2011 Sonata
 

So, I am new here and I am thinking about buying a Sonata. I have read a lot about the steering problems (pulling to the left and the recall), but I have a question.

Is the steering to the left resolved with the recall or are people still having this problem? If this isn't resolved I cant see myself buying a new Sonata. I love the look and it has all the options I want. It would be a shame if it is still having steering problems.

Thanks

A small number of people are having a problem. The majority are fine. Go test drive one. If it pulls, don't buy it. If it drives fine, buy it.

My Sonata does pull left.
 

Super has good advice. I bought a 2011 Sonata Limited Turbo and have carefully documented the steering issues with it both with the dealer and with Hyundai. Allignment helped the highway speed left drift. Have not been able to correct the moderate left pull at town driving speeds. Here is what it does. Normal town acceleration pulls to left and is more stronger coming out of right hand turns and gradual right hand curves. Hard acceleration at lower speeds or from stops it does not pull. Dealers call it torque pull because of different lengths of drive shafts. I don't understand why if this is the issue why not all 2011's don't exhibit the same problem. Some of the past threads talk about bending the frame to correct the issue. My dealer has stopped that procedure but use to have it as one of the fixes. I think there is a design problem. Outside of that love the car. :)

I'm not sure when others bought their Sonata's but I bought mine a little over two weeks ago. I don't have the steering to the left problem as others do. As Nova stated, go to the dealership and test drive the car that you are interested in if it's on the lot. Do not test drive any Sonata that they pull out.

If you test drive the car you want and it has the pulling to the left problem don't buy it however, I believe that Hyundai has resolved this issue for the most part on on the cars that are coming out of the factory and on the lots now.

I just dropped off my Tucson V6 at the dealership for its 60K service and to have the timing belt changed. They gave me a 2011 Sonata for a loaner. It's a REALLY nice car. I averaged 44-mpg on the drive home and that wan't even in ECO mode. The trip was about 13 miles 60% highway, 40% city driving. And I'd like to report not one bit of "left pull" in the steering. Very impressive car.

FYI - ECO mode doesn't change the fuel consumption properties of the motor; it's essentially a dummy light for the driver to let them know if they are in ideal fuel consumption speed/load.

The latest batch on Sonatas have an “Active ECO” button on the dash next to the ESC button. The ActiveECO mode adjusts the engine computer, throttle input and A/C to maximize mileage. The earlier Sonatas did not have this button, and the ECO mode was just an indicator.

http://iguida.com/2011-hyundai-sonata

That's interesting. I wonder how one can determine if their car's "eco" function actually works.

The ECO thing is a joke.. it is sorta like a VALET key for Corvette... then you have the silly light that shows ECO if you is driving like a PRIUS owner trying to get 100 mpg..

Turn the silly feature off and drive reponsibly, the car will be a bit more "driveable"..

First, it's not a joke. It does work. However, if you read my post, I said my average MPG was without the Active ECO mode on.

I drove 2-2.0T SE's in my search, both at different dealers, and in neither car did I experience the pull. I am grateful to the forums here for bringing it up as a point to look for when purchasing the car, so I did know what bugs to look for.

BTW, I love this car!!

11 SE 2.0T Pull Left
 

Bought this on 2/14/11. Loved it as I had my 2008 traded at 85k with zero problems. Trip home, noted pulling to left. Made service appointment. Drove 699 miles and it pulling to left - however, not consistent - sometimes more than other [even considering road crown]. Service tried to align and were consulting with Hyundai. Kept it for week-end. Picked it up Monday was told new driver side strut ordered. Just dropped it off for another 2 day stay for strut and realign.

PS: At 1,000 miles my Nitrogen no leak tires had to be refilled as my light on dash came up. Luckily was near a Hyundai dealer and he refilled for free.

JD Power won't get a good review on this one.

I wonder if they are going to try the MDPS unit on electronic steering along with the steering angle and torque sensor. If it doesn't sense correctly, it will apply pressure and cause a turn. This makes more sense than alignment.

I'll keep up posting what they try.

I have a 2011 Sonata with 1300 Kilometers.The trip odometer shows me 15.3 K per 100 liters which translates to 19 Miles per Gallon.Not Great,I don't idle although 90% of my driving is in the city.
I'm wondering if things will improve as the car is "broken in?"

I bought an SE about two weeks ago. When I purchased it I was oblivious to all consumer complaints and went in a blank slate. I had, however, researched all the trims. I knew I was interested in an SE, and they had one in the color I liked so I asked to test it out. The test drive was smooth, fun and the car felt a bit fancier than its price tag. I liked it and decided to purchase it while trading in my '04 Santa Fe that had given me 130K miles with very little issues.

After reading the steering stuff I got paranoid. I drove my car trying to decide if I was having the problem. After driving the car while focusing on the issue I have to conclude that the car does not have any issues like this. I drive fast and tend to stay in the left lane. I noticed a subtle left drift, which happens in all cars when you stay in the left lane because of how the road is crowned. To placebo check my test I drove in the center and right lanes. The center lane made me drift which ever direction the steering wheel was sublty tilted; normal imo for the stiffer, weightier steering experience you should find in an SE model. The right lane, sure enough, tends to go with the crown as well.

