Top 5 Problems Chevy Impala Sedan 9th Generation 2006-16

In this video, we're going over the top five problems that we have found with this 9th Generation Chevy Impala. Now there's nothing wrong with this vehicle. There's nothing wrong with buying one or owning one. All vehicles have their problems. These are just the top five that we have found.

Number one, the EVAP purge solenoid valve. Now it's located right here. And this has to do with the emissions of the vehicle, keeping the fuel vapors from entering the atmosphere. Now what this does is puts a vacuum on the gas tank basically. And sometimes these will get stuck open or they will leak and cause a check engine light. You shouldn't see any drivability issues with this. But if it was stuck wide open, you might see a little bit of rough running. But for the most part, you won't see any issues. You'll just see a check engine light with the code P0449 or P0455. Now this is fairly easy to replace. You just disconnect the connector, pull this line off, and there should be a nut. Yep, there's a bolt right underneath there. Take that bolt out, slide it out, slide the new one in, clear the code, and you should be good to go.

Now whenever you have an EVAP code, the first thing you should do is check the gas cap before you place any parts. Just grab it, wiggle it, see if it's loose, take it off, look at the seal, the seal looks good. And then you go to put it back on, and the ratchet seems good, then you should be all set. And then you can go and further diagnose.

Number two, the water pump. Now the water pump's located in the front of the engine on the passenger side, right here behind this pulley. And some of the symptoms you're gonna find with the water pump is either coolant dripping on the ground or the engine overheats. So if you find that the engine has overheated, definitely check that area for coolant dripping out. If you see coolant coming from that area, it's probably the water pump, and it needs to be replaced.

Another thing you may notice before the engine overheats is you actually don't have any heat coming out of the vents on the inside of the vehicle. If that happens, that's because the coolant level has gone down and you have a leak somewhere. So check that out.

Number three, the power steering rack. The power steering rack is located back here behind the cradle. So what happens with the power steering rack is they actually leak and the fluid actually leaks into the boots, so you're not gonna see any fluid leaking on the ground. The only thing you might notice is the power steering pump itself whining a little bit as you're turning the wheel. You might even see some chattering, and you're not gonna see anything on the ground though. The only way to fix this is to replace the gear. You can't take off these boots and put new seals in. So you have to replace the whole steering rack. Now in relation to that, also, you may notice the power steering pumps actually leak. You may see fluid in this area coming out. In that case, then the pump would need to be replaced.

Number four, the accelerator pedal position sensor, that's your gas pedal, or APP sensor, what you may notice is an engine reduced power light come on the dash. And it's gonna be hard to accelerate because the vehicle's trying to compensate for not knowing where the pedal actually is. And you may end up with a check engine light P2138. And most of those cases, replacing the APP sensor or the accelerator pedal position sensor, you should be good to go. It's always a good idea to check the connector on the sensor itself because that can cause that same code.

Number five, the seat belt pretensioners. Now the seat belt pretensioners in this car are actually located at the base of the seat belt. They're part of the seat belt system. In some vehicles, the pretensioner's actually in the buckle side. In these, it's in the belt side. And what it actually does, if you get in an accident, there's an explosive charge that is sent to the bottom of the seat belt, and it actually sucks in the seat belt a little bit just to restrain you in the seat better. Now, depending on the code, what you could do is check the tensioner itself. The connector sometimes is the issue, but a lot of times replacing the tensioner is what's gonna fix the problem.

So those are the top five problems that we found with this Impala. If you enjoyed this video, make sure you subscribe to our channel, ring the bell, turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our videos.