When I take my car in to have an oil change/checkup the garage tells me my wheels need to be balanced. However I do not have any indication that I need wheel balancing. The tires do not show unusual wear, there is no shaking while driving in the city, nor when on an expressway driving from 40 to 70 MPH. Is it possible I really need to balance the wheels?
View 12 Replies109K and runs great except for when accelerating from start to any speed. The front end acts likes the front wheels are slightly out of balance. Once you stop accelerating all is fine. Tires have plenty of tread and no I haven't rotated them to the rear which I might do?
View 1 RepliesI have a Venture with a steadily-worsening vibration problem which is always worse at the front passenger side. The vibration is not the growly rumble I remember from the bad bearings I replaced 3 years ago. It's more like the thudding feel of an out-of-balance tire, but the tires are relatively new and have been rotated and balanced since purchase and since I noticed the problem. The vibration shows mainly from 45-55 mph, but not if coasting. It's only when the engine is under load that I feel it. It occurs when the gear select is in D or 3. At any other speed it is not as bad, but if I get on the gas, the vibration becomes worse. Revving the engine in park or neutral reveals no abnormal vibration.
I jacked up the van and rotated the tires again and checked for any play in the bearings or loose mounting bolts - nothing obvious there. I did notice on the passenger side of the engine, around the inboard CV joint, a spray of thick axle/moly grease, like one would find inside a CV boot, as if the boot has a small hole in it, but the CV joint does not grind or make any typical noise on sharp turn.
My list of guesses include: motor mounts, tranny mounts, bad bearing/hub, bad half shaft/CV joint, tranny going bad, bad bearing in engine.
History/details: 2004 Venture LS long wheelbase. 160,000 miles. Goodyear Viva 2 tires. Front bearings have been replaced as a set once, driver side again since then, when the ABS sensor went bad. Sometimes when I put it into drive and turn sharply to the left, traction control turns on momentarily. The tranny has begun to slip and grab on a coast-to-stop followed by sudden acceleration.
I have an '02 malibu that got hot and now won't start I have pulled the plugs and there isn't any water in the cyliders. And none in the oil, what to check next?
View 6 RepliesI have a 2003 Chevrolet Malibu LS.
The bulb for the parking light on the right headlight doesn't come on, it only comes on when the turning signal is activated. I'm not sure if it's the bulb or the fuse? If it's the fuse, do I need to buy electrical gloves and disconnect the battery before I "operate".
I have a 2000 Chevy Malibu (187K mi). Last year I was driving to work (24 mi one way) and noticed when I came to a stoplight the car seemed to be really hard to stop. When the light turned green and I let off the brake, it jumped forward pretty hard then continued on the way. Once I got to the parking lot and put it in to park, the RPM's went WAY up to around 3K the second I put it in park. It did this on and off for a week or so, one time getting so high in park I was scared to drive it. It was really sporadic. It quit for a day or two, then started again. I finally took it to a transmission shop...a national chain that is supposed to be good.
After 2 weeks they still didn't know what was wrong, charged me $500 for looking at it...didn't fix ANYTHING and it's been fine for almost a year. The only thing they charged me for was hooking it up to their computer and doing diagnostics. They said they were going to have someone test each wire one by one because it was showing a computer malfunction. However they did not actually do any work on the car. Just tests. I got it back and it worked fine for some reason. Now it's started to do it again. Rev'd really high, up to 2K when I put it in park last night..but today it's been fine. What could this be, and who do I trust?
2011 chevy malibu. 3 days ago on my way to work my car would hit about 2500 rpms and drop then go back 2500 and drop continously. I stopped turned it off and it ran fine. now I've noticed when taking off from a stop it's a jerking/quick (only once not multiple times) kind of go. It used to be very smooth. occasionally the rpm problem will return but less severe.
View 1 RepliesWanting to no what the inlet and outlet ports for heater hoses on a chevy 350. I have a air gap intake with the the four water hoses 2 in the front and to in the back and of course the one on the water pump.
