When we got the Hyundai, we were excited because it wasn't just a "reliable" car (or so we thought) it also supposedly had the best warranty in the industry. We were sadly mistaken on BOTH accounts. Not only is my Hyndai like a unic with a half-limp wrist on a good day, the warranty is about as useless as a third ear on the back of your neck!!!

When my timing belt gave, I was told that since they (Hyundai) had no record of oil changes or anything that we had been doing to maintain our vehicle, they wouldn't cover any of the repairs that were to follow. Well...$1800 and 3 months later, I'm now being told that either I have a blown Head Gasket, cracked block, or something. (The tech hasn't finished diagnosing the issues yet) I took it in because I had dumped 4 quarts of oil and 1/2 gal of antifreeze in it and the temp guage still rose as fast as a 400 pound sumo entering a buffet. He said that the oil was fine...duhhh...but the coolant looked like chocollate milk. Now he's estimating that the repairs would be somewhere around $1500 THIS TIME!!! AND THIS ISN'T COVERED EITHER DUE TO THE RESULTING PROBLEMS FROM THE FIRST INCIDENT! IS THERE NO CORK TO PUT IN THE HOLE IN THE BOTTOM OF THIS FINANCIAL PIT!!!!

Does ANYONE have any advise??[:@][:@][:@][:@][:@][:@][:@][:@]

 

Yours must be an older model V6 if the engine has a timing belt, or perhaps a newer 4 cylinder Sonata. Either way, this is a bad situation that can only be avoided by proper maintence.

I think all Hyundai engines are interference engines, the valves extend far enough into the combustion chamber to physically collide with the piston unless they close before the piston reaches the top of it's stroke. Normally, the timing belt prevents this collision from happening. If the belt breaks while the engine is running, belt valves and dented pistons are the best case scenario. More often, valves are bent and the top of the piston is punctured. Worse case is a cracked head casting that has to be totally replaced. I think the timing belts on a Hyundai engine are suppose to be replaced every 60,000 miles. I doubt you have a ruptured block, but you likely have a cracked head (hence oil in the coolant) which is expensive enough to replace. I feel your pain. I've lived this experience with a V6 Nissan I bought used with 100K that had not had the belt replaced at the 70K mark as promised by the former owner.

I now have a newer Sonata with a V6 engine that has a timing chain rather than a belt, but my warrenty specifically states that the 10 year/100,000 mile power train warrenty does not cover routine maintence items, e.g. bascally anything made of rubber. It also doesn't cover the O2 sensor, which also is listed as a routine maintence item (but is covered by a seperate Federally mandated 80K emissions warrenty). If your Sonata has more than 60K on the odometer and the belt was never replaced, I personally doubt the power train warrenty would cover the damage. If under 60K, I would think the bumper-to-bumper warrenty would cover it. Unfortunately, it sometimes takes legal representation to get that point across (and I'm not a lawyer). More pragmatically, I would say you need to judge the potential resale value of the car vs the cost of getting it running again.

 

Let's be fair, you didn't maintain your vehicle. According to your only other post you didn't replace the timing belt at 60K like you were supposed to. You said it went at 80K:

SOURCE

If you had replaced the belt at 60K you wouldn't have caused these problems. So YOU are at fault, not Hyundai. Suck it up, pay for your mistake and stop blaming Hyundai or anyone else for YOUR mistake.

BTW, thanks for joining today just to bitch and moan. Welcome to the forum.

 

A long warranty does *not* mean that you can put just gas into a car for 60,000 or 100,000 miles and expect it to run. ANY car needs to be properly maintained in order to run for any length of time. The timing belt should have been replaced at 60k (as a part of periodic maintenance as listed in the owners manual). But not replacing it, you voided the warranty due to lack of maintenance.

 

when the belt broke, they should have installed the new belt and do a compression or leak downcheck to see if the engine was ok, no bent valves etc. 3 months later i wouldn't blame it on the dealer cause if the car was overheating you would have experienced it sooner also. like everyone else said it your fault. i always say, people go to the dentist to get there teeth check, people should also do the same for there car. check your timing belt, trans fluid, engine oil, drive beltson the regulator.

 

When the auto trans failed on my 99 Accent at 94,000 miles the dealer replaced it under warranty. They replaced it because I had the fluid and filter replaced at the dealer every 30,000 miles so I had done the proper maintanance. I had 134,000 miles on that car when it was totaled in an accident when a drunk driver ran a stop sign.