Other powertrain problem on the 2017 Chevrolet Malibu
When other powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2017 Chevrolet Malibu report other powertrain problem at a median of 47,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 32,500 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles, from 62 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 17,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 85,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 69,056 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.
27% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16,844 miles | 32,000 miles | 47,875 miles | 69,250 miles | 85,900 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
Putting it right typically runs $400–$4,500 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 27 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 30,000 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 102,500 miles.
By volume the 2018 carries the most reports, with 138; the 2017 has 115. 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.
After much research I have found out that the transmission that is in the 2017 malibu, which is the 6t40, is not rated to be in this vehicle. The 6t40 is rated at 177lb-ft torque, the malibu has 184lb-ft. Gmauthority.com/blog/gm/gm-transmissions/mh8/ this link is the page for the 6t40. However, the 6t45 is what should be in the car, http://gmauthority.com/blog/gm/gm-transmissions/mh7/ this is the link for that one, as you can see the max torque is 232lb-ft. Http://media.chevrolet.com/media/us/en/chevrolet/vehicles/malibu/2016.tab1.html their website also says that the car should have the 6t45 transmission in it. The car is brand new so the only thing I have noticed is hard shifting, but in the future I feel as if this could become a problem. I have talked to gm and they said they are the same, but as you see they are not the same. If this post needs to go somewhere else please let me know, I just want to stop this before it starts.
I purchased a 2017 chevy malibu last week. I was looking over the data on the chevy website. Chevy is listing two different hp ratings for this car. One area states 163hp & 184 lb-ft torque. The other says 160hp & 184 lb-ft torque. The main issue I have is with the transmission. Gm says the car comes with a 6t45 transmission. That transmission is rated at 215hp & 232 lb-ft torque. Enough for the rated engine. The transmission in the car is a 6t40. Rated at 180hp & 177 lb-ft torque. The torque on the motor is 184 lb-ft at 2500 RPM to 3000 RPM. I work and live in phoenix, az. 95% of driving is city driving. I am past the max of the transmission most of the time. This transmission will fail very fast in this heat. Plus the epa fuel rating I'm sure was calculated with the transmission advertised by gm not in the car. I own a car that is not at all what I thought it was.
Also reported on the 2017 Chevrolet Malibu
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Other speed control problem
Other brake problem
Other driver assistance problem
Other fuel system problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 115 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 powertrain problem happen on the 2017 Chevrolet Malibu?
Across 62 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 47,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 32,500 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2017 Chevrolet Malibu?
115 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 2,054 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