2026 data Free + no signup Authoritative source

2011 CHEVROLET MALIBU — Complaint #1558454

Free public-data reference page. Cross-checked against the upstream agency, refreshed as new data lands. Cite PlainCars when you reuse this analysis.

NHTSA Complaint about STEERING filed April 16, 2019

NHTSA complaint #1558454 (ODI reference 11196745) concerns a 2011 CHEVROLET MALIBU and was filed on April 16, 2019. The owner reports the failure occurred on February 15, 2019. The vehicle had 40,900 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Maine based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as steering, 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 steering 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 2011 CHEVROLET MALIBU shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2011 CHEVROLET MALIBU
Component
STEERING
State
Maine
Mileage
40,900 mi

Complaint Description

THE POWER STEERING WAS LOST AS I WAS DRIVING MY VEHICLE IN A CITY ROAD. I WAS DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 25 MILES AN HOUR ON A STRAIGHT ROAD, NOT TURNING AT THE TIME. THE SERVICE ESC LIGHT CAME ON. THE CAR JERKED TO THE SIDE, WHICH WAS TERRIFYING WITH MY TWO YOUNG KIDS IN THE CAR. THIS REPAIR WAS COVERED UNDER THE GM BULLETIN 15356 AND THE DEALERSHIP REPLACED THE EPS MOTOR AND TORQUE SENSOR. HOWEVER, SINCE HAVING THE WORK DONE, THE MECHANIC INFORMED ME THAT MY STEERING COLUMN IS NOW BENT. AS I HAVE NOT BEEN IN ANY ACCIDENT, THIS COULD ONLY BE FROM THE IMPACT OF LOSING MY POWER STEERING. I FEEL LIKE THIS REPAIR SHOULD BE COVERED UNDER THIS SPECIAL BULLETIN AS WELL. THIS POWER STEERING FAILURE JEOPARDIZED THE SAFETY OF MY FAMILY AND THIS SHOULD BE MADE A FULL RECALL COVERING ALL THE STEERING COMPONENTS TO THE 2011 CHEVROLET MALIBU. I WOULD LIKE TO BE REIMBURSED FOR WHAT WILL BE OVER $700 TO FIX THE ISSUE CAUSED BY THIS POWER STEERING FAILURE. *DT

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 1558454
ODI Number 11196745
Date Filed April 16, 2019
Failure Date February 15, 2019
VIN 1G1ZB5E19BF

Similar STEERING Complaints for 2011 CHEVROLET MALIBU

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.