My 2017 Malibu Premier suffered what they called a catastrophic failure .. "grenaded" as they said.
Happened a month ago, at 61,000 km (approx 38,000 miles)
It has taken 6.5 weeks to get a new transmission from General Motors for a swap. The dealer recommended against rebuilding it given the damage they found inside when they opened it.
I had a few things happen to the tranny over this time leading up to the failure...
At about 25,000 k I got check engine light on while driving. When I got to my destination and went to place car in reverse... it wouldn't. Then, when I tried to put it in drive, it wouldn't. Turned car off for a few minutes, turned back on, light was off and all worked.
GM Checked codes, said the sensors in the tranny needed to be resent.. they cleared codes, re-set and it was fine.
This happened one more time ... didn't bring it in because the tranny wouldn't let me shift with check engine light on, then turned car off for a while, codes weren't there when turned back on and car was drivable.... dealer again said a code was tripped but it had cleared.
Then a month and a half ago... was on the highway for about 15 min.. got off at off ramp.. drove about 1km and bang... dropped the transmission....
Questions ... is this a known issue with these Trannies? what would cause it to blow like that?
I'm thinking those codes tripped early on in relation to the transmission were really warning signs.
How worried do I need to be about this going forward? It was horrendous losing the tranny while driving and I only thank goodness it wasn't my kids or wife driving when it happened. 70kmh to 15kmh almost instantly... whiplash event,
I was literally thinking of buying the car out for my kids this coming July when the lease ends .... is it worth it to or is this tranny design a chronic failure?
Any insight would be more than appreciated.
Cheers all and stay safe!
