My 2006 Elantra has a strange problem that 2 dealerships and 6 attempts have not fixed. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Approximately 6-9 months ago, I began finding my car with a complete loss of power when I tried to start it. Usually, this occurred after the car sat from Friday night to Monday morning or longer.

I began taking it to the Hyundai dealership to be serviced in March of this year (approximately).

1st trip: jumped it, then drove in for service the next day. diagnosed with depleted battery. Paid for a new one.

2nd trip (2-3 weeks later): jumped it, then drove in for service that day. Full diagnostics run. Diagnosed as loose battery connection.

3rd trip (2 weeks later): had it towed in dead. Full diagnostics run. Diagnosed with intermittent alternator failure. Alternator replaced under warranty.

4th trip (3 weeks later): had it towed in dead. Told that all diagnostics were normal. No drains on the battery could be pinpointed. Mechanic essentially said that the only logical explanation was that I or my child was living something on in the car. Given no options for repair.

At this point, I felt that the first dealership wasn't taking me seriously and wanted me to just live with this. Every time my car was parked for the weekend, it was after dusk and the alarm was set so I'm very confident that nothing has been simply left on. I changed dealerships.

5th trip: took the car to the new dealership the next day and let it sit there for 3 days to see if they could duplicate the issue. They couldn't.

6th trip (3 weeks later): had it towed dead to the new dealership. After 2 days, still no answers.

I am so, so frustrated with the lack of answers. The only lead I have is TSB-09-AT-013:
HYUNDAI: AUTOMATIC TRANSAXLE RANGE SWITCH DIAGNOSTIC TROUBLE CODES P0705 (RANGE SWITCH SIGNAL PROBLEMS), P0707 (RANGE SWITCH OPEN CIRCUIT), AND P0708 (RANGE SWITCH SHORT CIRCUIT OR MULTIPLE INPUTS). AN IMPROPERLY ADJUSTED OR IMPROPERLY OPERATING RANGE SWITCH MAY RESULT IN THE ABOVE MENTIONED CONDITIONS. MALFUNCTION INDICATOR LIGHT (MIL) ILLUMINATED; IMPOSSIBLE ENGINE START IN P OR N. *PE
Except, I have a manual transmission so this really may mean nothing at all. I think the tech has seen this and doesn't think it's related. He's also been on the phone with Hyundai's help line.

Any thoughts you have are appreciated. Thanks!

 

That TSB does not mention "dead battery". Don't try to read something into a TSB that is not there.

It sounds like you have a constant drain on the battery.

Do you have those interior lights in the bottom of the doors? My 04 did and the door didn't always shut completely. I had to make an effort to shut the door fully. I couldn't just release the door and let it close itself. It was bad enough that I just pulled the bulbs.
Otherwise
Pick up one of those cheapy digital volt meters (<$10).
Park your car and switch off your interior lights.
Wait one hour.
Check the voltage at the battery. Write it down to the last decimal point.
Pull one fuse at a time and re check the voltage. If it goes up that circuit is drawing power. Most should show NO change. The exceptions will be the stereo and car computer and alarm. But I don’t know which fuses they will fall under.

 

Thanks for responding samkent.

The TSB was actually found by the dealership as a possibility as well. But I think they've ruled it out.

I don't know about the door light (and car is still at dealership so I can't look). Was your door closed enough that you could set the alarm? My alarm won't set which alerts me when my doors are ajar (happens often with a 6yo).

The process you mentioned is what I've asked the dealership to do. I'll see today whether it garnered any results.

Thanks again.

 

My belief is that the tech spends only a few minutes making a diagnosis. He gets paid for fixing things not hunting down ghosts. If you have a subtle rattle they are more likely to “not hear” it instead of spending hours trying to hunt it down.
But this only works on customers that give up. If you keep going back and are willing to leave your car for extended amount of time they will be forced to spend the required amount of time to find and fix it.

 

The second dealership gave up after doing what samkent suggested. I'm now dealing with Hyundai corporate.

 

Simple parasitic draw test "should" point in right direction... we had 1 that would go dead in day or 2, had normal draw, we put another battery in it..

The fella left it with us to monitor, we had meter hooked up and sitting on window, and for a week, we would walk by and look at meter, only to see
normal sleep draw.. put in new battery, no problem..

Not heard from customer since, only that he was mad at us because it took so long to diag (his complaint was was dead after couple days),,, and he had to buy a battery.

 

Ok common battery draw on elantras ....hmm radio is #1 intermittent draw on most hyundais up till about 05. Now yes I would do a parasitic draw test. Some call this dark current test. This is the most accurate test. One thing to check on all elantras is the ground cable on back of intake passenger side going to firewall. This will make alternator not charge at times but your case sounds like a common draw that can be fixed easily. Max draw on any hyundai vehicle is 35 milliamps. The technicians can see this test in fix it right or any applicable tsbs.

 

Thanks for the info hyundai-tech.

Corporate asked that I return the vehicle to the second dealership and allow them to keep it and test it for days/weeks. I was given a rental in the interim.

It's funny that you mention radio because this is the suspect I was told about in yesterday's update from the dealership (the service tech on my case is great). It hasn't been confirmed. Should I be suspicious of this diagnosis given that this isn't a problem usually found in the '06 model and it's the 6th(?) time the parasitic draw tests have been conducted? Everyone keeps saying that this is such an easy thing to diagnosis, yet 6 stints in the shop, 2 dealerships, Hyundai tech line, a new battery, a new alternator, etc haven't done the trick.

 

Its all in who the technician is working on your vehicle. One thing to remember when you have a motivated technician ( like really into it ) give him your vehicle everytime and it will be fixed right the first time everytime. I have talked to so many reps with hyundai that look for these guys and they know who these guys are in their region. I met alot over the years but I can only name maybe 3 techs offhand who I would ever touch my vehicle if needed.

 

So after nearly 2 weeks with my car, they first asked me to pick up the car and drive it around without the radio installed. I declined.

Their second solution was to simply replace the radio as well as the ETACS box (which controls the keyless entry?). The radio is being done as "good will" while the ETACS box is still under warranty.

I'm not optimistic since both of these repairs are essentially guesses.