Owner-reported complaints naming the driver-assistance system, filed with NHTSA
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Reports naming forward-collision avoidance, lane keeping, back-over prevention, cruise control and related electronic driver-assistance systems. Every record below is an owner-reported complaint about the 2017 Chevrolet Malibu submitted to NHTSA — not a confirmed defect, not a recall and not a manufacturer bulletin. 186 reports on file name it.
Complaints are reports submitted by owners and drivers to NHTSA. They are not verified and do not establish that a defect exists.
The 25 most recent of 186, in the owner's own words
The Reduce Power to Engine keeps happening. It shuts my car down and lights up the traction control light, check engine light and its a serious hazard because I travel highway to and from work and its very dangerous when you loose power to your vehicle at high rates of speed. Also my emissions is bad due to a supposed fixed recall for the catalytic converter.
While driving at highway speeds, my vehicle suddenly experienced a loss of engine power and reduced acceleration. The traction control light and engine light illuminated, and a “Reduced Engine Power” message appeared. The vehicle would not respond to the accelerator, creating a serious safety hazard. This occurred shortly after authorized dealer service involving the PCV system and related components. The vehicle did not have this issue prior to dealer service. I returned the vehicle to the dealer, and they stated they could not replicate the issue. The sudden loss of power could have resulted in a serious accident. I believe this may be related to improper dealer service, disturbed electrical connectors, or throttle body/engine management components. I am reporting this as a safety concern. I also would like to mention this safety issue has occurred now multiple times with my car on multiple separate occasions with the last prior occurrence being 12/20/2025.
The car smells strongly of gas. And has a problem accelerating. Check engine light came on and I got a code p1101 which is a code for the MAF SENSOR. This is not the first time that this has happened. It happened less than a year ago maybe 9-10 months ago. I don’t drive the car in fear of it catching a fire. The car has stalled before in the middle of a turn. I had to turn the car off and turn it back on. I called onstar who have no idea what was wrong with it.
The transmission stalls to get up and go after it has been driven for a short while causing it to slow down traffic and causing a slight risk trying to pull over to the side to allow drivers behind pass by. Once the driver stops at more than 5 stops is when the vehicle begins to hesitate to work properly.
I was driving my car on the highway doing 65 mph when all of a sudden my car started rapidly jerking losing the power to accelerate and entering “limp mode“ there was multiple cars behind me when my car lost the power to accelerate. I was in the far left lane and couldn’t even go higher than 7 miles an hour and had to cross across three lanes at 7 mph on a 65mph highway to pull over. I had my children in the car and almost caused a huge accident dude to this issue. The issue in hand is the vacuum pump. It completely shattered in my engine, causing severe engine damage. And it caused my brake pedal to become hard as a rock. I couldn’t break without using my emergency break. I had no brake power at all. My car had to be towed.
I was driving in my neighborhood I tried to park at my house and my car wouldn’t stop I had to step down on my break hard for it to finally stop my vacuum pump broke into pieces and made my timing chain break
I have had 2 incidents, and paid for repairs both times. When put in park, SHIFT TO PARK warning lights come on. First time, Oct 4, 2021. Second time Dec 16, 2024. In 2021 I was told there should be a recall, it happens a lot. I'm not seeing recall, and think I should get my money back.
Engine power abruptly stopped while driving causing drivers behind me to almost rear end me. Dashboard displays ‘Engine Power is Reduced.’ It has happened since I purchased the vehicle in 2017 but had not done this in a few years. I’m on top of maintenance and did mention this issue to the dealer but no one reached out or offered a solution.
When driving down a major highway going 70MPH, my 2017 Chevy Malibu speeds decreased, the brakes locked up, and the vehicle would not accelerate. Eventually the car came to a complete stop and an “engine power reduced” notification came up on the dash. I was able to pull off to the side of the road but I was traveling at a high rate of speed on a busy road, I almost got hit multiple times by people behind me who also had to swerve out of the way to keep from getting hit. After turning the car off and on again it seemed to run fine for a few months until the issue happened again going down a busy highway (65mph) again putting myself, my kids and others on the road behind me at risk. Now the car won’t move more than 5 feet before shutting off with “ engine power reduced “ still displaying on the screen.
The contact owns a 2017 Chevrolet Malibu. The contact stated that the accelerator pedal lost connection while driving 65 MPH. The contact stated that the vehicle lost motive power while driving. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer, where it was diagnosed and determined that the accelerator pedal sensor was not connecting with the accelerator pedal. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was contacted, and opened a case, but no additional assistance was provided. The failure mileage was approximately 185,000.
I was in the freeway and out of nowhere an alert message popped up on the dashboard saying Engine power reduced. This made my car go from 65mph to 30 mph is the freeway luckily I was able to exit and go to the nearest gas station and was able to keep myself safe as others on the road but it could've easily gone very badly. The car won't go over 30 mph. The car is available for inspection upon request, I seen a PDF in the nhtsa website of a special coverage adjustment for loss of continuity within acceleration pedal position circuit. I will attach it to this message.
