[BoRegard]

This is also interesting...as the only time I've had trouble with "key not found", etc., is when I left the fob (and my wife) in the car while I went into a store. I wonder if there is something hard coded into the firmware that somehow shuts off the fob or the car's recognition of the fob whenever the fob is present for more than X-number of minutes with the car shut off. Maybe it kills the fob in order to save the fob's battery whenever the fob is present for an extended period of time while the car is off? If so, I would think removing the fob completely (out of range) from the car and then re-entering the car's sensor range would probably reset the relationship. The next time this happens to me I'll have to remember to try that.

Every night I leave the fob in the car, car unlocked in my garage and I've never experienced the issue when leaving for work in the morning. It was a good thought though

 

[miweber929]

Every night I leave the fob in the car, car unlocked in my garage and I've never experienced the issue when leaving for work in the morning. It was a good thought though

Yeah, but also not really. You had the issue once after leaving the key in the car for an extended period of time:

I got the "transmitter not found" error for the first time Saturday. I've had the car for 6 months, 9k miles. Key was in the cubby under the climate controls. Phone was not in the car. I had pulled the car out of the garage, parked in the driveway to get my bike out, went for bike ride, returned home and got the error when trying to start the car to put it back in the garage. The key stayed in the car the whole time I was on the bike ride and car was left unlocked. I put the key in the center console slot and it started. I've started the car 4 times since with no issues. Gotta love intermittent issues.

Maybe it's not ALWAYS a problem but sometimes? I am now thinking that you leave your key in the car without it running for long times, most of the time it's fine but you did the same thing when it didn't.

I am now wondering does the key "transponder" maybe stay on random times? THAT might be the issue here, even more so than the phone thing.

 

[zharr]

Update: after the key fob issue with my first car, it was deemed a lemon and I did a MSRP swap for a new 17' malibu. Gm nor the dealership could duplicate the error but after many attempts, it met the specifications to be deemed un fixable.

I got the new malibu roughly 3 months ago, maybe a little less. Guess what????? Just last week I started to have identical problems. Took bak to dealership and again, can't duplicate problem due to it being electrical. Have yet again contacted gm and filed a complaint yet again. Dealership told me to 'drive' car for a month and then come back and they would know how to fix it. Said they still have my initial lemon on site and a mechanic would come in from gm and find issue. Unbelievable.
Won't fully turn off, won't turn on, 'no remote detected', key fob won't lock or unlock doors... Same as last time. No rhyme or reason when it happens or why but it is sporadic to say the least. Have had 4 issues today alone. Gm offered rental car for 3 days only and dealership offered no loaner of any kind.

Just wanted to share more info since it seems others are having a me problem as I was.

 

[tnmats]

Zharr, was the issue seen in the same location with both cars (like at home, at work, at a particular shopping center, etc.) or just anywhere?

Also, was there something specific you carry with you, like a certain brand of mobile phone and put in a specific location within both cars? Reason I ask is since it happened to two cars it sounds like some kind of RF interference may be the culprit, which is also why the dealership can't reproduce the problem.

A regular old key sure sounds better every day when I hear stuff like this. Knock on wood so far I've not run into the same issue (yet).

 

[zharr]

Happens anywhere and everywhere. The only thing I carry is a wallet and my iPhone. Nothing else in my pockets ever. Nothing in the car either than just the basics, but nothing electronic. I took it back to the dealership I bought it from since they were aware of situation from first car. I have checked for magnets, garage door openers, everything under the sun. They even tried to start the car in front of me twice at the dealership and it didn't start. They went to get computer to hook up..... Boom, fired right up with no errors.

 

[zharr]

On top of that, I was driving approximately 2 weeks ago and got an error message "Reduced Engine Power" that came up on my display and I went from 45mph to 15mph in a matter of 1-2 seconds. Had to drive to dealership 15mph only to find out they had to replace the Gas Pedal due to a malfunction. Assured me it was fixed and that I wouldn't be driving 70mph down the interstate and the same thing happen again.

