Hey there,
About 180K miles on my 11 Malibu. It has died when I drive it at least twice since I bought it used. I think was about 150K miles and had about 3 owners now. The first time I had the spark plugs changed. Second time fuel injectors. And this third time that it died or went into limp mode. I took to get diagnostics like normal cuz I did that in past. And this auto shop which I never been too compared to the previous times says to do a hot oil flush. I do not feel too comfortable with that. They said when they checked the dipstick it was not reading oil.
4 different codes. 3 of them i confirmed with our code reader. P0300 p0014 p0171. The fourth code they said was knock sensor. Any suggestions on what to do?
I have kept up to maintanence in oil changes since I bought this car which was one year ago. We just recently cleaned the throttle body cuz it does rough idle after driving for an hour or longer when come to stop. But that did not change much. And when it rough idles does seem to stall after.
You should check the timing. You may have issues with the timing chain. Besides this and based on the codes, you may have vacuum leak. Check it out too.
How much do you think an auto shop would charge for the time chain service if it is the case?
It depends on what needs to be done. couple hundred dollars and up.
What the hell is a hot oil flush and what is it supposed to accomplish? Sounds like total BS to me.
Another thing to check is the ignition switch. Although as far as I can tell the Malibu was not involved in the GM ignition switch scandal, any part can go bad. (I had a car with similar symptoms caused by a bad ignition switch.)
I am having another mechanic shop take a look at the car today. Asking them to check the timing chain, and fuel pressure.
Someone also suggested the mass air flow. The vacuum leak issue could be it and I can ask them to check that out too after the timing chain and fuel pressure. I am just hoping they dont say like some hot oil flush like the other place and hoping it is not a super expensive fix.
You can always hope!
I got a text message from the tech stating this.
FOUND VEHICLE 2.5 QUARTS LOW ON OIL
TEST DROVE AFTER FILLING WITH OIL, VEHICLE SHOWED NO SIGNS OF STALLING OUT
VARIOUS DTC'S RELATED TO STALLING AND OIL STARVATION
P0106 - MAP SENSOR PERFORMANCE
P0014 - EXHAUST CAMSHAFT SOLENOID PERFORMANCE
P0326 - KNOCK SENSOR PERFORMANCE
P0171 - FUEL TRIM SYSTEM LEAN
VEHICLE STILL HAS A ROUGH RUN, SPARK PLUGS ARE AUTOLITE XP
WOULD RECOMMEND REPLACING WITH ACDELCO PLUGS
PERFORMED COMPRESSION TEST
CYL#1 - 130
CYL#2 - 110
CYL#3 - 130
CYL#4 - 130
FOUND P0171 - FUEL TRIM LEAN HAD RESET
RESET FUEL COMPOSITION FROM 46%
REMAINED LEAN
CHECKED O2 SENSOR READINGS
NEITHER READING WENT ABOVE ~70 mV
FUEL SYSTEM SHOWS ~+30, VEHICLE IS DUMPING FUEL
PULLED UPSTREAM O2 SENSOR AND FOUND IT HAD BEEN PARTIALLY MELTED
WOULD RECOMMEND BOTH O2 SENSORS
We will change the oil as it ia due for a change and change the sensors soon. I drove the car to work today and yeah it drives crappy like they said still. Car ia high mileage. If it does not improve or change from doing these 2 tasks. Other suggestions would be helpful.