Back in the day, the difference between a $1500.00 car and a $1.00 car was whether it started or not. Junk yards used to charge to tow cars away. I learned diagnostics early and you should have seen the faces on people who sold me cars when I fixed and started them and drove them away. I got one $1.00 car because it had a broken choke pull off vacuum line. It started but stalled out when you put it in gear. Diagnostics are the difference between a smart mechanic and a grease monkey. Which is why after 45+ years of working on cars, I watch your videos to try and stay current... and keep my mind working in my old age.

Ivan is that one guy who always pulls their Pico scope out at the party.

What surprises me is how quick garages are wanting to throw parts at problems. Between you, Danner, both Erics and a few others...I've learned that if a vehicle is throwing multiple codes, the parts cannon isn't going to fix the issue. Because of your channels, my brother and I were able to troubleshoot my 77 yr old mother's 2010 caravan (with me living 4 hrs away). We read the codes her van was throwing...I did some research on the problems and found out about a couple of connectors that have corrosion issues. Opened them up and found corrosion and lack of continuity. Cleaned up connectors and she's back on the road. We will replace connectors when I can get up there. Had we just read the codes, we would have replaced a MAP sensor and EGR valve, neither of which would have fixed her problem. Thanks Ivan!

The communication code may have been a default strategy for the PCM. Maybe the intermittent drop-outs of the signal caused the PCM to question the validity of the data it was receiving. With the CAN bus DTC set, the PCM probably started ignoring real-time data and did internal calculations instead.

I think you knowledge of cars is excellent and I applaud your work as well as your videos.

Once again I am amazed at how many times you have required no parts to get the job done. Well done!

When I saw "bonus footage" I was hoping it was footage of Diagnostic Dog putting on the missing wire loom and electrical tape.

I LOVE "Russian Engineering", Ivan! Reminds me of keeping my car running in High School on a starving student's budget. THANKS!

You're a good mechanic Ivan.

With the way the wires are run and with a lot of the harness "dangling", there's going to be a whole lot more broken wires in this car.

Nothing worse than a intermittent problem. Great job with the repair.

Nothing beats persistence of mr.ivan...great job Bud🤗

I have had a 09 Saturn Aura, which is basically a Malibu is same era, since 10. I have 210K on it. So far, no problems other than regular maintenance.

Another great job Ivan, now sit back, have a beer and enjoy the peaceful nature around you!!!

Held my breath the whole time thinking something was going to fall in the open throttle body

Older cars seldom show up with only one problem. Customers say, oh that lights been on forever. Good fix as usual ,your logical method always keeps me thinking.

So the CAN codes setting in other modules when an Engine DTC is set is going to be more commonplace with the implementation of driver safety aids in newer vehicles. When a module set a DTC that could impact ADAS systems and vehicle power control you will get sympathetic DTCs in other Safety related modules like ABS, Blind Spot, Lane keep assist, etc. You can talk to all the modules on the network and the CAN patterns will look perfect as you found, but the modules are not happy with the data being sent from in your case the ECM. I see a lot of techs get tripped up by this when they pull all these CAN signal DTCs and over look the one or two engine related DTCs. They just get hyper focused on the CAN codes without understanding why they are set and usually start loading the parts cannon. Great video!

You obviously have steady hands since you’re able to work with those tiny wires. I usually have to replace the entire pigtail, and crimp the connections. The aging process is not kind to DIYers.

I had an 09 Malibu that was reliable for 65k miles before I traded it in for a 2013 Honda Civic. I bought the Malibu with 116K miles and traded it in with 180K miles. I had the car for 4 years and the the only thing the car needed was A and B actuators and the fuel pump replaced due to fuel line leak in the 4 years of ownership. I did the regular maintenance and I got lucky with this Malibu.

Hello again Ivan from Australia ;) A successful repair as always and a happy customer and we where along for the ride what more could we ask for.. Thanks again for all your great videos..

Holy hell that is parts cannon extravaganza! Dealer "repaired connector at ECM." Oh boy. lol That was awesome Ivan, thanks!

This sure makes me want to buy a Chevy Malibu.

great job Ivan I and two of my kids had cobalts at the same time all 3 had identical electrical problems at deferrent times 2 of them spit the timing chains both 07 s 3rd 2010 only one left alive

After I watched Part 1 last night, I was thinking I hope Ivan doesn't string us out for a day or 2 - now we have Part 2, great. That was a nice diagnosis & fix. It's too bad the wiring failed the way it did here, and we hope for the owner's sake that this doesn't happen at another harness. My only 2 cents worth of opinion is that I was watching the work going on near the open throttle body, and thinking it would be safer to cover that open throttle body with something, so that nothing (like a snipped off wire or insulation end) could fall in there.

