so What Is The Cause Of The Infamous Hyundai Theta

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We have 2 of the cursed things both after the supposed fix date of April 2012. As you’d expect we aren’t keeping either to anywhere near the warranty end periods. first exclusively Sonatas and now the Elantras are blowing. Our 15 Elantra got taken in with a strange ticking in the timing chain cam area came back with a new warranty engine.
I’ve been watching this with the sort of interest you’d expect of someone stuck with a dog since 2013 when it first trickled out that Hyundai’s with the DI engines toss a rod typically just post 100K miles. First said to be a manufacturing
Process error at the New factory In Alabama , fixed in 2012 but has kept right going to the present and no onto late model Elantras as well.
The best info I’ve been able to glees so far is it’s almost the con rod bearing goes on #2 which naturally plasters debris all over and or cages the engine. Some Hyundai mechanic stated on a forum it’s the coating coming off the piston skirts that is doing the deed. The company has a SB which reflects the same. OK so what is this mysterious coating they are referring to? I did the Teflon boogie in 1977 didn’t like the it much in that Vega . So what’s the info on what they are doing stupid and continue to do. One thing for sure we won’t be going near hyundai ever again and I wouldn’t trust their explanation ions as far as I could toss them. So does anyone know anything that’s not propaganda or poo....?
 
Who knows? Hyundai/KIA isn’t the only company experiencing this problem. GM 4 cylinders have been spinning rod bearings too. GM blames the problem on bad bearings. I have a friend who is a Hyundai tech and he works for the local dealership. He is certified by Hyundai, KIA and Chrysler. He has replaced over 1,000 of the Hyundai recalled engines. The main thing he is seeing on the ones he has replaced is poor maintenance. When I say poor maintenance, I mean lack of oil, not changing the oil at recommended intervals.
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2013/12/faul...nt-be-recalled/
 
Originally Posted By: MParr
He has replaced over 1,000 of the Hyundai recalled engines. The main thing he is seeing on the ones he has replaced is poor maintenance. When I say poor maintenance, I mean lack of oil, not changing the oil at recommended intervals. http://gmauthority.com/blog/2013/12/faul...nt-be-recalled/


Owners were probably all BITOG members who consider saving money on oil as the number one priority when it comes to vehicle maintenance. One more of many threads on this forum that remind me why I never buy used cars no matter how good they look.
 
Oh I wouldn’t credit it all to never changing the oil. In our own case it got it at 1000 then 5-6ish and as always it got good looking over while doing it. Always name brand top tier synthetic and OEM filter because of the hassles they gave Sonata owners in the early years prior to the big recall. Reading on the Hyundai forums I saw a lot of that. Sudden huge oil consumption for no apparent reason . It’s easy to see how the many hands off drivers suddenly find their selves with a locked up engine 1000 miles past a new oil change. There’s so many of these similar occurrences that it’s undeniable.
The one guy, a Hyundai mechanic mentioned a coating. coming off as did the SB stating there was an upgraded coating in 2014. As you can see from my case the 2015 model didn’t fare better If I was him I’d definitely shut up in any public forum lest he feel the wrath of the company. They really went after the engineer that officially let the cat out of the bag a while back. Too bad no one seems to know what he actually said beyond their knowing about it and letting things go on. As always , whistleblowers are sacrificed always be it industry or government, right or wrong.
My thing is discovering this mysterious COATING. That keeps popping up. So who knows what’s this magic potion that goes to [censored]. What is it that could somehow always foul, burn the fail #2 like it does. I sure would have loved to get a look under that valve cover. When I did the last oil change at 1800 miles to take a shot at the tick was just the car not liking the oil I saw nothing even after running the Oil through a plastic paint strainer. Just some goo that as well could have come off the dirty base. Washedwith some old fuel oil just went away and the tiny residue had no magnetic attraction and no real solidity. I gave them the oil filter in a baggie .
Funny thing I did notice was that when filling that car I ended up overfilling it. That house temp warm oil was taking way too long to get to the base in my experience. You shouldn’t have to wait more than 2 minutes to recheck the oil level while bringing it up but somehow I sure did. Off by half a quart , no [censored] way. Something is blocking those passages.
 
The Korean made vehicles from the same time frame show no signs of this issue. I'm not "in the know" but this fact tells me this is a factory build problem.

After passing whatever test is procedure for this recall, our Santa Fe Sport 2.0T now has a 120k mile powertrain warranty, and new dipstick, "increasing" oil capacity a smidge. I'm not concerned, all our Hyundai have had exemplary reliability.
 
