Hyundai GDI engine failure safety recall

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I searched and found nothing on here about this. My girlfriend's car is a 2013 Hyundai Sonata with the 2.4L and about 55k miles on it. I have only been with her about 4 months. After I saw the recall for failing rod bearings I checked her oil. It looked black as tar at 2k miles. She got it changed for free as part of the recall, they use a microphone to listen for rod bearing noise through the dipstick. I checked the oil a few days after the oil change and it's black again. Anyone here have any experience with the recall or these engines?
 
It probably wasn’t serviced very often before, and it’s now cleaning it up with recent oil changes.
 
Hyundai/Kia had manufacturing problems with 4 cylinder GDI engines made in USA, I think from 2011 thru 2013. Some component was not properly flushed after machining, leaving metal shavings. Caused long term bearing failures. Includes Sonatas.

Hyundai/Kai has been replacing failed engines for free. Failure seems to occur at higher mileages.
 
Average mileage at failure according to carcomplaints.com which appears to be based on complaints to the NHTSA is 73k miles. There have been 2 in the shop I work part time at. One had over 60k and the other one about 30k when the engine failed.

I don't believe that hers is "cleaning up". She's had the car for a few years so she put most of the mileage on. She's changed it every 3k miles but it's all short trips and she didn't know that time had any effect on service intervals. These cars do dirty the oil fast compared to others even at shorter intervals. She usually drives like 5 miles each way to both of her jobs. Last oil change was 2k and like 5 months. This would be basically what it's had for the past few years. Now it will be getting OCIs every 3 months after seeing the black, thick looking oil on the stick.

I'm just hoping Hyundai doesn't get away with some kind of mileage limit on the engine coverage. It is an actual safety recall which normally means no time or mileage limit. The original recall was just on 2011 but they were forced to expand it to 2013 when the failures kept happening and a Hyundai engineer blew the whistle on them that they knew about the problem. Hyundai tried to cover this all up originally.
 
I know usually oil appearance/smell isn't a great indicator. But on the Veloster turbo (1.6T GDI) car I maintain, at 4k miles its some funky oil coming out. Synthetic changes ever 4k, and the car isn't run hard. Hyundai must know they're hard on oil, the severe service interval is 3750 miles.
 
Is it really a safety recall? I so then Hyundai would need to automatically replace all the engines within certain Vin numbers. However; if it was a safety notification then any engines within a Vin group number would be eligible for replacement IF it was determined to be defective. A big difference in terminology. Ed
 
Subaru had a similar problem almost decade ago with Turbo EJ engines. Improperly cleaned crank oil drills.

% miles to work is short and an engine killer. 3K 3 mo max.

I recommend you try Valvoline 0w20 "syn" if the Hyundai spec 5w20 or 0W20; it worked best on my problematic subarus. (best as far as non specialty oils yo can by at Walmart, etc.) Ha d tried PP, M1, M1EP, QSUD, Idemitsu-Subaru)
 
I'm not doing any of the maintenance on it anyways because I want the oil changes on record if the engine does fail and I don't want to be blamed it it fails. Lol. I am recommending she just keeps getting conventional oil changes but every 3 months now. I might even tell her to keep going to the dealer for a bit. She was going to the local Midas which has a terrible reputation for ripping people off.

I really don't have any confidence that the engine is going to hold up long term. Luckily she's fine with me driving everywhere we go together and put all the miles on my best up 83 Caprice.

I'm going to read more of the many threads over on Hyundai forums. I might find some good info there to do with details about the recall. I've never seen a safety recall to do with an engine failing before, but all recalls I know about go for the life of the vehicle. I'd like to confirm if that's still true in this case.
 
Use 5w40 or 0w40 oils.. And severe service interval...

My 50(EU) cents
smile.gif
 
My other thought is that the actual "recall" could just be the test to determine whether the engine is failing or not. Then Hyundai could decide whether or not to repair it based on age, mileage, maintenance history, etc. I'm hoping that's not the case.
 
Have you done an oil analysis? Anything that would show up such as lead would be an indicator to watch. FWIW

Oldtommy
 
I know three people with 2012 Sonatas or Optimas whose engines seized. All were honored under warranty with a short block replacement. The time/mileage limits of the extended engine warranty to cover this problem MAY depend on whether you're the original vehicle owner or subsequent owner.

Best to check with Hyundai customer service, not with a dealer. See if you can find a copy of the service or recall bulletin. There have been hundreds if not thousands of these cars that have been repaired for this problem.
 
My co-worker had his 2012 Optima engine fail at about 45k just recently. He was already aware of the recall and did get a whole new engine for free. They even gave him a rental car.
 
My friend has a small Hyundai (Elantra?) with a 2.0, and it's also being recalled for an engine replacement. It's a 2014 or so, and only has about 80K km on it. Same issue (metal shavings from the factory)?
 
The oil was truly black the first time I saw it before the oil change at 2k and it was dark dark brown a few days after the oil change. Probably black now because it's been a few weeks. I won't be looking at it again for a bit because she doesn't want to be stressed out about it.

It won't be getting synthetic because that's a $100 oil change around here because I won't be doing it myself and it needs to be done every 3 months. I go 5k on my carbureted 305 Chevy with full synthetic but I change it myself.

One good thing is she has been putting a cleaner in every oil change because a technician recommended it because of the direct injection carbon buildup issues.
 
I'd love to have one of the older 2011-2014 models and the engine fail while under the extended warranty. Cheap car with a new engine? Score!
 
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