I called the dealer to ensure all tweaks were done and he verified the steering on my vehicle was inspected, tightened and tested before I ever test drove it. He was open in telling me it needed a software update and met with me yesterday morning to take care of it. The car feels pretty darn good at this point I must say.

So my fiance and I are happy with our purchase and we liked that our Hyundai dealer was upfront about what recalls had been addressed and not addressed. Most all design and mechanical overhauls on car models result in a few bumps when they get released. As a wise mechanic and car collector once told me: it's not the type of recall that's important, it's how the company communicates and works with its customers to correct the issue that is.

**************** So now with a brief question in my long post (thanks if you're still reading).

I'm breaking in the car and I have about 700 miles on it now. I picked it up with 240 on it. It was a dealer transfer that probably had about 10 test drives on it. As I said, I tend to drive fast. This is also my first ever automatic, I've always had a manual transmission. As a result I use the paddle shifters very liberally, downshifting and running up the rpms often on starts and downshifting on the highway to pass. Yesterday I noticed the recommended break in instructions and it said to take it easy for the first 600 miles, which I clearly have not.

Should I just be good and drive conservatively to assist with breaking the car in at this point? Is the break in period something I should concern myself with? Have I negatively impacted the car by driving it how I did since I purchased it?

Thanks for any feedback, I hope I've contributed some info of use as well.

You don't have to do anything out of the ordinary to break in the car. Just drive it normally and you will be fine.

2011 Sonata SE T2.0 Steering Left
 

Bought my new 2011 Sonata SE T2.0 14 Feb and it pulled left. Car was assembled in Oct 10. Dealer tried alignment. Didn't work. Ordered new driver side strut and installed. Drove it 500 miles last week and it doesn't pull left - seems to have a right pull, but not all the time -- and I'm taking into account road crown. The steering feel and pull are inconsistent. :confused: Could it be the electric steering?

Good advice.

I drove test drove three different Sonatas over the past several weeks - 2.4 GLS, 2.4 Limited, 2.0T Limited - none pulled left.

I purchased a 2.0T Limited last week - doesn't pull left.

Jaeger

So what if you have that pulls, can't return it now, 3 mos old. What is the difference in mine and the ones on the lot. If the new ones don't pull, then that means they know what is wrong and should fix mine. And mine wasn't doing it right when I bought it. I also, not always, when driving over a bump or reflector on the road or speed bump, I get a almost rattling noise / sensation in the steering wheel. Like something is loose. Both of my issues, next wed will be my 4th trip in, have not been resolved.

Any ideas

Hello All I'm almost buying a 2012 Sonata Turbo limited w/o Nav.
I would highly appreciate if u good Ppl can share your Exp. good/ bad so faar! MPG????

Mine is a 2012 GLS. When I test drove the car there was a slight drift to the right which was fixed with an alignment. After I purchased the car, I recieved a note saying that my Sonata was part of a recall and I took it in. They had set up a test track at the back of the dealership. They ran my auto through the test track and then told me they had to change the bolts for the camber to correct a slight steering response problem.

This was done and they put it on the alignment machine. The problem is long gone. the service manager explained that the bolt were longer to allow more adjustment. It was not a big problem and did not take a great amount of time.
:cool:

Pull Left and Issues: Update
 

I've been remiss. I posted about my 2011 Sonata 2.0T pulling left just after I bought it on 2/14/11. Since then, I now have 21,000 miles -- all of them extremely good miles.

Dealer kept working on the pull. Finally changed the left strut and it was completely fixed. Shortly thereafter, there was a recall issued. Seems that there was a bad batch of struts over a short period of time. Hyundai recalled all of the affected cars and made it right. My dealer also had an update to steering [electrical power steering] that was done. At 21,000 I have absolutely NO issues now with steering.

Dealer also did an engine software update. I use my car in business and keep very meticulous records. I track fuel mileage monthly and at each fill-up. The indicator gauge for fuel efficiency is incorrect from 5 to 10%. I don't do much in town driving and much is on interstate. I average from 31.5 up to a max one month of 34 MPG. That is taking odometer reading and dividing by gallons measured by gasoline pump to hundredths of a gallon for a month.

I do not put my foot in throttle, I drive at 65 on interstate and 55 - 60 on state highways. HOWEVER, when I need the power to pass or get onto the freeway, I am extremely pleased with the power of my 2.0T, because it will fly -- but it will really hit the MPG hard.

My 2011 Turbo has been pretty much flawless for the 8 months or so that I've owned it. It never pulled left, but the dealer performed the TSB on it anyway at the last scheduled service. I still think it offers an unbeatable performance / luxury value proposition in the midsize segment, with the exception maybe of the Optima SX.

Highway mpg has consistently been in the 31-34 range. My speeds are moderate.

I drove with the Active ECO button engaged for an entire week to try to get a sense of what it offered. My conclusion - I doubt I'll ever turn it on again. It makes the car drive like crap (mutes the throttle respose and gives the transmission a double-dose of valium) and doesn't yield any significant improvement in fuel economy.

Just put on a set of snows mounted on dedicated rims (dropped down a size to 17") so I'm ready for the white stuff.

Bottom line - still as happy with my choice as the day I bought it.

Jaeger