Yea, my motor had the tick of death at 14,000 on my wifes 2013 Elantra GT 1,8 liter that was not on any recall. It happened right as I was trying to sell it as she wanted a Rav 4. The worst move I ever did was not get rid of it on the Rav4 deal. I was $200 away from what I wanted for trade in and the dealer would not budge. So I thought I could sell it myself and make $1,000 more. WRONG WRONG WRONG. The car was dead clean and a clean title, and under Blue Book by $800 and it was up for sale on Craigslist and 2 other sites for 6 plus months. No one wanted it. I had 2 calls that wanted to look at it but both found another cars before coming to look.

The last guy called and it was winter here in Minneapolis and the tick of death was so loud, I could not sell it to him. I never told him, it never got that far and he called saying he found another car. I was at Hyundai 2 times for that tick and they said that was normal. On the 3rd time I said I don't want it back until you fix the tick. They called me back 3 hours later and said I was getting a new motor. I said I wanted a long block and he said he could do that.

So I got it back a month later, instead of a Korean motor (my car was build in Korea)they put in an American motor and I found out later it was a 3rd party build since they don't have any crate motors left. They had to give me a new alternator too because of a different bracket setup on the American block. This new motor is a SLUG. It has no torque, and seems to be missing 20hp. I have not brought it in because I knew I would be told it was a tight new motor. I now have 5,000 miles on it after having it a year with the new SLUG motor and plan on bringing it in in the coming months. So because my wife bought the lease returned Rav4, and I was so stupid to keep the Hyundai because I want ed JUST $200 for the trade I had an extra car. My other car was a 2009 Honda Fit with Koni's and some added sway bars. 50,000 miles. I said to my wife, I need to sell on of these and I don't want to "give away" the Hyundai because it basically was new with 14,000 at the time, still new with now 18,500 miles. I will sell the Honda Fit, It sold in 1 1/2 days for what I wanted. Go figure.

I really like the car, except the SLUG bothers me a bit because the original motor for a 1.8 liter and naturally aspirated was marginally fast. I just use the car to work and back and we use the Rav4 for if we go together anywhere. I like that it is paid for. But the longevity thing even though I have another 6 years and 80,000 miles on warranty for this car.

I thought about trading it in (for sure this time) and getting another car being a Honda Toyota, or WAS thinking of a new Hyundai Elantra GT BUT car payment issue pops up, I don'r want to be stuck with the DI motor carbon issue all DI motors have now. When we bought this 2013 GT It was in 2014 and I had the option for a 2013 with out a DI motor or a non discounted 2014 with a DI motor. I chose the non DI motored car because I knew about many where already having DI carbon issues then. And thought about another Honda Fit ,but I am very hard on transmissions racing around to work. ( X-autocrosser still in my blood) and I would guarantee you a CVT wont last long with my foot) I need a standard ATF pumper with Redline D6 and my cocktail of Redline racing to reduce slip agents to make the ATF pumper survive.

I am waiting for a vehicle that has the dual injectors IE DI injector and the other one in the intake port to clean off the valve and port walls that Toyota and some others are going to to solve the DI carbon issue. It would be nice to do it soon since my Elantra still has some value on trade in. Another 3 years and 20,000 miles and it won't be worth much. I am going back and forth on do I pull the trigger and go back into a clean 2013 Honda Fit that was the last year they have an ATF pumper, but the ride quality on noise is so bad on the Fit. I am 55 years old now and some more softer ride is nice( Konis were put on to smooth the ride out over the harshly valved OEM struts at the time) I am in a total catch 22 area with my car choice with money/ car payment hurt, reliability, DI issues, and CVT reliability issues. I am running Amsoil Signature Series and XL cocktail or a Redline cocktail because of Hyundai's engine issues from now on though. Fram Ultra's too.

Then I say to myself, you have a nice car that still has a long warranty, that gets you to work and back with a nice smooth sporty ride, nice good heat here in Minneapolis and a good air conditioner and new set of Continental Pure Contacts, what more do you want you dumb Ars... Keep it and shut up the the newer car thinking bullsmit.
 
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I’m not concerned, either. My oil cap is printed 5W20, I run 5W30. If it blows, I’ll get a new engine. My theory on some of the engine failures may be due to the thin oil viscosities that are recommended. Energy conserving oil vs. an engine?
 
