Other fuel system problem on the 2011 Chevrolet Malibu
1 crash 1 injury 2 of the 15 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other fuel system problem gets reported
Owners of the 2011 Chevrolet Malibu report other fuel system problem at a median of 95,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 70,000 miles and a quarter after 120,000 miles, from 10 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 90,000 miles. It is the 24th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 40,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 85,629 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
10% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41,860 miles | 70,144 miles | 94,250 miles | 121,500 miles | 127,489 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a crash and 1 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $300–$2,200 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 23 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2015, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 155,000 miles.
By volume the 2018 carries the most reports, with 67; the 2011 has 15. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
I bought my 2011 malibu ltz in april 2011. Since I bought it I have noticed, consistently, the car revs extremely high when shifting between gears while accelerating. It often times struggles to shift between 2nd and 3rd and 4th gears. The car is also rated to get up to 33 mpg highway, average of 25. I drive about 90% highway and backroads and am only getting an average of 23.3 mpg, which is the city rating. This car has a 6 speed auto and was supposed to do better on gas than the last few models, but my 2009 malibu with a 4 speed auto did better than this car does. Initially I figured I was doing bad on gas because I tend to be a leadfoot driver, so I made significant strides to reduce my overall speed and quick accelerations. After about 4 months now of driving slower and safer I have not seen any change in the mpg. I am about to make an appointment to get the fuel system checked out. I also have the automatic starter in my car and it has died at 25,000 miles. I don't know if this is average battery life span for it or if it is an issue, so I will be getting it checked out too. *tr
Car suddenly decelerated and started sputtering. Engine acted like it was going to quit and did not have any power. Would not get over 15mph. Put me in a very dangerous situation in rush hour traffic. I am very lucky no one was killed. Decelerated at a very fast rate. Dealership diagnosed the problem as the throttle body. The throttle body had to be replaced for $675. Was not covered under the 100k powertrain warranty. Chevrolet conveniently stopped covering the throttle body starting in 2011. From looking at other complaints for the 2011 chevy malibu this seems to be a very common problem and is clearly a defective or poorly designed part. *tr
I was driving home in the snow and my traction control kept going on. Then something seemed wrong and suddenly my speed was reduced to 5-10 MPH and my car started shaking and couldn't get a grip on the road at all. Then the car said engine power reduced, service traction, esc off. Luckily I was only going about 20 MPH because it was snowing. Normally I would have been on the expressway going 55mph! And I have 2 kids! Luckily no one was hurt. So I took it in to the dealer and they said I needed to replace throttle body and exhaust cam actuator which cost me almost $1000 and wasn't covered under my 5 year power train warranty. My car is almost 4 years old with 47000 miles. *tr
Also reported on the 2011 Chevrolet Malibu
Other steering problem
Other electrical problem
Other driver assistance problem
Other engine problem
Headlight failure or clouding
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 15 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other fuel system problem happen on the 2011 Chevrolet Malibu?
Across 10 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 95,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 70,000 miles and a quarter after 120,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other fuel system problem on the 2011 Chevrolet Malibu?
15 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed