Car Stats: 2005 Chevy Malibu, Automatic
Just recently while driving my car at a normal speed...(Like 55mph wanted to speed up gradually to 60mph) ..I will push the accelerator and my car wont go any faster. It will act like it is switching to passing gear and then the engine will rev up, the car will lurch forward and then it will finally take off. The RPM's also will increase and then suddenly drop back down to normal.

Also I think this is related to the problem. .... but... when I put the car in the low gear to where I can manually shift it to first second and third. It used to automatically be in the 1st gear... but now it will show up in the third gear and you cannot shift into any other gear.
A friend of ours thinks that it is a sensor problem.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Jewel

its too hard to diagnose without seeing it in person. You should take it to a shop with a good scan tool and have them diagnose it. Could be a sensor or a transmission module problem but its hard to say for sure. Come back and let us know what you find out. good luck.

I had some weird shifting at city speeds, always wanted to downshift after letting off the gas and reapplying it, even lightly. And the manual shift +/- would not work, the display just showed "3" all the time.

The fix is a broken wire in the harness under the console. There are 2 wires (yellow & pink) leading up to the shifter shaft and the +/- switch. The yellow one on mine was broken, looked like it'd been cut right through. I cut the other wire as well, and spliced in an additional 2 ins. since thats why it broke to start with....was too tight! Complete fix took about an hour for me. All shifting and manual shift problems are gone.

I suspect this one will be a common problem on 2004-2007 Malibus and many people wouldnt even notice it.

If anyone wants more detailed instructions on the console removal and the fix, let me know.

I had some weird shifting at city speeds, always wanted to downshift after letting off the gas and reapplying it, even lightly. And the manual shift +/- would not work, the display just showed "3" all the time.

The fix is a broken wire in the harness under the console. There are 2 wires (yellow & pink) leading up to the shifter shaft and the +/- switch. The yellow one on mine was broken, looked like it'd been cut right through. I cut the other wire as well, and spliced in an additional 2 ins. since thats why it broke to start with....was too tight! Complete fix took about an hour for me. All shifting and manual shift problems are gone.

I suspect this one will be a common problem on 2004-2007 Malibus and many people wouldnt even notice it.

If anyone wants more detailed instructions on the console removal and the fix, let me know.


I would like to more shadow5599, just in case if it ever happens to mine sometime down the road...

Maybe you could post the procedure here for others to find while doing a search, that would be really helpful. Pictures and diagrams work best if you have any!

The work is all done and I wont be removing the console to take pics but I can do a best as possible written how to. I was actually surprised how easy the console was to remove and once it was off, the broken wire was very obvious, even in the dim garage light....and after a few beer!

I was clued into the cause of the problem on another forum where someone mentioned the broken wire and others saying they had the problem. Some had even taken to a dealer or other repair place and they replaced the +/- switch on the shifter. I suspect that fixed it because it probably comes with the wire harness attached.

I was sooo happy to have that fixed at no cost. It was really bugging me and the car was very difficult to keep at a steady city speed (50km/hr).
I'll write something up and post it soon.

How to is posted