A reply from Hyundai about the oil they put in

[powayroger]

I still believe in changing early, which will be this weekend at 1000 miles due to shavings and stuff.


Thank you for your patience while we researched the recommended maintenance for the engine oil as well as the use of synthetic oil in your 2011 Hyundai Elantra.

We have confirmed the engines originally equipped in our new Hyundai vehicles are filled with a high quality synthetic oil. Changing the break-in oil before 5,000 miles does not have an adverse effect on the engine; therefore, you are welcome to change the oil before or after your trip from San Diego to Salt Lake City.

We recommend using Quaker State API Service SM*3 or ILSAC GF-4 or above for the engine oil in your Elantra. Although our vehicles do not require the use of synthetic oil, the continued use of synthetic engine oil is at your discretion. Regardless of whether conventional or synthetic oil is used, the maintenance intervals for oil changes specified in the maintenance schedule in section 7 of your Owner's Manual remains the same. If it is determined the use of synthetic oil and/or lack of scheduled maintenance were the cause for engine damage or failure in the future, the associated cost for repairs/replacements would not be covered under warranty.



My orginial letter:
Message: Dealerships tell you one thing to make a sale; but the facts can be different. If Hyundai actually uses a special break-in oil, then it would make sense to change the oil the first time at what they recommend. However, if they don’t use a special oil, then changing the oil earlier, and in some cases, MUCH earlier than recommended intervals would make sense. So we have a new Hyundai Elantra. It has 670 miles on it and before we leave on our quick vacation, we will probably be near the 1000 mile
mark. This vacation will be about 2000 miles (mainly freeway-From San Diego to Salt Lake City and back). I’ve heard conflicting stories about Hyundai using a break-in oil. I’ve been told by the dealer, that with this break-in oil, I should keep it in till the 5000 mile mark. But IF the Hyundai uses special break-in oil is the key question. If Hyundai uses special break-in oil, then it might be wise to keep the original oil in till the recommended change interval, but if it doesn’t, then I plan on
changing the oil the weekend before the vacation (I think of all those small metal shavings in the oil and think of the damage it could do on a hard and long drive, as this trip to Salt Lake will be. And BTW, when I hit the 5000 mark, I will be switching over to synthetic oil. I know some will be it earlier and some will do it later. 5000 miles has always been my mark for the change. So here are the questions: 1) Does Hyundai use a special break-in oil for their vehicles? 2) If so, should I get it changed
before the trip, or after the trip? 3) Any comments about anything else I wrote above, such as my time frame for switching to synthetic? Thanks

 

[ottotheclown]

If you use synthetic oil and or not do schelduled maint. it could void warranty. So they must think using syn. oil might cause trouble. They also suggest you might want to use the high quality oil used as ff, again, but they do not know the name of it or they would tell you. So use Quaker State as they suggest and if you can figure out this answer write them asap. They might be looking for someone that can think. Either way Utah is really a good choice.

 

[PhillyJoe]

If your concern is break-in shavings, I would change the filter and add a little make up oil. Your factory fill sounds like it has a lot of life left.

 

[oldmaninsc]

Am I missing something or did Hyundai do some double talk?
Specifically -

"We have confirmed the engines originally equipped in our new Hyundai vehicles are filled with a high quality synthetic oil. "

"Regardless of whether conventional or synthetic oil is used, the maintenance intervals for oil changes specified in the maintenance schedule in section 7 of your Owner's Manual remains the same. If it is determined the use of synthetic oil and/or lack of scheduled maintenance were the cause for engine damage or failure in the future, the associated cost for repairs/replacements would not be covered under warranty."

How would synthetic oil cause "engine damage or failure?" If it would why then would they use it at the factory? I don't get it.

Edit: OOPS didn't see the previous post before I posted but glad to see I'm not the only one that thinks this way!

 

[oldmaninsc]

Originally Posted By: PhillyJoe
If your concern is break-in shavings, I would change the filter and add a little make up oil. Your factory fill sounds like it has a lot of life left.


