2005 Chevy malibu Shifting issues

[sandrajewelharris]

Car Stats: 2005 Chevy Malibu, Automatic
Just recently while driving my car at a normal speed...(Like 55mph wanted to speed up gradually to 60mph) ..I will push the accelerator and my car wont go any faster. It will act like it is switching to passing gear and then the engine will rev up, the car will lurch forward and then it will finally take off. The RPM's also will increase and then suddenly drop back down to normal.

Also I think this is related to the problem. .... but... when I put the car in the low gear to where I can manually shift it to first second and third. It used to automatically be in the 1st gear... but now it will show up in the third gear and you cannot shift into any other gear.
A friend of ours thinks that it is a sensor problem.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Jewel

[Tuffdrvr88]

its too hard to diagnose without seeing it in person. You should take it to a shop with a good scan tool and have them diagnose it. Could be a sensor or a transmission module problem but its hard to say for sure. Come back and let us know what you find out. good luck.

[shadow5599]

I had some weird shifting at city speeds, always wanted to downshift after letting off the gas and reapplying it, even lightly. And the manual shift +/- would not work, the display just showed "3" all the time.

The fix is a broken wire in the harness under the console. There are 2 wires (yellow & pink) leading up to the shifter shaft and the +/- switch. The yellow one on mine was broken, looked like it'd been cut right through. I cut the other wire as well, and spliced in an additional 2 ins. since thats why it broke to start with....was too tight! Complete fix took about an hour for me. All shifting and manual shift problems are gone.

I suspect this one will be a common problem on 2004-2007 Malibus and many people wouldnt even notice it.

If anyone wants more detailed instructions on the console removal and the fix, let me know.

[Ed_Strong]

Originally Posted by shadow5599

I had some weird shifting at city speeds, always wanted to downshift after letting off the gas and reapplying it, even lightly. And the manual shift +/- would not work, the display just showed "3" all the time.

The fix is a broken wire in the harness under the console. There are 2 wires (yellow & pink) leading up to the shifter shaft and the +/- switch. The yellow one on mine was broken, looked like it'd been cut right through. I cut the other wire as well, and spliced in an additional 2 ins. since thats why it broke to start with....was too tight! Complete fix took about an hour for me. All shifting and manual shift problems are gone.

I suspect this one will be a common problem on 2004-2007 Malibus and many people wouldnt even notice it.

If anyone wants more detailed instructions on the console removal and the fix, let me know.

I would like to more shadow5599, just in case if it ever happens to mine sometime down the road...

Maybe you could post the procedure here for others to find while doing a search, that would be really helpful. Pictures and diagrams work best if you have any!

[shadow5599]

The work is all done and I wont be removing the console to take pics but I can do a best as possible written how to. I was actually surprised how easy the console was to remove and once it was off, the broken wire was very obvious, even in the dim garage light....and after a few beer!

I was clued into the cause of the problem on another forum where someone mentioned the broken wire and others saying they had the problem. Some had even taken to a dealer or other repair place and they replaced the +/- switch on the shifter. I suspect that fixed it because it probably comes with the wire harness attached.

I was sooo happy to have that fixed at no cost. It was really bugging me and the car was very difficult to keep at a steady city speed (50km/hr).
I'll write something up and post it soon.

[shadow5599]

How to is posted

[bowkerb]

I have the same problem on my 2005 malibu. How do I contact the previous for detailed instructions?

[bowkerb]

Just fixed the broken wire problem today!
Simple fix, even if you cannot do it, remove console so someone elese has an easier and shorter time for repair

[leadvillecarguy]

I am changing out the shift handle on my Malibu thanks to a hungry dog eating the +/- button while I was in the bank. Could anyone post instructions or email them to me about how to get the shift assembly out so I can remove the handle? I don't want to find any hidden clips and break it.

[Dr_Nut]

I know this post is old, but I am so glad I found it. I took apart the console and sure enough, there was a break in one of the wires leading to the manual shift button. There are two wires, yellow and pink, which go under the assembly and then up through the shift knob. I repaired the wire and the car is acting normal again. Here were some of the symptoms: I first started chasing this problem (for over a year now) when the BCM light came on, this is the one with a wrench in the middle of a car icon. The BCM light would then go off again and I only saw it come on 2 times - you can't read this code with and OBD scan tool either.
The car would seem to slip out of gear when letting off the gas going over 30mph an then re-applying the gas it would rev up to around 2k rpm and then re-engage. It was essentially dropping out of overdrive when letting off the gas and just shifting really weird. Also when at a light, it seemed to be idling rough but it was really because the transmission was acting funny... once I repaired that wire, all of these strange issues went away.