The replacement Malibu I bought for my son has turned into a PITA. He called the weekend before I was leaving to ask what would make the heat not work. After getting background info, I told him I thought it was the thermostat. He didn't have the tools to replace it, so took it to a couple shops in Duluth for estimates. The DEALER kept it overnight and called the next day and said it had coolant leaks and a bad water pump and it would cost $920 to repair. I had just replaced the very gaskets they claimed leaked 3 weeks previous. Now I'm not infallible, but I tested that repair and he drove the car for 3 weeks and all was good, before the heat loss. This was during the period of minus 27 degree temps up there. After a few more crazy estimates, he bundled up and drove it down here while we were gone and took my HHR back.
The thermostat on this car is in the lower rad hose... which I had never seen before. During the valve cover gasket chaos of a month ago, which involved needing to remove a coolant crossover manifold, I was down to that hose and the neck that the stat is in. I didn't know that at the time, or may have thrown a new stat in while it was so easily accessible. As it was, it took 2 HOURS to remove enough "stuff" to get back down to it and change it... And yes, the heat works great now.
Then it was on to replacing the exhaust resonator. I had bought 2 different replacements and neither were an exact fit, but the second one had the right contours, but the wrong mounting flange, so I proceeded to butcher it to fit. I cut the original flange off the old resonator and welded it to the new one. I then cut the fit new pipe to fit the rest of original system. Got that done.
This car has had the electronic ps fail on him twice and I found out this is a very common problem with '04-09 GM products, not just the Malibu. GM had a recall to replace the torque sensor on all these models EXCEPT the '07 year Malibu ??? I called GM directly and they refused to replace it under recall.
So, I bought the $200 sensor coil and proceeded to install it per much research from on-line info. Too many of these infomercials simplify the procedure and I thought I was careful, but the part failed and the steering wheel spun all the way to the right immediately upon start up and stayed there. After many calls to the dealer and their techs about this, it was determined I somehow installed it wrong and it was now junk and I would need to buy another one and try again. I then made an appointment with Merit, where I bought the part, to have them replace it so it would be done and any further part failures would be their problem.
The car was undrivable as it was, without unplugging the electric motor and manhandling the steering to get the car to them. Being who I am, I was curious and more than a little pizzed about this whole thing, so I called Chris and asked if he had run into this. He said he had heard of this happening and that the techs always got a new sensor and started over. He did email me a 24 page bulletin from GM on how to do this procedure. After reading thru that. I had an idea what was wrong and took the sensor out again. There are 2 rings to this and they need to be in sync, or the wheel does what happened to me. I found the lower ring lug was off-set about 1/8" and was the cause for the failure. I manage to get it back aligned with the upper ring and installed the metal lock pin, that was in this from the box. I never removed the clip until the sensor was seated in the housing, but the shaft this slides onto has a slot for the lugs and the lower slot is narrower for the lower ring. The lower lug must have, somehow, not gone into that slot straight and off-set itself to cause the problem. The positioning of that shaft in relation to the housing for this to slip in the correct position is extremely critical and needs to be exact. None of the vids I watched made that reference, The just said make sure the UPPER mark is aligned and slide it on. After getting the engagement lugs lined up with each other again, I was super careful to make certain it went in correctly, re-assembled the column and it WORKED... Apparently, no one has done this before, they just believe the bulletin, to scrap it and get a new one. That would be the safe road for them, because of liability issues with a "damaged" sensor.
I'll be driving it to my Doc appointment this morning, as a test. Hopefully, it doesn't fail while driving and the steering wheel spins wildly to one side...
Lost in the 60s said
Feb 22, 2019
I took the problem child, '07 Malibu, to Centerline today. All the front suspension and steering checked out good, so he went ahead and set up the alignment cones. The front end was within specs, but the left side camber was on the very outer limit and right was on the inner limit. Could be why the car steered OK, but once a slight correction was made in a direction, it didn't seem the steering centered back, I had to make another slight correction back again. Tech man couldn't get the left side centered in spec, so had to install a Magna cam for that. Left rear camber was way off, so that was corrected. All was good and he was happy with how it drove. On my way home, the steering seemed "heavier" to me, more effort to make small corrections, but more road feel too. Must be the change in cambers.