100 percent agree. I've never changed oil early in any of my new cars and never had any problems even at 300K miles.

 

[Johnny]

I've said it before and I will say it again, Quaker State is the factory fill for Hyundai. Here is a copy of an email communication I had earlier this month to verify this info.

From:
Date: March 15, 2011 7:44:51 PM CDT
To:
Subject: RE: Quaker State Question

We are still a provider of Factory Fill oil for Hyundai. It is a full synthetic and Quaker State, but I cannot share more details.

Hope you understand.

Thanks!

Mark D. Ferner
Lubricants Group Manager, US
Shell Global Solutions US Inc.
Westhollow Technology Center
3333 Hwy 6 South
Houston TX 77082-3101, United States of America Office
Email: [email protected]
Internet: http://www.shell.com/

From: Johnny P [mailto:jlp@char]
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2011 5:58 AM
To: Ferner, Mark D GSUSI-PTD/LTAM
Subject: Quaker State Question

Mark,

Before I retired, I believe Shell had just landed the factory fill contract with Hyundai using Quaker State oil. Can you tell me if that is still the case and which Quaker State oil they use as the factory fill?

Thank you,


Johnny P
Retired Pennzoil-Quaker State/Shell
202 K.
Wausau, WI 54403
jlp@cha

 

[glum]

Up is down.

2 + 2 = 5

We ship with synthetic but will void your warranty if synthetic hoses the engine.

The reason for the doublespeak is that the person who composed this message was in a rush. I asked an oil-related question of Hyundai recently, and most of the paragraph beginning "We recommend..." is an exact match of what I received in my own reply. (I've previously posted part of the message here.) Thus this person probably wrote "[T]he engines originally equipped in our new Hyundai vehicles are filled with a high quality synthetic oil" without even noticing that it made a joke of the rest of the message.

 

[HTSS_TR]

"Regardless of whether conventional or synthetic oil is used, the maintenance intervals for oil changes specified in the maintenance schedule in section 7 of your Owner's Manual remains the same. If it is determined the use of synthetic oil and/or lack of scheduled maintenance were the cause for engine damage or failure in the future, the associated cost for repairs/replacements would not be covered under warranty."
I think the Hyundai responder means to say: if synthetic oil is used and OCI is extended beyond the recommended in Owner Manual and they were the cause of engine failure then no warranty. He should not include "/or" after the "synthetic oil and"

 

[oldmaninsc]

^ Now that makes more sense!

 

[07Wolfie]

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
"Regardless of whether conventional or synthetic oil is used, the maintenance intervals for oil changes specified in the maintenance schedule in section 7 of your Owner's Manual remains the same. If it is determined the use of synthetic oil and/or lack of scheduled maintenance were the cause for engine damage or failure in the future, the associated cost for repairs/replacements would not be covered under warranty."
I think the Hyundai responder means to say: if synthetic oil is used and OCI is extended beyond the recommended in Owner Manual and they were the cause of engine failure then no warranty. He should not include "/or" after the "synthetic oil and"


In an unrelated story, Hyundai has announced an position opening at their Fountain Valley headquarters for a consumer communications director...

Just up the road from you, HTSS_TR. They obviously need you!

 

[rshunter]

Yeah, I posted a response to an owner of a new Hyundai a while back. He was asking about the OE oil provider and I referred to the recent renewal of Shell's global alliance with Hyundai, for a further five years. What can you say but, "quality associates with quality".

 

[crinkles]

some bad wording from the person writing the letter, they probably want to say "use synthetic for longer than spec OCI's and you will be screwed if anything goes wrong". but who knows?

 

[demarpaint]

I see it this way, they used Synthetic oil as the FF. They say changing it early is not a problem. They say synthetic oil or dino oil is fine. They also say change the oil as per the OM section 7, even if synthetic oil is used. In other words just because synthetic oil can be used doesn't mean to extend the OCI because synthetic oil is in the sump. Or they don't want you to extend OCI's if synthetic oil is use, just follow their OC schedule. Pretty cut and dry IMO, although it could have been written better. Goes against a lot of the thinking here, but don't most mfgs say pretty much the same thing? I don't recall seeing an OM that says change dino oil in X miles, synthetic in X+Y miles. Are there any that allow longer OCI's for synthetic oils? It appears Hyundai doesn't.

