My dad has a hyundai sonata and on Saturday I got a call because his car completely shut off on him.

He was on the freeway heading home when all of a sudden, the engine died. Funny thing is the lights and everything works, but when starting the car, it would not turn over.

We towed it to the Cerritos Hyundai dealership and they don't seem to have a clue as what is the cause. They suggest changing the timing belt but were not clear as to whether that would solve the problem.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what we may be looking at?

It's a 2002, about 72K on it.

Afew days before, he said he was hearing some noise coming from the steering wheel area.

 

Well, since no one has replied but I noticed I did get alot of peepers.

Here's the update...we just got a call and the engine needs to be replaced for a whopping $7K......yep, the value of the car.....what a predicament.

Since this happened, I started looking for similar problems online and it seems on consumer affairs, there are quite a bit of similar situations.

Hyundai engines may have a problem retaining oil. For some reason, the engine is sucking up all the oil (excuse my lack of mechanic terms) and no engine light is coming on. So the mechanics are telling the users that they didn't do sufficient oil changes but in fact, it's a problem with the car's engine.

Is there no one in this forum who can comment on the situation.....my situation.....advice?

 

Are there maintenance records to show the oil was changed at regular intervals? If so, show them to the dealer. I'm not sure if this is a problem on Sonatas, but I know some oil filters that fit Hyundais are built to the wrong specs and can result in oil starvation. I've heard the most complaints were with Fram filters (according to there own website, they have 5 product lines of oil filters, but only one product line lists the Elantra as an application).

If the oil was changed at a quickie oil change place that used Fram filters and was kind of lazy, they may have just used any filter that fit instead of the right one. If that's the case, the issueis not with Hyundai, it's with the oil change place. But unless there is an incorrect filter on the car right now and/or you can produce receipts showing the wrong filter was used, it will be very hard to stick this on an oil change shop.

On a side note... I think the timing belt should have been changed at 60,000 miles. If the car is eventually repaired and the original timing belt is still on the car, it really needs to be replaced.

 

So what was the dealership's final conclusion as to why the motor failed?Did they fault wrong use of oil filter or it ran out of oil?And yes i agree on changing the timing belt at around 60,000 miles...i had mine done at 62,000 milesand its well worth the peace of mind.

 

I'll bet the timing belt broke as he was driving. The engine is basically ruined if your timing belt breaks when your driving. The pistons and valves collide resulting in major engine damage. You basically have to rebuild or replace the engine after that.

 

I'm not sure if your engine is burnt or the timing belt is disconnected.

but if your car is currently running, then I recommend that you use synthetic oil
it really helps