2022 Kona N HPL Premium PCMO 5W30 UOA

PUP seems more than adequate for the 3K intervals. Plan was to start at 3K intervals and switch to manual recommended intervals of 6K after X miles.


I would be willing to do teardowns if I had the training. Outside of seeing numbers way out of range, personal use of the data is mostly limited to a general health checkup.


The primary reason for the post is to provide the community with data on my specific car/engine running from start to finish on different oils. I also appreciate when a company is active in forums and provides good customer support. My email correspondence was with David. If the oil comes back looking good, plan is to use it for track days. I apologies if the information is not formatted proper, I consolidated the data from multiple PDF's sent my way. I actually have TBN data for all but the latest sample, my apologies again, seems I posted the wrong snip.

How you liking the 1.6T engine so far BTW? It's a real shame AWD isn't offered on the Kona N, on top of the US version missing many features offered in the EU.
Yes, it is a shame Hyundai chose not to add AWD to the Kona N. I had money down at the dealer a year before it came out thinking they would AWD the Kona N. I found out through Asian Youtuber's that all the test mules were 2wd, so I pulled my money. I decided to just keep my 2018 Kona 1.6T AWD and keep building it, most was already done by that time anyway. AWD is to important to me in performance driving, Minnesota winters, and towing a small boat to go 2wd.

As far as warranty, it is up to want level you are comfortable at battling Hyundai. A lot of their bark on warranty is just bark. Ask me how I know. No don't ask me. They abuse the Magnusen-Moss Warranty Act. God help the Canadians, with their abuse.You just need to throw that back into their face and they shut up, IF YOU have a simple cut and dry MMWA case they abuse.

As far as oil, 99.9% of the time multi brand of dealers simply check for semi-clean oil, oil at the proper level, check that the oil is not red (tranny fluid), it doesn't smell like gear oil. And in some cases check data for a over rpm money shift on manuals and pull a valve cover for sludge/or your oil change info. If all is good their and you are in warranty, you will get a new motor or warranty repair. Hyundai/Kia is "notorious" for charging $1,000-$1,500 to"partially pull the engine apart to check for sludge" they try to bully or money grub you. When a $200 R&R valve cover inspection is all that is needed to check for sludge. Let alone a simple look or bore scope in the valve cover oil fill is all that is needed.

I had no worries when my car was "sort of in warranty" running non suggested oils. I run A3 gas/diesel Mid SAP oils. Better oils then they specd back in 2018 by a wide margin.

For your use case, PUP is good for 4,000+mile dumps. Your wasting oil at 3,000 mile dumps. But it ends up being your choice. Better for the guy who buys your car in the long run.
 
Hi RHD, I always highly recommend people not willing or able to deal with warranty denials cover their bases. I actually had to directly message a higher up at Hyundai for the rep to answer my oil question, clarifying 5W30 as approved. The clarification came through an email exchange, which I documented and saved.

I don't at all feel your worries are unwarranted, having a record stating you were allowed to deviate from the manual's recommendation is absolutely reasonable. I'm going to add the same disclaimer on this post that was added on Reddit after seeing people being a bit too comfortable with my section regarding oil viscosity. I understand you own an Elantra N but will include a snip of my Kona N's owner's manual for the community to see as well. Depending on the manual, the chart can list multiple viscosities, my car only list 0W30.

Dealer experience has been subpar, after starting cases and making phone calls, the manufacturer also worries me. I attempt to be reasonable as we are all human but don't ignore the sensory data, it is all we have to go by.

Edit: Would you happen to have a picture of your tensioner RHD?
I do, here is the one at 4,200 miles. Can you by chance send me that email in a DM? I just finally got ahold of a guy at Hyundai. It looks like the Genesis stores use a Shell oil that can't be bought locally they had minimal info on it but I attached what he found for me.

I understand your apprehension on the dealer, from what I have discovered the "Genesis" dealers seem to be a bit more understanding and willing to help out outside the normal scope.

I am currently deciding on whether or not to let the store that sent me this document do an oil change and to have them inspect the car for warranty work, or if I should just skip it and continue to use Mobil 1 AFE for the time being as I just hit 3000 miles from my last oil change with M1 AFE. (I know a waste but I want to do the first two early, than switch to 5000 miles on 3rd change.)
 

