Malfunctioning climate control
 

I am wondering if anybody else has run into this issue with their Elantra Touring. My car now has 405km on it and I have had the climate control malfunction twice. What happens is that I cannot set it to blow air out the middle dash vents (the middle row, not just the center vents). Every other setting works fine, but when I set it to the middle row only it acts as if it is on the next setting over, bottom and middle row combined. If I turn the radio and fan off so it is silent inside the car and hit the buttons, on all other settings you can hear the motors hum and the flaps move, but when I try to set it to this setting the motors buzz for a second and sound as if they grind/growl and stop. After trying it several times it will make it all the way to the grinding stop then make an audible POP sound and work properly for the rest of the day. It malfunctioned on Wednesday last week then again this morning, last week it was sunny and 12*C, today it was foggy and -1*C.

Does anybody have instructions to access the flap motor for this setting? I have learned in the past not to let the dealership fix anything you can fix yourself (unless it requires replacement of parts of course). It sounds to me like the motor or flap is out of adjustment or is not properly secured.

go to your dealer your car is on waranty

I made an appointment and went down to the dealership today, I made sure the problem was present before I went inside, then they sent a tech outside to look at the car. He spent 10 minutes playing with it then brought it inside his bay. He came out 10 minutes later to tell me it works fine, and since it works fine he can't fix it. He then went so far as to accuse me of pushing the wrong buttons and not understanding how the controls work. I explained exactly what was going wrong and asked him to check on the actuator itself and he refused, then again accused me of not operating the climate control correctly.

I found the instructions online to access it, and from the troubleshooting section it sounds as if the Mode Control Actuator is malfunctioning or the flaps it actuates are jamming, and it looks reasonably easy to access.

I have been asked to leave the car there overnight for them to check on it in the morning, I guess I will write the service tech a note and leave it on the dashboard to explain how to properly duplicate the problem and just hope that I don't get the same guy I got today. If they screw me around tomorrow as well I will just fix it myself. Maybe if I bring them the broken motor they will finally understand. So far my experience with Hyundai service leaves a lot to be desired.