[cabmandone]

My son was driving home from work a few weeks ago when his 2013 Veloster just shut down and would not restart. He said his dash "lit up" and his tach went to zero. No warnings prior to and no stored codes from a CEL.

I brought the car home on a trailer thinking something happened electrically. I unplugged the battery because I noticed the factory positive terminal was loose even though the nut was tightened all the way down. I checked t he battery voltage which was at 7.6 volts. I figure this is from his turning the car over in an effort to get it to fire again. I put the battery on my charger at 10 amps for 4 hours. Batter checked at 12.6 volts after charging. I pressed the start button and it fired right up. Success!.... or so I thought. I put my volt meter on to check the charge coming from the alternator... 14.6 volts. I noticed a ticking sound that was not present prior to the engine shutting down. Success!... I once again thought. Next morning started the car to back it off my trailer and it wouldn't rev up. It had almost a muffled exhaust sound and the ticking sound.

I left it on the trailer and brought it to the dealer. Service adviser noticed it wasn't running right and had a ticking sound too. I told him, "that ticking sound wasn't there before it shut down". A few days later I'm told the catalytic converter was plugged... at 39,000 miles. It's covered under the emission warranty. Apparently the cat plugged from the top side. The bottom side that was visible looked fine but when you tipped the cat, stuff started falling out of the top side through the exhaust manifold (all one piece... manifold and cat) I was told the ticking sound was still there (no real surprise) but the tech didn't think it was anything to worry about. I said "if it wasn't there before the engine shut down and now it's there, isn't it something to be concerned about?". Tech thought it could be piston slap. I'm thinking due to the back pressure that caused the engine to shut down damaged something in the valves. Still waiting for a tear down diagnosis that Hyundai customer care said they would cover even though the car is out of warranty. Now going back and forth with the dealer because they're saying Hyundai will only cover one hour. Called Hyundai care and was told "on your initial call, escalation approved engine diagnostics without a limitation on hours so a full tear down is covered". I relayed this to the dealer and am still waiting to see where it goes. Will post back once I learn more.