2020 CHEVROLET MALIBU — Complaint #2173099
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:ENGINE:GASOLINE:TURBO/SUPERCHARGER filed February 4, 2026
NHTSA complaint #2173099 (ODI reference 11715468) concerns a 2020 CHEVROLET MALIBU and was filed on February 4, 2026. The owner reports the failure occurred on February 4, 2025. The vehicle had 80,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Michigan based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as engine and engine cooling:engine:gasoline:turbo/supercharger, 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 engine and engine cooling:engine:gasoline:turbo/supercharger 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 2020 CHEVROLET MALIBU shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2020 Chevrolet Malibu. The contact stated that the RPM was unexpectedly elevated while driving, and the vehicle was hesitating. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, and the contact was informed that the throttle body needed to be cleaned. While driving approximately 35-40 MPH and depressing the accelerator pedal, the vehicle shuddered with white smoke coming from the tailpipe. The contact stated that the engine warning light was flashing with the reduced power message displayed. Upon research, the contact associated the failure with Technical Service Bulletin: PIP5812. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who associated the failure with the turbocharger. The local dealer was contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was contacted and referred the contact to the NHTSA Hotline for assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 80,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2173099 |
| ODI Number | 11715468 |
| Date Filed | February 4, 2026 |
| Failure Date | February 4, 2025 |
| VIN | 1G1ZD5ST3LF |
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.