I think you so smart to fix all cars .

For the bonus footage I was expecting Ivan to say.....I say Mali you say Bu.

Finally some BONUS FOOTAGE.

So 1 wire was messing with other problems, that's so random! I guess it's gm thing, lol. 1 wire fixed, everything else disappeared! Haha. So much part Canon by owner! Wow. Great video!!

Oh YEEAAH here we go!

what's not to like about it!!..Great Fix Detective..

My mom had a 10 Malibu. We bought it in 2014, sold it in 2019. 65k to 103k. I maintained/repaired it the entire time. Plenty of issues: throttle body, timing chain, bcm connector for brake lights, vvt solenoids, + general maintenance including tires/brakes/battery. Moved on to a Honda that has been flawless.

Another no parts canon required repair. Great video, Ivan.

Notorious for chafing wires esp on the twisted pairs including can and serial data II

Well done on pinning down the fault to that connector amazing diagnostic skills.

Thanks for the info at the end. Good job finding the wire on there.

As a journeyman mechanic for over 40 years I still have a problem with setting up a scope property to see what I need to see and make a good call. You have to be an instrument Tech just to be able to work on cars nowadays and it is extremely frustrating! All the best from Canada

ive got 3 of these ts100's and run them all from my makita 18v batteries, 1 each for the house and garage, and one in the service truck!

I usually keep my cars 5 - 7 years. I had Ford Taurus, Dodge Intrepid, Dodge Caravan. All of them were high cost of ownership. No more US made cars for me... In 2007 I bought a Suzuki Grand Vitara (made in Japan) that I still keep today with almost zero issues. GM, Chrysler and Ford will never be on my shopping list.

Fantastic job Ivan! Not too many people have your Diagnostic skills...BTW, being an Auto Enthusiast and tester, I would recommend the Bosch ICON wiper blades for best performance and longevity.

Good to see DD on the case

Excellent diagnosis and repair. Another who done it mystery solved.

If everyone who tried to repair broken wires had your skill, patience, and determination, there would not be any repeat problems for that wire!

The key was understanding component operation and good visual inspection! Good job man. Love it!

Your list goes on and on. Cracked Head Every Valve Rattles Oil Leaks Engine Ticks 😂

Great video, great troubleshooting skills, car is running, customer happy. Stay safe and healthy. Thanks 😊

Thanks for all your great videos

Love the NPR(s)... Nicely Done.

Liked Thanks for the video. Forgot the muffler bearings! Your experience is showing!

I would totally believe you. That connector looks like it get exposed to heat maybe moisture from the fan. My truck had same 4wd vacuum solenoid problem you recently fixed

Wire problems can be the source of intermittent problems period! Good catch on this one Ivan!

Hats off for this one Ivan for sure, My initial thoughts were all going towards a bad pcm but i guess u proved me wrong, Great job well done.

I have one of those soldering irons as well and I love it. Hell it’s more powerful than a lot of small soldering stations especially when using it at 24 volts.

One bad wire or connection can mess with a lot of stuff. My rodeo had a bad coolant temp sensor connector. Messed up the signal from the fuel level sensor, map sensor, and a couple others I dont remember. They share 1 common connection back to the ecm. New coolant temp sensor and pigtail solved all of it.

Awesome diagnosis and repair as usual. I really like the layout of everything on that ThinkTool, just can't justify that for DIY though 😁

ANOYHER GREAT DIAGNOISTIC AND REPAIR ACE!!!!!!!!!!

Ivan says OK No Parts Required (like usual) He would have a hard time finding working at A Stealership.👍🇺🇸🌈🤪

Good solid repair Ivan. Imagine that, NPR ✌🏼

Another great video.

It is probably just me, 100,000 miles is not many miles anymore on a car. If this car has that many issues at this mileage it is time to change brands. I would hate to think I had to drive 3 hours across the state of Pennsylvania for car repair only to be told it was a broken wire. Ivan, it takes people like you that are very thorough to get the job done. Great video!

I had a Hyundai with a broken wheel sensor wire. It would throw all sorts of random codes. Best guess is that the open wire was introducing noise by induction. Could be something similar.

Another great no parts required my friend.

I guess I thought you'd look up the GM info on the U codes to see if they refer to anything specific that you could examine. But fixing the wiring issue first makes sense because you could be chasing ghosts.

Good job.

Another great no-parts-required ("Russian") repair.

