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Vibration

18K views 34 replies 13 participants last post by  joelw 
#1 · (Edited)
I recently took delivery of a '13 Malibu Turbo 2.0. At idle/brakes on there is a very noticeable some what annoying vibration felt through-out the car. In park or neutral it diminishes considerably. The engine idle RPM is around 750. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
#2 ·
@Aubrey, I’m sorry to read about your vibration concerns with your new 2013 Malibu. Since, I’m not a technician, I can’t help with diagnosis. You’ll definitely want to get the vehicle into the Chevrolet dealership’s service department to have this looked into. Under normal circumstances this is covered under the Powertrain warranty.

Michelle, Chevrolet Customer Service
 
#9 ·
@dacrownedprince, I’m sure you’re aware that under normal circumstances this would be covered under the Powertrain warranty, but you’ll need to get the vehicle into the dealership for diagnosis. Once they diagnose what’s causing the vibration concerns, they’ll let you know the warranty coverage details.

When I test drove the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco, I noticed a little vibration. I talked with people about this and was told it was from the tread of the tires on the vehicle. I realize you have the 1LT so your concerns might be something else. I just wanted to share this with you.

Michelle, Chevrolet Customer Service
 
#12 ·
It's the first I've heard of it too in relation to this car.
At idle ours is of course smoother than Oprah's belly after being rubbed down with Crisco* since it shuts the engine off most of the time at a stop. Even when it does continue running I never noticed any vibrations.











* Disclaimer: Oprah was not hurt in the making of this post. Any similarities to Oprah is purely coincidental. All rights reserved.
 
#13 ·
It appears that it is specific to the turbo engines. The OP sent me a PM stating that a GM field engineer inspected his car and two other turbo's, and sent off the findings to Detroit. OP stated at this point the engineer sees this as normal, his service manager disagrees. If it is normal, why is this not happening to my turbo? Hmm.... makes you wonder!

Tre'
 
#16 · (Edited by Moderator)
I to have a 2013 malibu lt with 3000 miles with the same vibration noises. Mine occur when braking and the engine is downshifting and also around 40 mph. I have had it in the dealership for this problem twice now and they cannot find the issue. recently i had the service manager ride with me and i was able to duplicate the problem but he said it didn't last long enough to pinpoint the issue. Again they checked everything over and the technician could not duplicate the vibration himself and said everything is working fine. I feel that these techs cannot correct any problems unless the computer tells them what it is. Its very frustrating and inconvenient. I hope someone else has better luck finding out whats causing this.

The dealership told me that the knock sensor recall was already taken care of before i purchased it, still having the vibration though
 
#17 ·
I to have a 2013 malibu lt with 3000 miles with the same vibration noises. Mine occur when braking and the engine is downshifting and also around 40 mph. I have had it in the dealership for this problem twice now and they cannot find the issue. recently i had the service manager ride with me and i was able to duplicate the problem but he said it didn't last long enough to pinpoint the issue. Again they checked everything over and the technician could not duplicate the vibration himself and said everything is working fine. I feel that these techs cannot correct any problems unless the computer tells them what it is. Its very frustrating and inconvenient. I hope someone else has better luck finding out whats causing this.
jarnot32,

I would like to do some more research in regards to your situation. Can you please private message me your name, VIN, mileage, address, and the name of the GM dealership you are working with? I look forward to assisting you with your concern.

Erica Tiffany
Chevrolet Customer Service

brought mine in for a oil change and there was a factory recall on mine....they said the factory put the knocking sensors in reverse.....meaning the left one on the right and the right one on the left.....took 15 mins to fix and no more vibration......
dacrownedprince,

I am happy to hear you were able to have your vibration concern resolved at the dealership.

Erica Tiffany
Chevrolet Customer Service
 
#18 ·
I also have VIBRATION in brand new 2013 Malibu 2013 LT when in gear. Feel it in the floorboards & seats. Brought back to dealer twice & they say it's "normal"! I find it horrifying that GM could sell a car like this for almost $30K and say vibration is normal. I've NEVER had a car that does this especially one that is not even 2 weeks old.
 
