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2017 malibu vibrates when accelerating.

4K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  campb292 
#1 ·
I have a 2017 Malibu that has decided to shake/vibrate sometimes when accelerating or going up a hill but smooths back out when letting off the gas or going down a hill. It has been in to the dealership twice now and they say everything is good. I drive it one hour and it begins to shake around 40mph and onward, park to go into the hospital and come out to it driving much better on the way home. Come out the next day and it drives fine. This is a repetitive cycle now and I am at a loss. I need to drive 17hrs to Okeechobee Florida the 1st of March and need this sorted out by then. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
#2 ·
When it was at the dealership, what codes came up?

You haven't shared which engine you have, how many miles, or any work or maintenance done to it.
 
#3 ·
It is a 2017 ls with a 1.5 and has 102k miles on it. I have only had it since 97k miles but just did a tune up, new tires, and transmission flush at 100k. They just rebalanced the tires when it was in last week as well. It is not throwing any codes and they tell me that they have checked underneath that everything is good. It isn't happening all of the time so they are unable to catch it occurring i guess. I noticed someone poking around my car a few weeks ago and then a day or two later I came out to my gas lid not being fully latched which was suspicious to me but it was really cold the last time I fueled and could have not clicked it fully to latch. The shaking vibration coincidentally or not began shortly after those incidents occuring.
 
#4 ·
This one is complicated. Intermittent makes it hard, it starting after driving an hour is tough. The assumption would be something gets hot after more driving that isn't a problem cold. It happening over 40 mph still makes me lean toward something rotational. But what?

When I have a tire that is out of balance or tosses a weight I usually feel it more going uphill. You already had balancing checked plus it goes away if you let off the gas so probably not that.

A warped rotor that gets worse with heat should give you more pulsing when stopping, not just accelerating or traveling over 40.

That leads me to CV joints or half shaft/axle. Could be if hot while accelerating. I have no idea how to properly isolate them for diagnosis considering the symptoms here. Maybe since the dealer has already tried it can be suggested. If they don't want to go replacing things as a guess (probably good) I would also verify the transmission fluid level and condition just to rule that out.
 
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