and they called me both times to tell me that the car had started fine when they put the key in. Well, this went on for a while until I noticed one important thing - whenever the car wouldn't start, the Theft light was always on even after all of the other startup lights had gone off. I started doing some research and discovered that this was a common problem with an easy, free fix. The theft system on the car sometimes malfunctioned and locked the engine because the computer couldn't read the key. When this happened, the Theft light would come on and stay on. Eventually, the computer would reset and you could start the car. So now I know that if the Theft light ever comes on again, leave the key in the ACC position for about 15 minutes, take it out and try again. It's a bit of a hassle but it beats taking the car to the dealer and having them charge me an outrageous amount of money to 'fix' the car and they don't even know what the real problem is.

To date, my Mali has 173,000 miles and is still going strong. I truly believe that routine maintenance and correct driving of my vehicle (not hard driving) has kept my Mali in business. I absolutely love my Mali and although I plan on purchasing on a used car with lower miles, I will continue to drive Mali until she can no longer go. I might even get another one!

I have a 2001 Chevy Malibu and have had nothing but problems. Started the day I drove it off the lot (brand new) engine was chugging, blinkers broke. Took it back, dealer fixed blinkers, denied chugging noise. Took it home, then the wipers broke, it wouldn't start. Back to the dealer, fixed on warranty, still denying the growing chugging noise.

6 months or so, brakes need replacing, car won't start again. Theft system, back to the dealer. Dealer still saying they can't hear the freight train noise in engine. Won't fix that, but fix the theft system (reset).

1 Year and 25k miles and chugging noise is now extremely loud and very undeniable, it sounds like a semi truck in low gear. Back to the dealer... oh crap, it's a piston bad, dealer replaces engine, car in shop for a month and a half, driving crappy loaner for the whole time while working outside sales.

New engine, back on the road for 1 mile and car dies completely with smiling infant in backseat. Alternator, dealer replaced, took a week. Car back on the road for one week, radiator goes, back to the dealer for one week. Back on the road again, wheel bearing goes after a month. Replaced.

Regular replacement on a yearly basis of wheel bearings (my mechanic said he's only ever had to replace one before in his career as a mechanic). This is to match the extremely bad issue with the brakes.

Called Chevy, got a super extended warranty on crappy car.

3 years, car is going OK, but noticing paint chipping. Patch paint spots with provided paint sample. 4 years, ran out of paint to patch, covered rotting front of hood with primer and a hard plastic bug guard.

4 years (and four wheel bearings later) car seems to be OK, no major issues other than it doesn't really seem to be starting reliably due to the theft system issue.

Current, nearly every part has been replaced on car to date, I've purchased it twice over in repairs and don't really want to sell it because it seems to be running. I've completely disabled the theft system (it's really easy to do, if you want the instructions, google disable chevy malibu passlock yellow wire).

But wait... what's this? Another wheel bearing needs to be replaced? Yeah, time to go. Paint is chipped badly, and honestly, I'm not selling the g-d car, I'm taking it to someone who will crush it when I've wrung every possible bit of use out of the piece of crap.

This car did not qualify for the lemon law because they fixed it and it wasn't the same thing wrong every time, it was something different. So, you should know, it's OK if EVERYTHING is broken on your car. Buyer beware and DON'T purchase one of these cars.

Feel free to e-mail me if you want the directions to disable the theft lock system: alittleoff_center@yahoo.com

I was googling "2001 Malibu key won't turn" and came across this site. About a year or so after I bought this car the engine starting making a very loud knocking noise. I assure you that this noise was not present when I drove the car off the lot - it was loud and it was noticeable. It was disturbingly loud.

Something was not right so I took the the car back to the dealer where I purchased it. They kept it in the shop for about a week but they could not figure out the source of the noise and sent me home with no fix saying it was "normal" but I knew that wasn't true. A few months later the noise actually got louder and I took it back to the dealer but they still couldn't figure it out.

I went to a 2nd dealer thinking I'd have better luck but they wasted my time. My car sat there for over 6 weeks. They couldn't figure it out either.

At this point, I didn't want it fixed anymore - I wanted a new engine. My warranty was almost over so I tried a 3rd dealer and it was here that I met that one mechanic who agreed to have my engine replaced while just scrapping by under warranty. So at 50k miles I had the new engine put in and since that time I have to say the car runs just fine.

I now have 86k miles on it but it took a lot of phone calls, time, effort, and hounding on my part to what I wanted.

I purchased my 2001 Malibu 3 years ago. I'm the second owner and have had very minimal problems. Basic tune ups for the most part. I was told by a mechanic that this vehicle is known for it's horrible brakes, when I went to get a simple brake job done that cost me over $800.

Recently I went through touchless car wash and it stripped a 6" in diameter of paint of the passenger side. There was absolutely no previous damage to my vehicle anywhere.

I have been informed to try taking it to a GM dealership, but worry that the car is 8 years old and GM will just shrug me off. Doesn't sound like they back up their vehicles too well from what everyone else here has said. At this point though, I have nothing to lose!

I have a 2001 Malibu. I am having electrical problems with. I too had the problem with the blower only working on certain speeds. I found a site on the web that told you how to remove the switch control in the dash and clean the contacts on it. Did as they indicated and have not had a problem with it since.

My current electrical problem is sometimes after I start the car, the horn will beep by itself one time. On occasion the theft system light will come on while I am driving, but I don't notice any issues when it does. I have also had an issue with the idle where the car idles high. I did have an issue where I would go to start the car and it would not do anything. Wiggle the battery cables and the car would start.

The one time the car just shut off on me on the freeway. Had the vehicle towed and found out my positive battery cable was corroded inside the casing of the cable. That was replaced and have not had that same problem since.