Check your Hyundai's

fastfredracing · 09-23-2010, 09:49 AM

I hope none of you here own one, but I seem to remember a couple of threads with some people praising these little schit boxes.
Thankfully, I only have a handful of these that come through the shop, but I have made it a habit to check all subframes and control arms anytime one comes in for any kind of service.
I have seen the control arms snap in half a few times. 90% of the time they look o.k. but if poked with a screw driver, you can easily pierce right through them.
I just did two this morning , appeared in tact, one little push with the big screwdriver, and I went right through both sides of the front lower control arms. IT appears as if the paint is the only thing holding them together. This car was one pothole away from catastrophic failure. It only came in for brakes, but who knows, I may have saved a life. The car was just inspected two months ago, ( not by me).
Personally, I would ride a pink huffy bananna seat bike to work before I drove a KIA, or Hyundai, but each unto his own.

scottmandue · 09-23-2010, 10:05 AM

I'm on my fourth Hyundai, no problems... I change my own oil so I have been underneath them.

YMMV

fastfredracing · 09-23-2010, 10:11 AM

You may be ok out there in southern California, but here in the rust belt, they disintegrate pretty quickly .

masraum · 09-23-2010, 10:18 AM

This thread is worthless without pics!!

scottmandue · 09-23-2010, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

You may be ok out there in southern California, but here in the rust belt, they disintegrate pretty quickly .

I see your point...

Having been underneath them they are not the most robust vehicle in the world.

However they make good appliance transportation if you live where they don't salt the roads. I get 80-90K miles out of them... in fact on my drive into work I saw a mid 1990's Hyundai on the freeway.

Mark Henry · 09-23-2010, 11:10 AM

The local Volvo wrench was doing a good business, but was looking for a step up into dealer status. The Volvo dealership was taken so he opened a Kia dealership.
He sold it in 3-4 years because he was losing his shirt in warranty repairs. Pretty sure he took a big hit in the wallet.
He's back in a small shop wrenching on Volvos.

myamoto1 · myamoto1's Garage

Our Kia has been one of the best, most trouble free cars we've owned. We're also not in an area that uses salt on the roads. Will take a look at the control arms, but we've been very happy w/ ours and have found that a number of our friends with the Toyota or Honda minivan are surprised to find theirs is missing some of the basic kid hauling features ours has ('06 Sedona).

KNS · 09-23-2010, 02:43 PM

I was having some dents taken out of my car the other day by one of those paintless dent removal guys. He was commenting on how nice German sheet metal was to work with in his line of work. Of the Japanese cars he liked Honda sheet metal as well - good stuff. Korean sheet metal was krap in his opinion, guessed that it must be recycled or something - the worst of all the cars he works on.

Oh Haha · 09-23-2010, 03:27 PM

My mom had a nice Hyundai XG350 until recently(2 weeks ago). No issues to speak of more than normal maintenance. The paint was kind of crappy, however.

The biggest problem was that the nearest dealer was 1.5 hours away. Not exactly convenient for her. She took it in last year for them to check out rust issue but everything was good. (I checked it out shortly after they did and saw no problems, either.

She traded it in for a 2010 Honda Accord. I think it's a great car, for her and for the money. I know why they last forever now. I've never had a Honda so I was a bit nervous about steering her towards one.

I think an Accord may be my next DD.

cashflyer · 09-24-2010, 05:08 AM

122k miles on my wife's Kia now, and the only repair I've needed to do was a blown P/S hose.
(not counting routine stuff, like shocks and tires)

That being said, it is a soul-less appliance. I have as as much love for that machine as for my toaster, and less love for it than my coffee maker. Maybe a little more love for it than my counter-top deep fryer.

Wil Ferch · 08:44 AM

Fastfredracing:

Unless I missed this...you don't mention the model years of the cars affected. Summary...as late as the mid-90's I would agree these are junk. However...after seeing the VAST improvement they've made ( including seeing them ..ahem....in different states of disassembly at my buds collision shop)....in 10 years' time they have made great, great strides. Recent cars from around 2005 to "now" are remarkably good.......

Conversely....the BIG surprise....downward...are the recent Benzes, looking at their sheet metal and how they are built today vs "in the day" ( say...80's). As much as Chrysler learned some stuff from MB....it seems MB learned how to build-cheap while still milking the "cache" of old !!

fastfredracing · 09-24-2010, 09:34 AM

Well, the one I did yesterday was a 2001, I think the last one I did was a 2004 Hyundai Sante Fe. I would say most of them that I have done were built in this basic time period.
The Santa Fe, actually snapped the rear control in half, broke the rear axle, sheared off the brake line, ripped the brake cable, popped the tire etc, it was a real mess. Happened to the customer on the interstate at 70 mph. He somehow kept it under control, was very lucky.
I personally dont care for these cars, but the reason for my post was not to bash them, just wanted to warn any of you of the potential hazard. If you have one, I would suggest taking an hour out of your day, and poke around with a large screwdriver, and, checking the front control arms just behind the ball joint, and the rear control arms where the two pieces come together, and look at the subframe carefully. Like I stated in my first post, they all appeared to be in good shape, had nice shiny paint on them still, but just literally crumbled at the slightest little push of a screwdriver.

fastfredracing · 09-24-2010, 09:35 AM

My shop camera, met its destiny in a 5 gallon bucket of gear oil , I will try to post up some pics over the weekend.

Wil Ferch · 09-24-2010, 11:07 AM

That's all fine.....just relate this to saying all 911's are no good if your only frame of reference is fixing pulled head studs on 2.7, mag-cased engines. Be careful.

The 2009+ Hyundai's look remarkably good, especially when it's sitting side-by-side with a same-year Benz on the neighboring Cellette bench..... it goes beyond saying if they have shiny paint or not.

scottmandue · 09-24-2010, 11:52 AM

And you have to consider Hyundai is building plants while other auto maufactures are shutting down completely.

People were saying the same things about Japanes automobiles thirty years ago.