My 2017 Malibu is giving me a shift to park error message even when my shifter is in the park position. I reached out to GM and was told this sounds like something that should be fixed under warranty. My dealership says they will have to run diagnostic tests. How likely is it that this repair will be covered under warranty?

 

Depends on mileage... 36,000 or 3 years is the standard factory warranty.. if you purchased an extended warranty it may cover it. Some extended warranties do not cover electrical.

 

Im happy to report that with nearly 16000 miles at the 2 year mark, the service was covered under warranty

 

I am going through this for the 3rd time with my 2016 Malibu. I'm so over this Malibu and Chevrolet altogether! 1st time warranty covered it, 2nd time I had to pay 187.00 to have it fixed. I will be dropping it off for repairs on Monday, last time this was fixed was Sept 2019. Not even 6 months ago. I had to have the entire engine replaced prior to all of this due to a recall I wasnt made aware of at the time of purchase, thankfully that was covered at no cost to me. However this car has been a nightmare since I bought it just over 3 years ago.

Hopefully you won't have the same luck as mine! I think Chevy needs to issue a recall and a permanent fix to this issue!

 

I have found that simply taking a few seconds (3-5 seconds) between putting the car into park and shutting it off solved this problem for me.

 

REPAIR NOT A BYPASS!
PROBLEM:
From my searches about the same problem, I believe I have discovered the real issue going on here. The switch itself is well made internally, the travel on the spring tab of the switch surpasses needs to activate and the activator rod of the shift lever also surpasses necessary travel limits. I manually triggered the switch dozens of times and in slow motion and quickly, same result, it worked fine. I reinstalled the switch and shift handle on the removed shift mechanism trying again to find a failure point. AH-HA moment arrived, the spring tab is where the problem lies but you have to look at the other end where it attaches to the switch. When installed and everything is in it's normal position, the spring tab is 'pivoting' the pressure to the rear of the switch causing the tab to pull slightly out of it's socket.
REPAIR PROCEDURE:
With the switch removed, gently pull down on the spring tab at the rear of the switch, it will easily slip right out. The manufacturer relies on simple friction to retain the spring tab. You can see there are only 'pressure' type retaining tabs on the metal end that fits in the switch 'socket'. For the FIX to this, using a end cutter or a side cutter, make the factory tabs 'loose' on the end farthest away from the inserted end so they can 'dig in' to help retain the spring tab. Next, make two 'nips' on the very end of the inserted end so that you have three sections to that end. Be careful not to cut through it or expand it too wide while doing this. Next, reinsert the spring tab (it will e a tight fit, the tighter, the better) back into the switch housing. Make certain that you are inserted all the way to the indexing tabs. Reinstall the switch in the shift mechanism, making sure the activating lever is below the spring tab and test to make sure the activating lever and spring tab allow the switch to move it's full range. If it isn't able to make full range, just bend the spring tab accordingly. No more problems!
REPAIR TIME:

30 minutes
COST:
Free!