About 1/2 way home the TC light came on the dash and a message to service the traction control displayed on the radio face...GREAT...I get one thing fixed and another pops up...:mad:. I pulled over and called Greg, the manager and asked if it could possibly have anything to do with the Hunter interfacing with the computer and zeroing out all old codes. He had never heard of that being a problem, so I thought maybe Mirlen, the tech, had bumped a harness/plug for the ABS and a wire was corroded or loose and I would check when I got home. About 2 miles further down the road, the check engine light came on...:evil: Now I'm hoping to just get the damned thing home before it quits or blows up. Another 2 miles and the TC light goes out...HUH ??? The check engine light stayed on and from my limited experience with those, they have to be reset to go out. When I got home, I jacked the POS up for about the 20th time this week and inspected all the ABS harnesses and plugs. All seemed good but I pulled the plugs out anyway, to get a fresh contact point. I then disconnected the battery for the engine light to reset and started the car...no lights...but I haven't driven it except the 700 feet from the shop to the house, so who knows ??
It did get a new windshield today and I swapped out the left tail light from the '06, as the '07 was cracked.
Weather forecaster says we are under a heavy snow warning from 10 pm tonight until Sunday morning with 6-8" of new snow expected, to go on top of the 8" we got 2 days ago. Then the wind is expected to wind up to 40 mph and cause blizzard conditions with heavy drifting and whiteouts causing zero visibility thru Sunday.
Wonderful, guess I won't be test driving the car any more until Tuesday...:drunk:
67ss said
Feb 23, 2019
The check engine light with cause the traction control to turn off. Scan it to see what the check engine light was all about and let me know.
jim larson said
Feb 23, 2019
About two months ago the Low Power Mode came on in my 1500, struggled to get home from Rochester. The traction control light came one and also the check engine light. Parked the car in the garage, waited 5 minuets, started truck, it ran fine and TC light was off: but engine light was on and remote start would not work. Dealership reset codes, remote start worked and all was good. To much technology for this old man.
Lost in the 60s said
Feb 23, 2019
67ss wrote:
The check engine light with cause the traction control to turn off. Scan it to see what the check engine light was all about and let me know.
I'll have to run it up to O'Rielly's to get a code scanner. I still don't have one...
Like we talked about, I'd like to get one, but it needs to be more functional than just reading and resetting codes. And then it needs to be affordable too...
Derek69SS said
Feb 26, 2019
jim larson wrote:
About two months ago the Low Power Mode came on in my 1500, struggled to get home from Rochester. The traction control light came one and also the check engine light. Parked the car in the garage, waited 5 minuets, started truck, it ran fine and TC light was off: but engine light was on and remote start would not work. Dealership reset codes, remote start worked and all was good. To much technology for this old man.
Mine started doing that same thing the first time it got cold out, and continued doing it any time it was below about 10 degrees.
In my case, it was the throttle position sensor on the throttle-body, but it's also fairly common to get the same problem from a bad sensor on the pedal.
Lost in the 60s said
Feb 26, 2019
67ss wrote:
The check engine light with cause the traction control to turn off. Scan it to see what the check engine light was all about and let me know.
Guy at O'Rielly's scan said there was a problem with the left rear sensor. I think that was an old code from when I bought the car and put a hub from an HHR on as a test for a noisy bearing. That hub sensor didn't work with the car and it went away after I put the original hub back on.
I checked that plug and wire harness for any corrosion/damage and all looked good, so hope the light doesn't come back on. I haven't driven the car since and will today to put some miles on it.