The Power Brake Vacuum Assist Failure nearly caused a wreck. The part failed while we were driving on [XXX] going 65 miles per hour on a busy highway. As the breaks gave out the engine light said “Reduced Power”. Moments later, the breaks stopped working and the engine stopped running. We were able to coast off the highway and into an HEB parking lot and have the vehicle towed. The mechanic took the part off and found that it was in pieces causing further examination of the engine to look for the missing metal. Pictures are available to see the damage. Even after completing the repairs the vehicle is showing reduced power. We are still trying to get it fixed but understand that the Chevrolet company is aware of the issue but never issued a recall. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Car will NOT recognize being shifted to park so transmission stays engaged, lights stay on you are basically trapped in your car until it recognizes the shifter is in park
Ice and sludge accumulated and froze causing the CAC system to fail resulting in engine issues, performance loss this was caused from GM poor design of a shield that they are aware of. GM knows that this can happen and have now designed a new shield to prevent this from happening but it is at the owner’s expense to fix. If GM knows that this will happen they should fix the issue I am now out of pocket 3,000.00 shame on them
My car displayed "reduced engine power" and slowed down on the highway while I was doing 65mph. My car would not accelerate past 20mph. There were no issues with my vehicle, and this happened out of nowhere. It caused a lot of other drivers to have to swerve around me, and drastically reduce their speeds as well in order to avoid collision. This was highly unsafe and now I can not safely drive my own car.
Check engine light came on. Display stated that the engine will run at reduced power which meant we had to Limp home at 15 MPH which put us in a dangerous situation. I read the code and it was P2122. Throttle/Pedal Position Sensor/Switch “D” Circuit Low Input. This indicates that there is a problem with the accelerator pedal. I replaced the pedal myself at a cost of $114.00. I eventually found a technical service bulletin that admitted that there is a problem with the accelerator pedal on 2016 to 2018 GM vehicles and there was a program that was replacing the pedal until 2020. I called GM customer service and they said there was nothing they would do about it since the program expired in 2020.
Error message reads "Engine Power Reduced". I was on the highway and suddenly the engine gives out and only lets me go to a max capacity of 20 mph. I able to safely remove myself to the side of the freeway. A week later without moving my vehicle I checked to see the status of my car and the error message removed itself. It's been over a year now with my engine power coming and going, just as fast as it comes, it goes-- making driving very unreliable and unsafe to step onto the road. Apparently I'm not the only one with this concern according to [XXX] , a class action lawsuit has been charged against Chevrolet in The Rothschild v. General Motors LLC Chevy Malibu Class Action Lawsuit is filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York under case number [XXX]. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
When l park my car it keeps saying it’s not parked
I was driving my car at a normal rate of speed when all of a sudden it slowed down to a crawl and almost caused an accident, reduced engine power and engine came one after getting the codes they were 2122 and 2097
The day I bought the vehicle in 2019 the engine light came on, I took the car back to the dealership and was told they couldn’t do anything. I took it to them and the shop here in town and I was told by both shops on multiple occasions they could not fix any of the issues. They treated me like I’m just a paycheck for them. My car for 3+ years now shuts completely off when I slow down or stop, including on highways. “Engine speed reduced” message comes up every time I drive. Now I am being told my brakes are going to go out and nobody can help me. I have to step on my gas after I start the car or it just sputters.
Reduce Power Engine appears on the dash board. The car starts slowing down, I can’t speed up, I Have to park on the side of the heavy traffic in the Highway. I have to wait around 5 minutes and then drive. I still have the engine symbol on. This happens regularly like 2 to 3 times a week.
My car has reduce engine speed. I’m driving on the highway and out of nowhere the car shots down and a symbol appears on my dashboard that says Reduce Engine Speed. Literally the car slows down to a minimal speed until I can’t drive anymore. I have to stop and turn off the car for 5 minutes until I can turn it on and drive to my destination in a reduce speed.
2017 Chevy Malibu has P2138 showing up.. I was on the highway loss half the power to my car, almost causing a major accident, went from 65 mph to 30mph in seconds.. This is a safety issue & needs to be address ASAP!! I have my vehicle at the dealership, the service teams seems to have no clue that there is an issue with the mailbu's !! The P2138 is defined as “Throttle/Pedal Position Sensor/Switch “D”/”E” Voltage Correlation.” It is triggered when the vehicle's Engine Control Module (ECM) detects that the signals from the two throttle position sensors or the two accelerator pedal position sensors don't correlate.
Back left door will not open, from inside or outside. Has happen before and then will open a few days later. this time it’s been a week. Black paint also needs to be recalled.
I was driving at 70 MPH on the freeway when off a sudden my car haulted back and said engine power reduced. I had my kids in the car and traffic behind me when my car went into an auto decline in MPH reaching 30 MPH before I could quickly pull over. I called the company I bought my car at the next day. They told me I needed an inspection but my check engine light only stayed on overnight and was off by the time I went in. In the last year this has happened over 10x. It’s manageable but incredibly dangerous if going at a fast speed. The weird part is if you turn your car off for 1-2 minutes, you turn it back on the there is no longer a power reduction and all is back to normal.
Higher-selling and older vehicles accumulate more reports. Counts are not failure rates and are not directly comparable between vehicles that sold in very different numbers.
Categories with enough reports to have a page of their own
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