View 1 RepliesRecently my malibu would crank but not start. The consensus was fuel pump. I usually use Cole Muffler since they're close but I've had too many issues with them so I decided to take it to Sandone Tire. Upon further inspection, it turned out to be a wiring issue. I then received a call telling me that when the fuel pump was tested with their equipment, it had 0 electrical charge, and would not run the car for more than 3 seconds, essentially indicating that there was now a pump AND wiring issue, and the pump had to be replaced.
When the work was completed, about 2 days later, i hiked to Sandone to get my car, and was hit with an almost $900 bill. $300 fuel pump plus labor, $300 labor to run the testing equipment on the electrical system, gas fillup, tow, etc. I was told "Well, we fixed the problem of the car not running, as far as the other issues (small ongoing, and possibly linked electrical problems like lighter/ac, radio, locks, etc.. that may have led to the current problem) we'd have to bring it in and look at that"
I turned on the ignition to listen to the new fuel pump, and it would not stop priming. I read that that it can be 1 of 2 things, the fuel pump relay or the pcm not receiving the signal to turn it off after a few seconds. I tried to get back into the place, but he had locked up for the night. Ok, no big deal. It runs. We'll figure the rest out later.
It's now 1 day later and the vehicle is not starting again. Though this time it "tries" to start, with a little puff of combustion here and there, but will not start. I am going to ask if they put the right octane gas in, and tell them that I had a previous idle air control valve needing to be cleaned issue, but other than that I'm stuck on how to deal with this situation.
Also, if the fuel pump was running fine then "suddenly" crapped out, and the problem is electrical, how the hell does the fuel pump suddenly then need to be replaced because it won't run for more than 3 seconds?
I have a 2000 Chevy Malibu LS 3.1 V6, the car is burning oil, and I want to know your opinion.
The car had thermostat problems and was overheated, after I changed the thermostat the engine started smoking and every body told me it was the head gaskets, but the car is not burning coolant, is actually burning oil.
When I start the car, first is the steam coming up from the tail pipe, then when the car is warm, the oil smoke stars to come out from the tail pipe.
I checked the spark plugs and all six showed a lot of oil on them, so my question is, is this because the piston rings or the engine is getting oil from somwhere else beside the piston rings. There is times when is not smoke at all, and then again a lot of smoke.
In the past I saw cars burning oil from probably one or two piston chambers, but no from all of them at the same time, and on this one when I checked, all the spark plugs were wet in oil.
I was researching about this particular engine, and looks like have some issues with the head gaskets due to overheating and the fact of the heads being made from aluminum. What can I check before taking the engine apart.
My question is what is the possible cause of my car trying to stall when it idles? Here is the scenario. There was no problem with the car this morning. I was almost out of gas and filled it up. After filling up about two miles down the road when I can to a stop sign or had to slow to an idle in traffic the car seemed like it wanted to stall. When I was driving at and speed other then idle it seemed fine. When I left work tonight the same thing. but this time when I got close to home the check engine light came on. I did check the gas cap and that seems fine. I was wondering what the possible cause could be.
View 1 RepliesThe ABS light in my wife's car goes on and off intermittently with no apparent. The car has about 47,000 miles on it. Bad connection, computer going haywire, loose or corroded wiring?
View 3 RepliesI heard some noise which seems coming from the brakes. But the noise is always there even when I do not apply the brakes. I think if the noise relates to the brakes or the pads, there should be no noise until I apply the brakes, am I right? My car: Chevy Malibu, 1999. The brake light is not on.
View 1 RepliesI have a 2002 Chevy Malibu 3.1L Automatic that I've replaced the head gasket, intake manifold gasket, and exhaust manifold gaskets on three times in 6 years. The most recent time I think was caused by an overheating problem originally. A few weeks ago it overheated one time and boiled the coolant, but I did not let it redline on the temp-gauge. Still, the next day I found distinct evidence of coolant in the oil. After replacing the full gasket set and thermostat for good measure, I'm still getting an overheating problem. My assumption was that the coolant leaked into the oil and then when the car overheated I put only water in it temporarily which boiled somehow and probably caused more damage. This happened the first time I had a gasket problem years ago.