Will update more in a week or so. Just got off a 43 minute call with GM just now and explained the issues to them again and they are contacting the dealership and will get in touch with me in a few days they said.

If anyone has anymore advice or diagnosis, please let me know. Anything helps.

 

[DrivenDaily]

I've had "Reduced Engine Power" twice in my Gen7. Both times it was immediately after a storm came through and it went from really muggy in the 90's to less muggy in the 70's. Both times it cured itself overnight, both times the CEL came on and went off a couple days later, both times it never came back.

Search this site for "fretting corrosion" in the Gen7/Problems... section. It's a sticky. That might help explain it some and maybe offer some assistance in fixing or preventing it. Or not.

Either way, I believe it's a poor connection on a GM-LAN, which is very low current and very susceptible to poor connection issues.

Regarding your key fob, let me relate an incident from a guy at work with a high-end Jeep. He parked at his home under a car port for a couple of years and never had an issue with his remote anywhere. Then suddenly he started being unable to use his remote within about 50 feet of his covered parking and discovered that parking on the street allowed it to work, but he wanted to park where it was covered. His dealership could find nothing wrong, and when he was over 50 feet from his carport it would work. He thought he was gonna have to move, thinking that maybe a neighbor had some kind of antenna or radio that was creating interference. He finally discovered that his newly-replaced remote sensor for his weather station, with its BT antenna mounted on top of the carport, was continually searching for a signal to connect to. When he got it to "see" his weather station inside his home, his fob started working as before.

Check to be sure you don't have a stuck button on a garage opener, another key fob, or some other RF device, including a BT phone or OBD dongle or tablet or laptop, etc. "Something" has to be causing the issue and it could be external to the car or within the car itself. Once the general location is found, it's then a matter of tracking it to its source. But that's just general debugging for anything.

Hope some of this helps. If not, at least you're not the only one who's been there.

 

[tnmats]

Expanding on what DrivenDaily said, about Bluetooth:

When the car acted up in the dealership, were you near the car? And when it went away, were you still at the same location with the car next to you or did they pull the car inside the service bays, not near you? There is a reason I ask and it's not implying your car hates you.

I noticed you mentioned an iPhone. Yes, they are ubiquitous but try turning off the Bluetooth in it for a while. I'm not saying that is a solution (or even the problem) but it's just to troubleshoot. This sure sounds like interference to me. Is there anything else in the car that's electronic you put in there, like a radar detector or garage door opener? If so, move the door opener location, perhaps drive around without the detector for a while. I have a Valentine One in my Malibu and that one doesn't cause interference since it's pretty well shielded by design (V1 makes the claim, it's to keep cop radar detector sniffers from finding it via EM emissions).

I'm an engineer in the electronics industry (I design power management ICs) so I have to chase down EM interference items like this occasionally. They're one of the most hateful types of troubleshooting around.

 

[zharr]

For my 1st car that was a lemon: It acted up when I was by it when I dropped it off. But they had it for 3 weeks an the same problems persisted when I was back home in Cincinnati.

This car I have now was in the shop for about 3 hours last week when I took it initially but I was on site while they were working on it. However, I was quite a distance away from it when they had it back in the shop. They had an issue starting it but it did not present an error code: only displayed that the key fob wasn't present in the car. So they technically couldn't "duplicate" the error I was having from what they told me. They called the GM tech who flew in to work on my initial car to let him know the same problem was happening with this one and apparently he laughed and said I have no idea. So they are sending him back out to look at the initial car which is still at the dealership to try to diagnose it again.

I personally never use Bluetooth and it is always turned off at all times. There is nothing else in the car at all lol. Insurance/registration, maybe a pack of bubble gum, some jumper cables in the trunk and some shoes. Nothing else electronic. I have no garage nor any types of antennas or radio's in my house. Neighbor has nothing as well as I asked him after I was advised to check for those things.

Even today, I switched up my key fobs and used my "alternate" one, aka the one in my drawer in my kitchen, and the car started up perfectly fine. got to work; wouldn't turn off completely. Finally got it turned off. stepped out of the car and when I was approximately 10-15ft away, i hit the lock button:...... nothing... trunk button...... nothing... etc.. had to go in and manually lock the door by pushing the button on the door.

so when i go back out for lunch, i'll probably have to pop off the plastic piece on the handle and access the car that way.

