Frustrated new 08' Malibu LTZ V6 owner

[Rob J]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum, and new to owning a Malibu. I just bought on 08' Malibu LTZ V6 2 days ago, and having issues. I hope my case is just an isolated case, as I'm certainly dissapointed in what I'm about to tell you, since I spent six months decided on whether to buy an Accord, Camry, or Malibu.
Well after my wife and I decided we wanted to buy a Malibu, my search began. I ended up finding an 08 Malibu LTZ V6 in North Texas with only 2400 miles on the clock. I agreed on a price with the dealer, and this past Friday morning flew to Dallas to buy the car and drive the 1400 miles back to Miami, FL. Seems crazy, but the money we saved seemed worth it. Dealer picks me up, takes me to the dealership, I look the car over, test drive it, and buy it. Carfax was clean on the car, ect... The story the dealer told me was that an elderly couple bought the car in Jan this year, the wife passed, (it was her car) then the husband sold the car back to the same dealer he bought it new from, as he no longer needed it. I did some research, and it seemed to check out. It was a car I found on e-bay, and the dealer had 100% feedback. All seems well.

The first 1/2 of the first day driving the car back, all seemed well with the car, then I started noticing a hesitation issue with the car. The more I payed attention to the car, and the more used to the car I get, the more I really feel it. I think the car had the issue all along, but since it being a new car to me, you don't really notice things right away. Here is what's going on. When I am cruising, basically at any speed, then let off the gas coasting, I fell a hesitation, pulsing, vibrating feeling, as if the engine is missing, or the tranny is doing something strange. It's difficult to descibe the feeling in words, but it's like the car is lurching back and forth. You don't really feel it when you are accelerating moderately or stongly, but on normal acceleration, the hesitation is there. By the second day of the trip (yesterday), I am really dissapointed in this car. I am really feeling this vibration, hesitation, pulsing, lurching stongly. So strongly in fact, it is really making driving this car tiresome, as I am being almost constantly jerked back and forth on any type of normal acceleration, de-acceleration, or coasting. I arrived home after the 1400 mile trek in 2 days late last night, and here I am dissapointed and frustrated. I really want to like this car, and hope this can be fixed, as there is no way this can be normal.
All this morning, I have been doing research on-line to find this problem, and have not been able to find any mention of this in any web site I could find.
Needless to say, the car is going to my local dealer tomorrow to get checked out.

Has anyone heard of this issue with this car, or can anyone give me some advice? I hope I didn't get a lemon.

On a side note, when you are cruising with the cruise control on, the car is smooth and straight. I took the car to 100mph, just for a moment, and it didn't have any alignment or balance issues.

One other thing I noticed. With the engine on, and the car in park, I can feel the engine missing slightly at idle.

I really want to like this car, as besides the hesitation issue, it's a really nice car.

Thanks for the help in advance,

Rob.

[jasaero]

Sorry to hear you are having troubles with the new Malibu. Not sure I am even 100% sure I know what you are describing though?? You say hesitation, but your descriptions sounds more like a lack of smoothness in acceleration and coasting as it seems to only be noticable on gradual acceleration and coasting, but not hard starts or braking?? Or a jerky acceleration and coasting maybe even?? Are any sounds associated with it or is it more a silent thing? And on the missing idle issue, is that consistent whether or not the engine is warmed up yet?

[jkennedy293]

I wonder if its a defective injector.

[PMC the 1st]

The phonomena the topic starter describes is very similar to a related phonomena: psychosomatic illness.

If you suffer from psycosomatic illness and you think the car is going to perform erratically, then it most certainly will.
Nothing the author of this thread can be traced to a minor engine fault; hesitation even upon light acceleration points to bad piston rings or bad valves, which is a fault that happens with high-mileage engines only. For this reason, I made my diagnosis. The diagnosis is not with the car, it's with the owner of the car.

There are two solutions to this problem. The first is a prescription for any of the benzodiazepine-based tranquilizers. These chemical compounds are designed specifically to assuage any anxieties the sufferer may encounter (and psychosomatic illness is a form of loosly-associated anxiety). After taking these benzodiazepines, the OP's Malibu problems will disappear. The second solution is to buy a different car altogether; one that isn't prone to induce anxieties in the OP when purchasing or driving.

To the OP, I suggest he buys the Accord or the Camry. Even if there is a serious engine problem with any of those two cars, his mind will likely not notice it...

[osv_alero]

Push your OnStar button while driving and ask them if any codes show up. It might be bad gas.

A few years ago my wife and I where driving my Mother-in-Law's Rendevzous while on vacation in the middle of the moutains and it did the exact same thing. We hit OnStar, they did a diagnosis to make sure it was nothing big, then put us in touch with a dealer while driving. We explained the issue to a service tech at the dealership. He guessed it was bad gas and stated they would stay open late to make sure they could check it out. We arrived after closing hours and as stated the service door was open awaiting our arrival. The service tech greeted us and offered us some ice tea or water. They opened the hood and started checking everything out before we could even get the kids out of the car. It was determined that bad gas was the issue but they reassured us that if any thing happens to hit the OnStar button and someone would be right there to take care of us. They also threw in gas additive and suggested we go fill the car up. Sure enough it cleared out the injectors and we where good to go.

Moral of the story; OnStar and GM are there to help. Let them help.