I'm not actually losing antifreeze that I can tell, so I know it's not the common intake manifold problem. I've checked all the hoses to make sure they're all properly secure as well and I can identify no dampness or evidence of pooling. I generally run the heat to identify if my cooling system is working correctly or is at least somewhat functioning. It never does upon start-up, but I've found that if I rev the engine to above 4,000rpms for a sustained period of time (5-10 seconds) I can achieve what seems to be flow and the heater will kick on. The temp gauge will also level out and seem to run properly. This works about 95% of the time, but I've only tested it on short drives to work and back (maybe 15 - 20 miles).
I've primed the hoses and also flushed any air from the system on multiple occasions, so I've tried to cover all my basis. One thing that I have noticed is that after revving it and getting it to function so I can at least get to my destination, the heater will run VERY hot. Like it will burn your hand if you hold it in front of the vent for more than a minute or two. Unfortunately, when it overheated the first time I just immediately replaced the gaskets because this was the solution the past two times, which held for about 2 years each, so I don't know if this new, weird, problem is my doing or is something that caused the original problem.
Just replaced intake manifold gasket and valve cover gaskets - Put car back together and now it will 'start' but kills almost right away and the engine sounds like it is missing real bad - checked plug hook up of course. Was told we should not have moved the fuel rail (which we had). I think it sounds like the timing chain is off, but we did not touch that (according to my friend who did most the work).
View 13 RepliesI have an 01 mailibu that keeps overheating. I have replaced the water pump (twice) and had the thermostat replaced. The water pump and thermostat were replaced about a month ago. Last night while driving, i noticed the temp getting higher, so I turned on the heat, and instead of hot air, it was ice cold. What it could be?
View 2 RepliesI have a 2002 Chevy Malibu that likes to refuse to start every couple of days or so, throughout the day, but never the first start of the day. It's not the fuel pump and it's getting a spark. It happens in all temperatures. Three different mechanics have not figured out what the problem is. From what I've read online, I suspect an issue with the theft deterrent module or something like that it's called.
View 5 RepliesI have a 2003 Chevy Malibu - periodically, they turns signals decide not to work. I don't know that one thing in particular causes them not to work. What could be the issue and is this something I can fix easily (I'm a novice), cheaply and quickly myself?
View 2 RepliesI have a 2006 chevy malibu 2.2 ecotec 4 cyl with ~130,000 miles and i am experiencing the following symptoms:
Car will not rev past 4000 RPMs or go over 70mph. I do have a check engine light with the following two codes: P0068(throttle position) and P0420(cat efficiency)
My question is instead of just replacing the cat where can i take my car (i live in tulsa, ok) to have the cat and the sensors checked before they are written off as bad?
I have a 2007 Chevy Malibu, with 163,000 miles. About three weeks ago, about the time it really started to get cold, I had a 'Low Oil' warning come up. I drove about 150 feet to get out of the road and added oil. Ever since then I have been smelling burnt oil when stopped. I have taken to checking the oil every couple of days. I have yet to see any leaking oil. Is this something that I need to worry about, or is the car just getting old?
View 12 RepliesStarted having problems with my Chevy Malibu (1999, with 95,000 miles on it) while driving two times this week. Both times an alert warning flashed on my dashboard. The first time, flashed the brake check and ABS warning on the left side of the dashboard, and the second time the check oil and check battery warning on the right side. In both cases, after the warnings flashed, the car was still running, but stepping on the gas pedal resulted in no acceleration, but brakes still worked. The steering wheel also locks-up to the point where I can't turn any more. Both times, I stopped and shut off the engine, waited about 30 seconds and restarted, after which everything is fine and normal. The brake pads were changed recently, but not the rotors which may not be in very good shape.
I took the car to garage and found the belt is good, but I have replaced both the alternator and battery, and also changed the brake pads. Car ran fine for a day. Yesterday while driving, had another issue of the accelerator not working while in the middle of driving. Was going up a small hill, tried to accelerate, but stepping on the accelerator didn't do anything. A few seconds later, I could not press down on the pedal anymore (as if the car was off). Brakes worked, I could turn, and no warning lights. Turned off ignition, restarted the car, and everything was fine. Same problem with the accelerator as I first reported, but no problem with charging or turning the wheel, and no warning lights since the alternator and battery are new.