67ss said
Feb 26, 2019
A bad speed sensor would only turn on the ABS and traction lights, it should not turn on the check engine light. One other thought is I have seen the service vehicle soon light which is a picture of the car with a wrench sometimes come on with ABS issues? Or was it the light with the picture of the engine?
Lost in the 60s said
Feb 26, 2019
It was the traction control light that come on first and then the engine picture later. When the T/C light went out the engine light stayed on. That went away when I disconnected the battery to reset it. I drove it a little today, ~16 miles, for an errand and no issues...
The replacement Malibu I bought for my son has turned into a PITA. He called the weekend before I was leaving to ask what would make the heat not work. After getting background info, I told him I thought it was the thermostat. He didn't have the tools to replace it, so took it to a couple shops in Duluth for estimates. The DEALER kept it overnight and called the next day and said it had coolant leaks and a bad water pump and it would cost $920 to repair. I had just replaced the very gaskets they claimed leaked 3 weeks previous. Now I'm not infallible, but I tested that repair and he drove the car for 3 weeks and all was good, before the heat loss. This was during the period of minus 27 degree temps up there. After a few more crazy estimates, he bundled up and drove it down here while we were gone and took my HHR back.
The thermostat on this car is in the lower rad hose... which I had never seen before. During the valve cover gasket chaos of a month ago, which involved needing to remove a coolant crossover manifold, I was down to that hose and the neck that the stat is in. I didn't know that at the time, or may have thrown a new stat in while it was so easily accessible. As it was, it took 2 HOURS to remove enough "stuff" to get back down to it and change it...
And yes, the heat works great now.
Then it was on to replacing the exhaust resonator. I had bought 2 different replacements and neither were an exact fit, but the second one had the right contours, but the wrong mounting flange, so I proceeded to butcher it to fit. I cut the original flange off the old resonator and welded it to the new one. I then cut the fit new pipe to fit the rest of original system. Got that done.
This car has had the electronic ps fail on him twice and I found out this is a very common problem with '04-09 GM products, not just the Malibu. GM had a recall to replace the torque sensor on all these models EXCEPT the '07 year Malibu ??? I called GM directly and they refused to replace it under recall.
So, I bought the $200 sensor coil and proceeded to install it per much research from on-line info. Too many of these infomercials simplify the procedure and I thought I was careful, but the part failed and the steering wheel spun all the way to the right immediately upon start up and stayed there. After many calls to the dealer and their techs about this, it was determined I somehow installed it wrong and it was now junk and I would need to buy another one and try again. I then made an appointment with Merit, where I bought the part, to have them replace it so it would be done and any further part failures would be their problem.
The car was undrivable as it was, without unplugging the electric motor and manhandling the steering to get the car to them. Being who I am, I was curious and more than a little pizzed about this whole thing, so I called Chris and asked if he had run into this. He said he had heard of this happening and that the techs always got a new sensor and started over. He did email me a 24 page bulletin from GM on how to do this procedure. After reading thru that. I had an idea what was wrong and took the sensor out again. There are 2 rings to this and they need to be in sync, or the wheel does what happened to me. I found the lower ring lug was off-set about 1/8" and was the cause for the failure. I manage to get it back aligned with the upper ring and installed the metal lock pin, that was in this from the box. I never removed the clip until the sensor was seated in the housing, but the shaft this slides onto has a slot for the lugs and the lower slot is narrower for the lower ring. The lower lug must have, somehow, not gone into that slot straight and off-set itself to cause the problem. The positioning of that shaft in relation to the housing for this to slip in the correct position is extremely critical and needs to be exact. None of the vids I watched made that reference, The just said make sure the UPPER mark is aligned and slide it on. After getting the engagement lugs lined up with each other again, I was super careful to make certain it went in correctly, re-assembled the column and it WORKED...
Apparently, no one has done this before, they just believe the bulletin, to scrap it and get a new one. That would be the safe road for them, because of liability issues with a "damaged" sensor.