#21 ·
niserv57
Im still trying to figure out what is causing the vibration, I drove my malibu in manual shift to work the other day and i noticed a big difference with no vibrations, im thinking that the noise were hearing is coming from the transmission being in between gears. give it a try and let me know if you have any luck with that. hopefully we can figure this out together and get this taken care of. i think were on our own until we can tell the techs exactly what to fix. They rely on the cars computers for everything and if that says nothings wrong than they can't fix it.
 
#25 ·
I too have same problem, 2013 Malibu 2LT when you are stopped at light there is a vibration throughout the floorboards & seats, very annoying. It's only when the car is in gear either drive or reverse. Brought back to dealer twice & said "it's normal", but to me that's unacceptable. Car only has 400 miles on it! Have you any new info on this problem? Thx.
 
#26 ·
I set up another appointment for appointment #3 for wednesday. I can tell im pretty much wasting my time again, right away the service rep says on the phone that this could be normal operating noises, this must be the answer they give everybody when they have no clue on what there doing. well i'll give them one more chance. I've owned eight brand new gm cars and never had any issues like this, i love to support gm but if this issue doesn't get resolved, im done buying gm products for good
 
#28 ·
I too am going in again on Wednesday and kind of feel like you, a waste of time but there has to be a fix for this........somethings not right. I'm a loyal GM owner, owned 4 brand new and never had this problem. They claim this car has the smoothest ride, etc. I'm trying a different dealership here in Fl. to see if they can come up w/something. I'll post my findings.
 
#29 ·
Has anyone had any luck getting this problem resolved. I still believe its a computer problem, when i hear the vibration around 40 mph i shifted to manual shift and the car was in 6th gear. Im not getting why the car would be in 6th, it should be in 4th or 5th, I really think chevy needs to come out with an update to correct the shift points
 
#30 ·
Agreed, I also have this vibration/buzzing when driving slow in low gear. In my case as soon as I accelerate (next gear) it stops. I have not driven in manual yet. Im approaching 2000 miles and will be going for my first oil change hoping to get an answer as to why this new car is doing this. Im not concerned about the tech not being able to duplicate this vibration since it does it all the time which had me wondering if this is normal for this new engine. I did not experience this noise during my 20 min. test drive, mine was noticable once I hit 500 miles. If I suceed in resolving mine I will be back to share, promise.
 
#32 ·
six months later and with 12,000 miles still no fix, tried trading the vehichle in but not about to loose 5,000 dollars in six months. very disappointed with gm, went to different dealerships for issue and no one has answers. gm reps were no help, now stuck with a car that i hate driving. thanks gm for all the help. lol
 
#33 ·
Jarnot32: I have a 2011 Malibu LTZ with the 4 cyl engine and 6 speed auto that I purchased new. I too was in that same position with GM telling me there is nothing wrong and the GM district rep telling me you just have to get used to it. After 4 service attempts at 4 different GM dealers, I also tried to unload the car. However, they hammered me so hard at the dealership where I purchased it that it was economically not feasible to trade it. That was with approx. 4,000 miles on the car. I had tires replaced, road forced balanced the tires, and nothing GM could do would fix the vibration and shifting problems. As one reader aptly said " It is a clever orchestrated cover-up between GM and the dealers to hide the vibration and tranmission problems associated with the Malibu". If you keep telling people long enough that nothing is wrong they will start believing it. I can't tell you how many times I have heard and read where the dealers say there is nothing wrong with the transmission because no error codes surface. Apparently there is no fix that GM cares to entertain to fix these vibration and tranmission shifting problems. Left with no other recourse, I filed suit against GM. Last week I took the car down to a local GM dealer for GM to inspect the car as part of the lawsuit. I have not heard back from GM but suspect that they found no problems because no error codes surfaced and found no vibration issues because it is the nature of the car to vibrate. Same routine I have been fed by the last 4 dealerships I had visited for service. Good luck with your vehicle.
 
#34 ·
I too talked to a lemon law lawyer, which they told me they would help, but since i have no documentation on them saying there is an issue with the car he wanted me to see if i could get an employee at the dealership to back me. Even though i had many service techs tell me that the transmissions not right and they are aware and hear many complaints, they tell me this off the books, i do not want to involve an employee and be responsible for his or hers job loss. Please let me no how everything goes, maybe you'll have better luck
 
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