What 717 owners told NHTSA about the 2017 Chevrolet Malibu

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.

NHTSA ODI 11716053

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.

NHTSA ODI 11706844

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.

NHTSA ODI 11687504

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.

NHTSA ODI 11687127

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.

NHTSA ODI 11685667

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

NHTSA ODI 11647738

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.

NHTSA ODI 11635361

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.

NHTSA ODI 11634066

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.

NHTSA ODI 11615666

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.

NHTSA ODI 11585454

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)

NHTSA ODI 11572743

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

NHTSA ODI 11568057

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.

NHTSA ODI 11564790

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.

NHTSA ODI 11558445

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)

NHTSA ODI 11547864

When l park my car it keeps saying it’s not parked

NHTSA ODI 11532536

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.

NHTSA ODI 11526493

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

NHTSA ODI 11526672

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.

NHTSA ODI 11525760

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.

NHTSA ODI 11525764

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.

NHTSA ODI 11516303

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.

NHTSA ODI 11512035

2017 Chevy Malibu over 15 times this happens since we owned buying it brand new it has "Reduced Engine Power" error come on and the car can't accelerate over 30 miles per hour. This is a continued problem all the time and very dangerous when we are on the tollway that has a 70-mph speed limit, and you can't get the car to over 30 mph. This same problem happens on our 2018 Chevy Malibu over 5 times since we owned it too and it's getting worse! This is extremely dangerous and takes you a long time to get home when you can only go 30 mph or less because of the "Reduced Engine Power" Limit. Same 2017 Chevy Malibu also has the "Shift to Park" Error so we can't shut off the engine because the car won't go into park, you have to back up and keep trying to get the shifter to let you put into park if you're lucky it will finally after many shifting attempts back and forth to get rid of the error so you can shut off the engine to exit your car. GM should be responsible for a recall on these two very important errors that these Chevy Malibu cars are having on both of the problems are very dangerous "Reduced Engine Speed" and "Shift to Park" can't shut off the engine is dangerous.

NHTSA ODI 11508693

Driving vehicle like normal and then the check engine light comes on with the stabilitrak light, and get message "reduced engine power". Car goes down to less than 50 miles per hour and is struggling to go must faster while I am on the freeway. The RPMs keep going higher and higher even though the car is not going very fast. Get home and let it rest. Keep having same issue on and off past two weeks. Sometimes it comes on and goes off, has been on past three days acting the same way. Check engine light says Pedal Sensor issue. Known recall for it listed with letter sent out in 2019, but of course this was only if you were having the issue at the time (which I didn't) and it is only covering for cars under 150K miles. My car has 192K miles, so they will no longer cover it, even though it is a known issue has been for some time now! It is very expensive and unfortunate that they will not cover this issue regardless of miles, knowing that this can happen to the 2017 Chevy Malibu's at any time. Still driving it the way it is. Did try to clean out the Throttle body and see if that helped, but issue still is there. Will try to replace sensor at some point and see what happens.

NHTSA ODI 11501632

The check engine light came on and the stabilitrak came on. I went to nearest car mechanic and the mechanic told me it was safe that’s normal and it was safe so I proceeded to goto work the next day. The next day I’m on my way to work and 30 minutes on the highway my check engine light come on this time saying engine power reduced I went from driving 60mph to 20mph with four wheelers speeding pass me . Being far away from home I pulled over side of the highway to not panic. I turned on my hazard lights and proceeded driving and made my way home because I didn’t want to be stranded.

NHTSA ODI 11497099