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2016 CHEVROLET MALIBU — Complaint #1866585

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NHTSA Complaint about SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC:POWER ASSIST:VACUUM filed January 18, 2023

NHTSA complaint #1866585 (ODI reference 11502490) concerns a 2016 CHEVROLET MALIBU and was filed on January 18, 2023. The owner reports the failure occurred on September 29, 2022. The vehicle had 141,943 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Texas based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as service brakes, hydraulic:power assist:vacuum, 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 service brakes, hydraulic:power assist:vacuum 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 2016 CHEVROLET MALIBU shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2016 CHEVROLET MALIBU
Component
SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC:POWER ASSIST:VACUUM
State
Texas
Mileage
141,943 mi

Complaint Description

The contact owns a 2016 Chevrolet Malibu. The contact stated while driving 65 MPH and depressing the brake pedal, the brake pedal was firm. The contact used the parking brake to slow and stop the vehicle. The contact was able to continue driving to the residence. The vehicle was diagnosed by an independent mechanic, and the contact was informed that the vacuum pump needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. On another occasion, while driving 60 MPH, the vehicle started overheating and smoking with the check engine warning light illuminated. The contact pulled over to the side of the road and turned off the vehicle. The vehicle was towed to the residence. An independent mechanic diagnosed the vehicle and stated that the engine needed to be replaced due to metal fragments from the defective vacuum pump. The dealer was contacted and stated that the vehicle needed to be diagnosed by an authorized dealer. The manufacturer was contacted and stated that the vehicle was not under recall.

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 1866585
ODI Number 11502490
Date Filed January 18, 2023
Failure Date September 29, 2022
VIN 1G1ZC5ST5GF

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