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Originally Posted By: wemay
The Korean made vehicles from the same time frame show no signs of this issue. I'm not "in the know" but this fact tells me this is a factory build problem.

After passing whatever test is procedure for this recall, our Santa Fe Sport 2.0T now has a 120k mile powertrain warranty, and new dipstick, "increasing" oil capacity a smidge. I'm not concerned, all our Hyundai have had exemplary reliability.


Wrong, look at above post.

Hyundai just needs to go to Mahle of Germany and license a piston and rod kit design and call it a day. They obviously can't design a robust engine to save their sole.

http://www.us.mahle.com/mahle_north_amer...;-pcu/index.jsp



.
 
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During my 2012 Hyundai Accent GDi all I used was QSUD 5w30 in the winter and 10w30 PP for summer. Oil changed every 4k and oil filters were Napa Gold prefilled with LM Mos2. At the very end at 200k a small seep was spotted so I used LM Motor Oil Saver. Car still on road as I see from time to time.Sold to Honda for 2100.00
 
Yes Mainia, that post is an anecdote. Every make has issues that are amplified on the internet by effected owners who suffered through whatever issue is the topic of a thread. That is understandable. The byproduct is
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from other posters who have never owned said make or model.
 
Oddly enough, my previous Sonata 2.4 had an oil cap that called for 5w20 too, but this one has a "5w30" printed on the cap. The manual's first choice is 5w20. I've always used both (75% w20), but will now stick with w30. As I've mentioned before, i go back and forth on this topic, but just realizing what's on the cap makes it easier; Go figure.

 
Originally Posted By: Mainia
They obviously can't design a robust engine to save their sole.


Don't you mean "Soul"? (Kia... get it?)
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I maintain a '13 Optima and '14 Sonata, both with 2.4's - Kia is MPI, Sonata is DI. The Kia is at about 84,000 (last OC was over 20K...) and IIRC the Hyundai is around 60K and she's more regular about her oil changes. No noises, excessive consumption, or oil pressure lights yet that I know of. However I had an '11 Sportage (2.4 MPI) in a few weeks ago with a DTC for the VVT and low oil pressure light at idle after the first minute or so after a cold start - per mechanical gauge it was only holding 2-3 PSI at idle, climbing gradually as RPM's went up. 182K on the clock; I'd changed the oil on it twice before (about 1,000 mi. previous to the issue and a decent interval before that) with VML 5w30. Oil level was perfect and clean when it came in. I pulled the pan to inspect the pick-up screen - nada, but there was a lot of heavy varnish leftovers in the bottom end. I couldn't find any info on where the relief valve lay in the system or how to service it, so rather than dismantling it further on a wild goose chase - and having become aware of this problem - I closed it back up and advised the owner of the chronic issues and the potential for a warranty from a dealership.

It seems to me the nature of this issue points to a fundamental design or process flaw, not just "incomplete cleanup" from milling or whatever it's supposed to be. Only reaffirms why I didn't ever care to own a Kia/Hyundai in the first place.
 
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Originally Posted By: Alex_V

...I maintain a '13 Optima and '14 Sonata, both with 2.4's - Kia is MPI, Sonata is DI. The Kia is at about 84,000 (last OC was over 20K...)


crazy2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Kira
Are the effected years 2012+2013+2014? Are there more?



I think 2011 thru 2013? Only USA made GDI engines.
 
Isn't this the Global Engine Alliance engine jointly made with Chrysler, Mitsubishi and Kia/Hyundai?

If so, are the other carmakers in the alliance having issues?
 
Originally Posted By: MParr
Who knows? Hyundai/KIA isn’t the only company experiencing this problem. GM 4 cylinders have been spinning rod bearings too. GM blames the problem on bad bearings. I have a friend who is a Hyundai tech and he works for the local dealership. He is certified by Hyundai, KIA and Chrysler. He has replaced over 1,000 of the Hyundai recalled engines. The main thing he is seeing on the ones he has replaced is poor maintenance. When I say poor maintenance, I mean lack of oil, not changing the oil at recommended intervals.
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2013/12/faul...nt-be-recalled/


Funny you should mention your Hyundai Tech friend. I also hsve a Hyundai Technician friend. (Dealership was once a Chrysler Hyundai dealer but now only Hyundai). He told me the same thing. Owners not changing oil or checking oil level. He also told me that Hyundai still honors the warranty. That shocked me.

BTW. My Hyundai Tech is the best. I trust him implicitly. I drive 30 miles to his dealership vice closer dealerships.
 
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