My suggestion is follow their OM while under warranty, then after the warranty do as you please.

 

[Sayjac]

Quote:
If it is determined the use of synthetic oil and/or lack of scheduled maintenance were the cause for engine damage or failure in the future, the associated cost for repairs/replacements would not be covered under warranty.
That reads like CYA statement to me, perhaps by a customer service rep not wanting to go beyond "any" recommendation referenced in the owners manual.

Not sure how Hyundai could/would determine that synthetic oil, meeting all recommended specs, was the cause of engine failure in the future. I suspect that would extremely difficult if not impossible to prove. And, especially since "they say" the FF is sythetic, it makes little/no common sense. Common sense, not so common.

I dumped the FF in my 2011 Genesis 3.8L at ~1800mi. to get rid of the wear metals, and because time wise it had been in more than 6 months that the car had been on the lot. Unlike Honda I saw nothing "recommending" leaving the FF in. That said, I'm not one that is all in on the Honda FF rec because of the mystical "extra" assembly moly being so benficial. Still think the early dumping of the FF with break in wear metals is beneficial too, but that is my opinion.

I let the dealer do it the OC this time to get it on the record, and because it was relatively reasonabley priced (~$28). He said it was a sythetic blend but that for twice the price I could get synthetic, took the syn blend. When I asked who made the syn blend, he couldn't give a definite answer, but didn't say QS. I'm not aware of a QS syn blend, so who really knows who makes or even if it was/is a blend?

I would say based on the information Hyundai provided here, you need to use your own common sense and comfort level with leaving the FF in. If you are more comfortable dumping the FF early for the reasons you mentioned, then do so. Since there seems to be no definitive answer from Hyundai, seems like it's up to you and your own comfort.

 

[Trav]

Quote:
synthetic oil and/or lack of scheduled maintenance were the cause for engine damage or failure in the future the associated cost for repairs/replacements would not be covered under warranty.



If i read this right even if you do use (they don't say you cant) synthetic oil you must go by their OCI schedule regardless or you own any oil related failure.
I don't see any double talk or need for further clarification as some have mentioned.

 

[Hokiefyd]

The way it reads, if they determine that synthetic oil is the cause of the problem, warranty would not cover it. I agree that it's not worded very well, and that's certainly not the intended meaning of the statement. But that's the way that most read it.

 

[doitmyself]

Trav, as already said, the use or the word "or" creates double talk. It implies that the use of synthetic alone, combined with an engine failure could void the warranty of an engine supplied with synthetic from the factory. We figured out the letter's intent....it's just poor wording.

edit....yea, what hokyfield said too! And, I don't think I have ever seen any manual that allowed extended drains with Synthetic.

 

[ottotheclown]

No matter, and or is used, you made a great decision to go to Utah a truly beautiful state. San Diego is no slouch either. You are lucky having these place to go/live in.

 

[glum]

They copied/pasted the same drivel, but I was wrong that it was exactly the same as what I received. This is how it was worded to me:

Quote:
Regardless whether conventional or synthetic oil is used, the maintenance interval for oil changes specified in the Owner's Manual remains the same.

If it is determined the use of synthetic oil was the cause for engine damage or failure, the associated cost for repairs will not be covered under warranty.

No "and/or", no mention of OCI or maintenance. Just "If synthetic oil ruins your engine, it's on you."

 

[Sayjac]

For a minute I thought that maybe I had misread/misunderstood the OP's primary question, that being if he should dump the FF before the full maintenance OCI in the owners manual. I defer to my previous post for that answer.

Quite obviously, using synthetic oil during the warranty period, doesn't negate/preclude following the maintenance schedule for the driving profiles in the manual. If one extends the OCI beyond the schedule while using synthetic, it is at the owner's own risk. The risk being that, if there is some engine failure/issue, the repairs would be at the owner's expense.