I'll be driving it to my Doc appointment this morning, as a test. Hopefully, it doesn't fail while driving and the steering wheel spins wildly to one side...
I took the problem child, '07 Malibu, to Centerline today. All the front suspension and steering checked out good, so he went ahead and set up the alignment cones. The front end was within specs, but the left side camber was on the very outer limit and right was on the inner limit. Could be why the car steered OK, but once a slight correction was made in a direction, it didn't seem the steering centered back, I had to make another slight correction back again. Tech man couldn't get the left side centered in spec, so had to install a Magna cam for that. Left rear camber was way off, so that was corrected. All was good and he was happy with how it drove.
On my way home, the steering seemed "heavier" to me, more effort to make small corrections, but more road feel too. Must be the change in cambers.
About 1/2 way home the TC light came on the dash and a message to service the traction control displayed on the radio face...GREAT...I get one thing fixed and another pops up...:mad:.
I pulled over and called Greg, the manager and asked if it could possibly have anything to do with the Hunter interfacing with the computer and zeroing out all old codes. He had never heard of that being a problem, so I thought maybe Mirlen, the tech, had bumped a harness/plug for the ABS and a wire was corroded or loose and I would check when I got home. About 2 miles further down the road, the check engine light came on...:evil: Now I'm hoping to just get the damned thing home before it quits or blows up. Another 2 miles and the TC light goes out...HUH ??? The check engine light stayed on and from my limited experience with those, they have to be reset to go out. When I got home, I jacked the POS up for about the 20th time this week and inspected all the ABS harnesses and plugs. All seemed good but I pulled the plugs out anyway, to get a fresh contact point. I then disconnected the battery for the engine light to reset and started the car...no lights...but I haven't driven it except the 700 feet from the shop to the house, so who knows ??
It did get a new windshield today and I swapped out the left tail light from the '06, as the '07 was cracked.
Weather forecaster says we are under a heavy snow warning from 10 pm tonight until Sunday morning with 6-8" of new snow expected, to go on top of the 8" we got 2 days ago. Then the wind is expected to wind up to 40 mph and cause blizzard conditions with heavy drifting and whiteouts causing zero visibility thru Sunday.
Wonderful, guess I won't be test driving the car any more until Tuesday...:drunk:
The check engine light with cause the traction control to turn off. Scan it to see what the check engine light was all about and let me know.
About two months ago the Low Power Mode came on in my 1500, struggled to get home from Rochester. The traction control light came one and also the check engine light. Parked the car in the garage, waited 5 minuets, started truck, it ran fine and TC light was off: but engine light was on and remote start would not work. Dealership reset codes, remote start worked and all was good. To much technology for this old man.
I'll have to run it up to O'Rielly's to get a code scanner. I still don't have one...
Like we talked about, I'd like to get one, but it needs to be more functional than just reading and resetting codes. And then it needs to be affordable too...
Mine started doing that same thing the first time it got cold out, and continued doing it any time it was below about 10 degrees.
In my case, it was the throttle position sensor on the throttle-body, but it's also fairly common to get the same problem from a bad sensor on the pedal.
Guy at O'Rielly's scan said there was a problem with the left rear sensor. I think that was an old code from when I bought the car and put a hub from an HHR on as a test for a noisy bearing. That hub sensor didn't work with the car and it went away after I put the original hub back on.
I checked that plug and wire harness for any corrosion/damage and all looked good, so hope the light doesn't come back on. I haven't driven the car since and will today to put some miles on it.
A bad speed sensor would only turn on the ABS and traction lights, it should not turn on the check engine light. One other thought is I have seen the service vehicle soon light which is a picture of the car with a wrench sometimes come on with ABS issues? Or was it the light with the picture of the engine?
It was the traction control light that come on first and then the engine picture later. When the T/C light went out the engine light stayed on. That went away when I disconnected the battery to reset it.
I drove it a little today, ~16 miles, for an errand and no issues...