1998 CHEVROLET MALIBU — Complaint #151379
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL:SPRINGS filed May 20, 1999
NHTSA complaint #151379 (ODI reference 706699) concerns a 1998 CHEVROLET MALIBU and was filed on May 20, 1999. The owner reports the failure occurred on May 16, 1999. The report was geocoded to Florida based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as vehicle speed control:springs, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same CHEVROLET MALIBU cohort independently describe similar vehicle speed control:springs failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 1998 CHEVROLET MALIBU shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
AT 60 MPH THE CRUISE CONTROL WAS ON AT THE STEERING WHEEL, BUT NOT SET. IT SET ITSELF AS INDICATED BY THE "CRUISE" LIGHT ON THE DASH AND WOULD NOT TURN OFF, BUT KEPT ACCELERATING AS INDICATED BY THE GAS PEDAL BEING DEPRESSED. I APPLIED BRAKES AND IT STILL WOULD NOT TURN OFF. AFTER REACHING 80 MPH, I WAS ABLE TO START SLOWING DOWN, EVEN THOUGH I COULD FEEL THE CAR CONTINUE TO TRY TO ACCELERATE AND THE CRUISE CONTROL INDICATOR ON THE DASH WAS STILL ON. AFTER TRAVELING 1/4 MILE, I FINALLY GOT THE CAR STOPPED ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD, I PUT THE CAR IN PARK. THE RPM'S WERE PULSING BETWEEN 2500-3500 AND CONTINUING TO CLIMB. I TURNED OFF THE KEY. SMOKE WAS BOILING FROM THE FRONT BRAKES. IT TOOK A FULL 15 SECONDS FOR THE ACCELERATOR PEDAL TO RELEASE FROM ITS ENGAGED POSITION. I COULD HEAR A "POP" AND FEEL THE ACCELERATOR PEDAL SPRING BACK TO ITS NORMAL POSITION. THE DEALERSHIP IS BLAMING MY FLOOR MAT. *AK
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 151379 |
| ODI Number | 706699 |
| Date Filed | May 20, 1999 |
| Failure Date | May 16, 1999 |
| VIN | 1G1ND52M7WY |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.