Shame to get rid of it now, most parts are new 😁

"...same position as in that other Malibu." While you were working on this, I was telling myself I don't like the position of that sensor right in the blast from the cooling fan, with all the dirt and rainwater aimed right at it. Seems that some further protection ought to be offered to that connector.

I wish I had a gif for the parts cannon when my buddies wasting money like that lmao

Why is it so difficult for tech’s to find electrical issues? It almost seems like you need to be an electrician these days. I’m always amazed at how good you and Eric “O” make it look so easy!

good stuff.

Thanks a lot 🤗🤗🤗

I have been driving GM products for decades. GM makes a great motor. The electronics and wiring are second rate. Back in the 80's Honda was using grease on the plugs and taping them all. Saved a lot of wiring issues. Currently I have a Silverado with 170K on it and it requires a heater core replacement. $800 to $1200 to fix it. The part is less than $150 from GM and less than $60 aftermarket. Having to completely dismantle a dash for a heater core is criminal. Spending another .05 cents on extra aluminum may have fixed the issue when it was designed. It's no wonder Toyota just surpassed GM as the largest manufacture of cars. A title GM held for 100 years. Just purchased a new Honda. I am not going back to GM.

Sure hope the owner kept the old parts...likely they are all OEM and are still good. Nice fix Ivan, again.

It's amazing how most people always think there's a bad part and they never consider a bad wire...nope, just keep shooting the parts Canon.

Good job

😃👍 very good job

Laundry list of new parts, but should be good for a while anyway, that is until the next random failure ( probably a wire or bad connection )

Well done 👍. My only concern is that, since the mode of failure seems to be fatigued wires at that plug, and you've seen it before, on a different wire at same plug, then all the wires in that plug probably failing. Perhaps replacing pigtail is the long term solution???

We need to get you a weather pack assortment kit. Lol

Amazing

Good tech

I've had a couple scanners in vehicle specific mode read erroneous U codes (especially on GMs) that sent me down rabbit holes. Now whenever I get a U code with no symptoms, I look at generic OBDII data/codes to see if they match. Most times they don't come up. I cannot explain it, I just know it happens. Something to consider before hooking up BOB and ur scope..

I wonder if GM has an inherent problem with those connectors and has or will in the future issue a service bulletin on the problem. This is the second one you have seen with this connector being an issue, well the terminal anyways. This would be a perfect reason to come out with a bulletin for a problem such as this. I wonder if the tps codes set because on some vehicles the tps and map sensors are compared to each other and should be in a certain range of one another.

I had a 06 colorado that had a stumble and misfire at 3500 rpm and up and what I found was the map sensor was in it's holder but leaking vacuum at the intake so I took wire ties and pulled it tighter into the intake and that took care of it. Somebody before me changed the map sensor so it was new. Funny how a map sensor can make the engine do strange things.

Good job! 👍 Did you redress those cables? I hate seeing that stuff.

I almost bought a Malibu of this generation for a work car… thought better of myself and bought a 2011 corolla, almost 60k later (150k on the clock now) and all I’ve had to do is oil changes, and a radiator fan (fan broke off the electric motor). Def glad I didn’t go Malibu the more I hear how bad reliability is on these

More heat on the heat shrink is needed, does the heat shrink have adhesive? good diagnosis

wiring, just like hydraulic hoses need to be properly routed and supported to keep from failing. just looking at that positioning the engineer that signed off on that harness placement missed that day of class. too much movement especially if the engine mounts get weak

It's DIAGNOSTIC DOG! Able to sniff out problems in no time!

Great job my head still spinning 😵‍💫 which wiper blades the best rain x or trico lol

driving good for two weeks, so it's just about to have its period again :))

Ideally I would replace the pin entirely, the problem is you normally can only buy those in bulk, and I'm not gonna buy 5000 pins... Especially since each brand uses different types of pins in different ECUs.

Afterthought, the wire probably was completely broken and only being held together by it's insulating sleeve. What caused it, we'll never know, but I suspect some prior heavy handed repair.

I think I'd have checked all the front end grounds. It looked like it had been in a little front end bender.

My wife would watch just for the dog

You forgot the timing chain. I just repaired the same car in which another replaced the chain but timed it wrong. 16 bent valves only from cranking. Burned out starter. Runs now but that same connector causes failures when wiggled. MAF sensor codes. !!!!!!!

Great, it's fixed :-D But that car was a pain in the ass :-( If another chevy appears, send it to keith or South main auto lol.

Diagnostic Dog! That needs a Trademark filed...

380k on my 2003 Chevy Original motor transmission only minor issues.

Wow

👍