laurand3

I am having multiple issues with reduced engine power/ traction & stabilitrack warning sensors on my 2011 Chevy Malibu. I paid $400.00 to have the accelerator pedal assembly replaced. I picked up my car on a Friday and left that day for a one week vacation. My daughter drives this car to work 6 miles round trip. Within 2 weeks my daughter experienced reduced engine power with the same warning sensors while driving 50 miles per hour. I brought the car to an independent mechanic and he advised me the code was P2138, the same code listed on my repair invoice from the dealer. I called the dealership on 7/4/2016 to make an appointment and was advised the next appointment was in 3 weeks. I was rather upset since this is obviously a major safety issue and I had already paid to have the car repaired.
My second service appointment was 7/20/2016. The service advisor stated it was most likely a different problem. He asked why I waited 2 months to bring the car in a second time. I advised him the car was driven a very limited amount of miles between 6/3/2016 and 7/4/2016; when I called to make the second appointment. The service advisor stated the service department is not booking appointments 3 weeks in advance. Was he insinuating I was lying about having been told the next service appointment was in 3 weeks? I'm not sure why he would make this statement otherwise.
I was the first customer to drop off my car that day. I did not hear from the dealership at all on 7/20/2016, even though I told the service advisor I would be unavailable to pick up the car on Thursday due to my work schedule and would be leaving on Friday for weekend travel. When I did not hear from the service advisor I called and left a message on 7/21/2016; the following day . I had to call again on 7/22/2016 and left a message. By the time the service advisor returned my call on Friday I was already travelling .I was told that this second occurrence was a new problem and the throttle body had to be replaced at a cost of $700.00.
I feel the service advisor was very unreasonable and argumentative, insisting it was an entirely different repair. How could he come to this conclusion when the car had not even been looked at by a technician? He seemed completely unconcerned as to the inconvenience of having to bring the car in a second time. Based on the posts I have been reading on Chevy Forum, the service advisor came to the wrong conclusion. This experience makes it very unlikely I will ever purchase a Chevy vehicle again.
P.S. Shame on Chevy for letting their customers drive vehicles with obviously serious safety issues.

srp204

I had the same thing with my daughter's 2006 Pontiac Torrent, I thought this was very serious, but I found a site that had an answer. It was the body control module, I got a can of electronic contact cleaner, took off the dash panel to expose the BCM and one at a time I unplugged each of the 4 plugs and inspected and sprayed both the BCM side and the plug side with contact cleaner. I started it up and everything was back to normal, so I put the dash back together and left the car to air out. It took about 20 minutes, but it took an hour before I could roll up the windows, that cleaner isn't nice to breathe. Total cost $7.00. It has been about a month now and everything is fine. Oh take the positive cable off the battery before you pull the plugs, just in case. For the time it takes and the $7.00 it should be your first step.
BTW when the CEL and traction control lights come on your car goes into limb home mode, if you have an automatic transmission and you leave it in drive it with just crawl along. stop and shift to the lowest gear and manually shift it back through the gears to drive and you can get back to a highway speed.. Don't panic is the main thing just shift the gears and things will be fine.