 

[tnmats]

Well there goes that idea shot to pieces. Keep us updated on what they find, this is really a puzzler.

 

[campb292]

I went trolling the forum search and found 7 similar user reports (remote issue). Sometimes there is never feedback/updates or it was single occurrence, other times parts are replaced similar to your parts in post #9 and issue resolves. Three reports involving a Hybrid, three Premier, one LS so it doesn't seem year or trim specific. For something so rare it is wild and unpleasant for it to occur again on a totally different car. If it can happen to one car it can happen to another but these odds are unreal. Or aliens are involved.

Couple questions: You said this second car went almost three months before the gas pedal issue which was followed by the remote not detected thing? The dealer does reproduce the remote not found message but gets no code?

 

[tnmats]

I swear a key sounds better every day. Sometimes newer isn't better.

 

[campb292]

I swear a key sounds better every day. Sometimes newer isn't better.

When I got this Malibu at first I thought my Crosstrek was a dinosaur for having a key. But it is always that dinosaur I take to trailheads that are at the end of 15 mile dirt roads with no cell service (thanks to my paranoia and things I read here).

 

[zharr]

Will do.

I appreciate everyone's input thus far. Hopefully there is some sort of conclusion that can help others in my same/similar scenario going forward.

 

[miweber929]

You can add a 2LT to the list as well because mine has done it a few times since the first time I reported it but after moving the key from my pocket the car will start without an issue. It seems for me it acts up if I have a ton of keys in my pocket or my cell is too close
@zharr I know you don't think there is anything having to do with a neighbor, you or something outside that's causing it to happen to you but I really think there is something that is. Two different cars, built two different years doing the exact same thing is too much a coincidence to not be attributed to something.

 

[tnmats]

I thought the same thing but Zharr reported the car acted up at the dealership in front of their personnel so something else is going on.

I have to wonder now if there's some RF shielding issue (or lack of it) going on inside the car itself. As I said earlier, solving EMI issues is hateful and very, very difficult.

Modern cars are a ridiculously complex electro-mechanical systems, to me it's amazing they even operate. When something sutble goes wrong it's not easy to fix them, don't forget you don't have NASA level engineers working on them when they do break.

 

[miweber929]

I thought the same thing but Zharr reported the car acted up at the dealership in front of their personnel so something else is going on.

I have to wonder now if there's some RF shielding issue (or lack of it) going on inside the car itself.

I disagree with your first sentence because no matter the fact it’s acted up other places the actual “scramble” could have started at a certain location or by a certain device. Once things get compromised, they can stay that way.

The second statement is more on track. I’ve been a radio engineer for almost 25 years and have an electronics background from even earlier so I am VERY familiar with RF, shielding and the effects of something being “compromised” by interference. I wouldn’t be surprised if they find a bad component in the old car and eventually find the same thing in the new one. It’s probably “defective” or a poor design but it’s something local or something the OP is doing that causes it.

That’s my guess at least.

 

[jmarti10]

