2020 CHEVROLET MALIBU — Complaint #2176120
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC:POWER ASSIST:VACUUM:HOSES, LINES/PIPING, AND FITTINGS filed February 12, 2026
NHTSA complaint #2176120 (ODI reference 11717509) concerns a 2020 CHEVROLET MALIBU and was filed on February 12, 2026. The owner reports the failure occurred on February 12, 2026. The vehicle had 118,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Oklahoma based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as service brakes, hydraulic:power assist:vacuum:hoses, lines/piping, and fittings, 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:hoses, lines/piping, and fittings 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 owned a 2020 Chevrolet Malibu. The contact stated that while driving approximately 65 MPH, the brake pedal became inoperable. There was a warning light illuminated. The contact stated that the brake pedal failed to function properly while attempting to stop the vehicle. Additionally, while the vehicle was parked and turned off, the contact became aware that brake fluid was leaking onto the engine. A mobile independent mechanic inspected the vehicle and determined that the brake vacuum pump had failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 118,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2176120 |
| ODI Number | 11717509 |
| Date Filed | February 12, 2026 |
| Failure Date | February 12, 2026 |
| VIN | 1G1ZD5ST2LF |
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.