2005 CHEVROLET MALIBU — Complaint #815932
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STEERING:GEAR BOX:SHAFT SECTOR filed September 22, 2010
NHTSA complaint #815932 (ODI reference 10357034) concerns a 2005 CHEVROLET MALIBU and was filed on September 22, 2010. The owner reports the failure occurred on July 24, 2010. The vehicle had 33,900 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Pennsylvania based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as steering:gear box:shaft sector, 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: yes, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. A complaint that flags a crash, fire, or fatality is escalated on NHTSA's internal review queue and factors more heavily into any Preliminary Evaluation decision on this make and model. 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:gear box:shaft sector 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 2005 CHEVROLET MALIBU shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2005 CHEVROLET MALIBU. THE CONTACT STATED SHE HEARD A LOUD NOISE IN THE STEERING FOR A WHILE. ON JULY 24, 2010 WHILE REVERSING INTO A PARKING SPACE, AND THEN MOVING FORWARD TO PUT THE VEHICLE IN A STRAIGHT LINE THE POWER STEERING FAILED. SHE LOST CONTROL OF THE VEHICLE AND CRASHED INTO A CURVE. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE GARAGE, DIAGNOSTIC TESTING LOCATED THE FAILURE AT THE STEERING SHAFT AND GEAR BOX. THE STEERING SHAFT AND GEAR BOX WAS REPLACED. THE MANUFACTURER DID NOT ASSIST WITH THE REPAIR, BECAUSE THE PARTS THAT WERE REPLACED WERE NOT COVERED BY THE EXTENDED WARRANTY. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 33,849 AND THE CURRENT MILEAGE WAS 34,300.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 815932 |
| ODI Number | 10357034 |
| Date Filed | September 22, 2010 |
| Failure Date | July 24, 2010 |
| VIN | 1G1ZT54815F |
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.