Let’s add my 2017 Malibu LS with 16100 miles to the list. First time it didn’t recognize the key fob remote was by a metro train station. After a min or so it turned on fine. Second time was when I got home and it wouldn’t let me turn the car off. After a min I regained control but I wasn’t able to turn on the car (gave me message saying to insert key remote in center console which worked). I drove off again and the TPMS light went on and put all tires at “—“ while I was driving. However, after a couple of mins of driving it went back to normal on its own. I was able to turn the car on/off without an issue. I took the car to the dealer and they said a bulletin was out from GM (basically it says to replace the remote door monitor system). Got my car and it was fine. However, a couple of days later I pulled up to a store and tried turning it off, but it wouldn’t recognize the remote key. Lasted for about 2 mins. I placed the remote closer to the push start button and poof it turned off and on just fine. I made an appointment again to take it to the dealer and they kept the car for 4 days and after inspecting it right to left / left to right and calling GM Tech Support they couldn’t find any issue wrong with the car. Furthermore, they couldn’t duplicate the issue at all. The car runs great as if nothing happened. Have driven it , made multiple stops, turned it on repeatedly and no issues have been experienced as of now. Looking back the common denominator in all this is that each time it’s happened my phone has been in the same pocket I’ve had the key fob (from what I can recall definitely the last time it happens my phone was on top of the fob in my pocket). I’m not sure TBH if that makes a difference, but for troubleshooting it may, but who knows. I’ve come to realize with technology it won’t work perfectly 100% of the time. Hope this doesn’t impact my use of the car beyond occasional occurrences, but definitely has got me worried at times thinking it’s a lemon (paranoi I suppose). For what it’s worth, I’ve read on multiple forums that the Chevy volt and corvette have had similar issues even more so. As of now no recall has been issued over this issue for the malinu and the only bulletin is the one I referenced, but if enough people report and document the problem GM will be forced to issue an updated bulletin/recall once the issue is identified (if at all possible).

 

[zharr]

Wow! Sorry about the car. Sounds very similar to what I dealt with in the 1st Malibu and now in this one as well. Bizarre how it happens with no notice. Simply walking out to your car from a store or leaving work. I have paid more attention to where i place my phone at as well, but my keys and phone are in different pockets. Once I get in the car, I put the keys in the tray in front of the Gear Shift and my phone goes in the cup holder beside of that. I've even kept my phone at my house and sure enough, i had the same problem.

Got up this morning to come to the office and car didn't start. Took me about 10-15 minutes to even get it to start even with putting the key fob in the center console as it states on the display.

Anyhow, hopefully your problem does not persist. However, after 3 valid attempts of trying to "fix" the same problem, you pretty much have a lemon on your hands from what I have learned from GM. Not saying you want to go that route and deal with the back and forth and paperwork like I did, but you'd get a new car out of the deal at least. Again, Id of rather had my initial car than deal with that, but if the car doesn't function properly 99.9% of the time, then as the consumer, you deserve a solution for the problem; whether that's a correct fix on the one you own or a new one from GM.

Keep us updated if you have the same problem/issue persist going forward.

 

[zharr]

UPDATE:
Key fob issues are still persisting. Haven't been able to lock/unlock using key fob for going on 11 days now.
However, I now have a new issue. About 5 weeks ago, I got a "Reduced engine power" error and check engine light come on when I was coming back from lunch. Driving approximately 40 mpg and when that notification came on, i went rapidly down to 15mph in the blink of an eye. Was quite scary. Limped the car over to the nearest Chevy dealer and they replaced the Gas Pedal. Assured me that the problem was solved and it wouldn't happen again.

Fast forward to last Thursday. I was driving 65mph on the highway and boom, "Reduced engine power." Happened so quickly that i was thrust forward into the steering wheel, the car behind me locked up their breaks and veered off into the grass median. I veered to the right unintentionally due to hitting the steering wheel with my shoulder and the car beside me locked up their breaks and got rear-ended by the car behind them.

Luckily no one was injured nor was my car hurt as nobody hit me but it could have been a tragic situation. Parked the car on the side of the road and called GM roadside and got it towed to the dealership nearest. they had it until yesterday and replaced the accelerator pedal again and some type of wiring harness as well.

That being said, I have notified GM customer care yet again about this issue, stating i do not feel safe in this car whatsoever among many other complaints about how the dealerships have handled the entire situation on the 1st car which was a lemon, and now this 2nd car that has had 2 separate issues with electrics and that it cause an accident.

Waiting to hear back now from GM customer care as they have pushed the case through to the GM Field Rep with my complaints and concerns.

I have now rented a rental car out of my own expense due to the experience I had last Thursday. I would not let anyone in this forum drive my car due to the safety issue, therefore i am not driving it myself. So if anyone has had this "Reduced engine power" issue themselves or know of a friend or family member who has, i would recommend parking the car and contacting GM.

If anyone has anymore questions about the situation, please let me know and I'd be happy to answer any of them.