2009 Malibu Hybrid Retrofit to Standard Ecotec?

I'm looking at a new 2009 Malibu Hybrid with the 2.4 Ecotec Hybrid system. There's a very good deal on one of these locally, but I'm wondering about future maintenance. I'm only considering this because of price, and it would be new with a full warranty.

Do any tech's or Ecotec enthusiasts know how hard it would be to remove the Brake Alternator Starter (BAS) system in the Hybrid and have a standard 2.4L Ecotec?

This website has some great members. If anyones got any links or suggestions please post, or send me a PM..

Thanks-

If the price is right on the car why would you? The hybrid 2.4 should get awesome mileage. The 2.4 is a crappy engine really otherwise when you get down to it. Our 07 with the 2.2 ecotec, (I know the 2.4 has more power), really disappoints me. It gets 22 mpg everyday back and forth to work, my wife drives it; and like 31 on the highway. My 01 3.1 v6 malibu NEVER got below 25 mpg, 30 on the highway. Personally the next one will have the v6.

On the other hand, my wife had a z24 cavalier with the 2.4 and 5spd when we first got married, and it was a little fire breather. That car really impressed me. Smoke tires through 3rd if you wanted, and was pretty peppy up top too, and it still got no less than 28 mpg, ever.

The Malibu Hybrid was a poor seller for 2 reasons: not much better mileage than the 2.4L Ecotec, and problems with the auto-shutoff at stop lights. The car often did not restart. I wouldn't chance it for any amount of money. So few were built, parts could also be an issue.

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The 2.4L is a much better engine than the 2.2L was. Much more liveable in daily use. 2.2L was underpowered.

The 3.6L V-6 in the current-gen Malibus gets lousy mileage. Nothing compared to the 3.1L and 3.5L of previous generations. Everyone (nearly) compalined about low-tech pushrods, but now that there's a DOHC V-6, gas mileage is the pits. 17/26 compared to 20/29 in many other brands and the previous generation pushrods.

Thanks for the thoughts. I drove the car last night. It had 90 miles on it, and it hadn't been driven in a long time, so I don't know if the Hybrid batteries were well charged. It seemed to have a real problem taking off from a stoplight. about 15-20 mph, when you wanted to shift into second. It seemed like it may have been waiting for assist from the assist unit(GM calls it the BAS System), which is nothing more than a large glorified alternator that runs both as generator and a motor as I can tell.

Regenerative braking always seemed to kick in. Maybe this would go away with more miles. Does anyone know if the "regenerative brake" is just energy going back through the transmission to the "BAS" through the crankshaft to the BAS generator? There's not special brake calipers generators on this car is there? They looked standard to me.

In the future this will be a maintenance issue. If I could disable it after the 100,000 warranty and have a 2.4 VVT engine I'd be happy. What happens if the hybrid battery shorts, I would hope the car would still operate as normal with the 12V battery that's under the hood, but honestly the salesman was limited in knowledge of the hybrid system, and I've only been researching this for a few days.

Car is better equiped than a 2010 LS, but I don't know if I want the headaches.

I'm going to try stoping at a few service departments tonight to see if I can talk with service about the knowledge of this system and a better understanding of which components are differnent between a Hybrid and a standard LS. I really can't see replacing parts on this car to keep it a hybrid after the 100,000 mile mark..

My bet is that the Hybrid has a LOT of parts that are not shared with the standard (2.4L non-hybrid) version. I remember that the guage cluster is different, even.

Well I spent some time last night reading the service manuals on AllData. This car does have a lot of extra parts.

There's an electric water pump, and transmission fluid pump in addition to the standard 2.4L standard parts.

There's about a dozen electrical parts besides the battery packs. Several cooling fans, ect.

AllData is just starting to get populated with GM part numbers and list prices for these items. The battery pack itself didn't seem that bad, only $1000, but there's everal electrical controls boards that are $700-$1000 each.

I'm moving on past this one. I could get it new for about $13,500 and have all the warranty start when I buy it, but one or two issues and all that savings is lost.

Not to mention the location of some of these components like the auxilary coolant pump to keep the electronics cool while the engine shuts off. It's like the just needed a spot on the standard 2.4 block to bolt it to so they did it. With the engine out of the car before assembly that's not that bad, but book times of 4-6 hours for some of these "hybrid" components makes for an expensive repair.

Let's see how much longer this dealership sits with this car. Build date of August 2008, and it's still sitting there July 2010.