First post from a Hyundai newbie. I know some cars very well but not Hyundai vehicles.
Need your expert help on this. Sorry for all the questions.[] This is a daughter in law’s car. 2005 Accent, no owners’ manual….yet.[:@]
Here it goes, all tranny questions. What kind of transmission fluid should be used and what type of scheduled maintenance is required? Is the filter replacement straight forward? Is a fluid flush required? I am a hands on person and I am need of your help. Well, one more, is there a Haynes or Chilton’s that is available for the Accent or Hyundai cars in general.
Thanks for your help!!!

 

I'll try to address some of your questions based on 07 specs for Hyundais.

First off, is there a warranty issue, i.e. is the car still under factory warranty? If so then you have to follow whatever your maintenance schedule requires. You can always call your local Hyundai dealer and ask what the schedule is. Generally the trany fluid should be changed every 30k or 24 mos. If you do a lot of towing then more often. As far as the fluid type, Hyundai has their "special" tranny fluid that you have to use. They claim in an emergency you can add Mercon or similar, but must remove, flush and then use their fluid as soon as possible. If not under warranty, I'd still use their fluid (at $6.00 a quart,)as it is designed to use that fluid.

Do you need a flush? Depends on the color of the fluid in there. If it is still clean and not burnt, you can drain the fluid thats in the tranny and just add new fluid, butI'd remove the pan, clean it and change the filter first. I dont know how big of atask that is since my cars are both new and have the factory warranty so I'm stuck having it done when the time comes. I'd hate to give them an excuse for not honoring a 10 yr/100k warranty.If you have contamnated fluid then you should have it flushed to remove the fluid in the torque converter as well. Again, if there is warranty existing and you want to keep it, have it done by an approved garage and make sure you keep receipts.

If you just bought the car and dont know the maintenance history, I'd have it flushed just for peace of mind and just change it every 2 yrs. Hyundai trannys are finiky just like most later imports and some fluids are not compatible withinternal components.

 

You can register at HyundaiUSA.com and download an owners manual for your car in pdf format.

I am pretty sure the car needs SP-III fluid. If so, make sure you by genuine SP-III; it is not generally available at auto parts stores. Hyundai, Kia, Mitsubishi and maybe Chrysler dealers should have it though.

I visit many forums and I would say that the ONLY cases of failures of Hyundai automatic transmissions were caused by either blatant abuse, or using a fluid besideds SP-III. If you use something else, the warranty will be voided.

By the way, as a second owner, the car is still under the 5 year, 60,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty. The 10 year, 100,000 mile drivetrain warranty only applies to the first owner.

As far as service information, I don't think there are aftermarket manuals like Chiltons out there. However, you can access Hyundai's online service manual for free when you register (also free). Here is a link to a guide I wrote for how to register and navigate through the manual.

 

Magyabacsi, Doohickie,
This is all great information! [sm=groupwave.gif]
A CarMax car. I has 25k is on the clock now and I will encourage [sm=headbang.gif]the daughter-in-law to make sure the car gets serviced properly to maintain the 5 year 60k warrantee.
[sm=thanx.gif]

 

For what it's worth, I think there are "normal" and "severe" useage maintenance schedules. If you look at what constitutes severe useage, you will see that at least some of the conditions apply to just about every car. In the case of AT fluid, I think this means that you should get it replaced at 30,000 miles. (Normal schedule is 60,000.) You can probably stretch that out to 45,000 miles, but I wouldn't go all the way to 60.