[majicbz07]

Did you check the oil level. I was having a problem similar to this with my car, but it wasn't lurching very hard. But I did feel a slight bit of hesitation on the highway. I didnt check it at first until i was hearing this rattling sound whenever i accelerate hard. It turned out i only had 1 litre of oil left eventhough the DIC said that my oil was at over 50%. My mechanic put in new oil and the car ran fine.

[BigAls87Z28]

Sounds like you might just need the computer reflashed for either engine timing or trans shifting.
Nothing big, good luck with your ride.

[BigAls87Z28]

Originally Posted by majicbz07

Did you check the oil level. I was having a problem similar to this with my car, but it wasn't lurching very hard. But I did feel a slight bit of hesitation on the highway. I didnt check it at first until i was hearing this rattling sound whenever i accelerate hard. It turned out i only had 1 litre of oil left eventhough the DIC said that my oil was at over 50%. My mechanic put in new oil and the car ran fine.

DIC wont tell your level of oil, just the life of the oil. What should have came up was a low oil light.

This goes along the lines of "Im low on oil, so i must need an oil change" mentality I see on a dailiy basis. Not related to the above poster, but if your oil light comes up, it doesnt mean you need an oil change.

[Rob J]

First off, Thanks for the warm welcome PMC. Not. I won't even waste my time with a response to your insulting post.

Second, I am not new to cars, have owned many Corvette's, and have even restored a 72' Corvette and built a Factory Five Shelby Cobra 427 replica, which I still currently own.

The missing on idle is noticable if the engine is up to operating temp or not.

Car has fresh oil, and it is at the proper level.

When I first felt the hesitation, I thought it may have been bad gas as well. However, on my 1400 mile journey home, when I was ready to re-fuel, I fueled up with Premium, and still continued to have the same issue.

I drove the car a bit today, and it didn't seem as bad as yesterday, but it is certainly still there, and not normal. I think it gets worse when the car is warmed up. I've owned more than 35 cars in my 40 years of life so far, so I'm not new to cars, or suffering from any psychological dillusions.

Rob.

[Quickening]

I can tell you, that buying premium gas does not gurantee not getting "bad gas". I have to use premium fuel with my turbo'd engine and I have gotten bad gas about three times.

I would do as others suggested. Have Onstar run a test or swing by the dealership and have an engineer come along for a ride. You drive it and when it happens point it out to them. It avoids the whole "could not repeat problem" BS.

[fp115]

I would just call OnStar and have them run a diagnostics on it. If it is really laggy as you say, they can suggest something or maybe make a few configurations for you. But really all I am reading here is difficult to understand.

[caddycruiser]

Again, same post I made on the Malibu forum. COMMON issue, at least so far on earlier (2007 mainly) Auras with the same engine, but also oddly the 3.5L as well:

Actually, sounds similar to some issues there were with early Saturn Aura's with the 3.6L (identical in every way under the skin). Owners reported random shaking at idle as well as that feeling under deceleration. Oddly, same thing with the pushrod 3.5L used in a lot of Aura's and G6's still, and I'm having a bit of it in my G6.

I believe it's a programming issue related to the lean/rich fuel/air mixture and something else. But what's odd is I haven't seen this brought up in relation to any '08s, Aura or Malibu, but you never know.

Here's a couple of the Aura threads discussing similar things:

http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/sho...ght=rough+idle

http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/sho...ght=rough+idle

http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/sho...ght=rough+idle

http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/sho...ght=rough+idle

Especially in the first link, the symptoms sound IDENTICAL. Still weird that an '08 Malibu would suffer from any of it, but it can happen. Feels like it's stumbling or chugging? If so, I think that's because it is. Same thing with my '08 G6 3.5L, despite being a different powertrain.

There may be a computer update but as I haven't heard anything much about this, it's only a guess. Hope this info helps!

[fp115]

The Lambdas had similar issues and all it was, was a nice little computer update and all was good. The shifting was smoother as was the whole engine.

[ChevyRules]

Originally Posted by caddycruiser

Again, same post I made on the Malibu forum. COMMON issue, at least so far on earlier (2007 mainly) Auras with the same engine, but also oddly the 3.5L as well:

Actually, sounds similar to some issues there were with early Saturn Aura's with the 3.6L (identical in every way under the skin). Owners reported random shaking at idle as well as that feeling under deceleration. Oddly, same thing with the pushrod 3.5L used in a lot of Aura's and G6's still, and I'm having a bit of it in my G6.

I believe it's a programming issue related to the lean/rich fuel/air mixture and something else. But what's odd is I haven't seen this brought up in relation to any '08s, Aura or Malibu, but you never know.

Here's a couple of the Aura threads discussing similar things:

http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/sho...ght=rough+idle

http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/sho...ght=rough+idle

http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/sho...ght=rough+idle

http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/sho...ght=rough+idle

Especially in the first link, the symptoms sound IDENTICAL. Still weird that an '08 Malibu would suffer from any of it, but it can happen. Feels like it's stumbling or chugging? If so, I think that's because it is. Same thing with my '08 G6 3.5L, despite being a different powertrain.

There may be a computer update but as I haven't heard anything much about this, it's only a guess. Hope this info helps!

In some of those threads talk about idle walk which is normal. All of my cars do it occasionally where the car is idling and will randomly increase revs then go back down to idle. It is just with the Aura, it is more noticeable.

[roteague]

Originally Posted by Rob J

First off, Thanks for the warm welcome PMC. Not. I won't even waste my time with a response to your insulting post.

Don't take his post personally or even seriously, he was being satirical at your expense.