jsimonhpmd

2017 Chevy Malibu LT: I notice that when I fill my tank up at empty, all I get is 10-10.5ga of gas into it. When it is on E for a while, I may get at most 10.8ga. Is this normal? Is anyone experiencing this at all?

oilcanhenry

Apparently it is for some people and not for others. My 2015 LS Bu' will hit E and take 14 gallons, no problem. I would have that checked out on warranty. BTW, it not good on your fuel pump to allow it to run dry, since the gasoline helps cool it as a lubricant.

tech2

the listed tank capacity is 13 gallons

jsimonhpmd

The tank is listed at 13 gallons. However, when I run it down to near E, it only takes 9.2gallons of gas before the "pop off". I know it is not good to run it down b/c it will hurt the engine. However, it seems to me that something is wrong. I have been told by my dealer that there is 2-3 gallons of gas in reserve. It seems that it only has a "functional tank" of at most 10 gallons. The rest is "reserve" and therefore I can't use it (unless of course I drive on E). I appreciate any and all advice. I really like my car but I drive so much....well...I feel that I am filling it up so much more often.

Thank you.

tech2

speculation: maybe the sending unit arm is bent causing the gauge is reading lower than it actually is. not something i would drop a tank for.

jsimonhpmd

I went to another Chevy Dealer to get a second opinion. They ran it through their system and found that on empty it has a 15% of tank left. 15% of 13 gallons is 1.95. I then drove it another 4 miles and filled it with 10.6ga . Therefore based on my guess: The tank holds approx 12.5ga of gas. I was told that there has to be some room left in the tank for expansion. I am guessing that overall the chevy malibu has great gas mileage but a small tank and gets at most 300miles/tank.

oilcanhenry

Its unfortunate that Chevy decreased the tank size from over 15 gallons on Gen 8's, to 13 Gallons on the Gen 9 Malibu.Its all about the CAFE standards I suppose.

That said the Malibu's do get great gas mileage, no matter what engine you have. When I was young, most US made cars could get 20-22 MPG at best, and those were mostly 6 cylinder inline motors.

Back then we had carburetors, not fuel injection. Almost no cars had overdrive and automatics were 3 speeds with no lockup torque converter. Sticks were 3 or 4 speeds.

jsimonhpmd

I agree that the Malibu appears to be more fuel efficient. However, I can not fathom why it gets less total driving miles than a total electric car (the Tesla supposedly gets 360miles/charge). How come I go through a quarter tank on only 45 miles of city driving. This is very disappointing. I will never buy another Chevy Malibu again and I really liked my first one. The car has some nice qualities and the price was right...but this lack of fuel tank is going to cause me to get rid of the car at 3-5 years instead of holding it for 11 as I did my last one.

Is any other 2017 Malibu owner having the same problem?

thanks.

tech2

range.....because the battery pack in the tesla is 4x the size and price of the one in your malibu. the battery by itself, in the tesla costs 1 1/3 more than the cost of the entire malibu.

jsimonhpmd

point taken. Thank you. For now, I will stop complaining and just drive. Who knows, maybe over time this issue will work itself out.