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If you want to use a 0W-30 as per Hyundai requirements, why not use HPL’s 0W-30?

I'm not a mechanic and so have no hands-on experience with oil weights and their real-world effects. A friend of mine who is a mechanic recommended 5W30 and David from HPL agreed the weight would be appropriate for my climate. My message to Hyundai was simply to ensure warranty would not be voided due to the weight used.
 
Yes, it is a shame Hyundai chose not to add AWD to the Kona N. I had money down at the dealer a year before it came out thinking they would AWD the Kona N. I found out through Asian Youtuber's that all the test mules were 2wd, so I pulled my money. I decided to just keep my 2018 Kona 1.6T AWD and keep building it, most was already done by that time anyway. AWD is to important to me in performance driving, Minnesota winters, and towing a small boat to go 2wd.

As far as warranty, it is up to want level you are comfortable at battling Hyundai. A lot of their bark on warranty is just bark. Ask me how I know. No don't ask me. They abuse the Magnusen-Moss Warranty Act. God help the Canadians, with their abuse.You just need to throw that back into their face and they shut up, IF YOU have a simple cut and dry MMWA case they abuse.

As far as oil, 99.9% of the time multi brand of dealers simply check for semi-clean oil, oil at the proper level, check that the oil is not red (tranny fluid), it doesn't smell like gear oil. And in some cases check data for a over rpm money shift on manuals and pull a valve cover for sludge/or your oil change info. If all is good their and you are in warranty, you will get a new motor or warranty repair. Hyundai/Kia is "notorious" for charging $1,000-$1,500 to"partially pull the engine apart to check for sludge" they try to bully or money grub you. When a $200 R&R valve cover inspection is all that is needed to check for sludge. Let alone a simple look or bore scope in the valve cover oil fill is all that is needed.

I had no worries when my car was "sort of in warranty" running non suggested oils. I run A3 gas/diesel Mid SAP oils. Better oils then they specd back in 2018 by a wide margin.

For your use case, PUP is good for 4,000+mile dumps. Your wasting oil at 3,000 mile dumps. But it ends up being your choice. Better for the guy who buys your car in the long run.

I understand they are going to be focusing on EV production going forward, and adding AWD proper was probably too much of an investment for the higher ups to approve, but it doesn't stop me from being sad about it. I overall like the car, but the EU options missing from the US model are a real big pain.

My experience dealing with any support system has not been the greatest, so I have a bleak general outlook. At the end of the day, someone might be right, but it doesn't mean they'll be helped. Seems you've dealt with some great pains Mainia, I hope to limit those on my end.

Yes, I would imagine the person that purchases my car wouldn't mind the oil changes. I planned to keep the car this replaced until it stopped working but here we are. Someone might end up purchasing a car with more data than they expected.

I do, here is the one at 4,200 miles. Can you by chance send me that email in a DM? I just finally got ahold of a guy at Hyundai. It looks like the Genesis stores use a Shell oil that can't be bought locally they had minimal info on it but I attached what he found for me.

I understand your apprehension on the dealer, from what I have discovered the "Genesis" dealers seem to be a bit more understanding and willing to help out outside the normal scope.

I am currently deciding on whether or not to let the store that sent me this document do an oil change and to have them inspect the car for warranty work, or if I should just skip it and continue to use Mobil 1 AFE for the time being as I just hit 3000 miles from my last oil change with M1 AFE. (I know a waste but I want to do the first two early, than switch to 5000 miles on 3rd change.)

I've not visited a Genesis dealer but that's interesting to see they have 0W30. Did you happen to speak to one of their mechanics about your car or only a service advisor?

I appreciate the picture. I see similar marks on the surface but thankfully no raise section eating into the belt. I like the mechanic that works on my car at the dealer and my experience has been improving, but not without pains. It's been hard finding a shop I feel completely comfortable with. While I know someone who works on cars, we live too far apart.
 
Thanks for data and updates. That TBN is higher than some virgin oils. You could probably swap out the filter at some reasonable interval (5k or so) but keep the oil in there for…10k or more…but I understand warranty concerns. Might be a good plan post-warranty.

the HPL did not lose much, if any, viscosity, but then, regardless of validity of Blackstone’s fuel readings, you don’t have much of a fuel dilution issue…which I would like to project onto my GTDI (Ford) engine…though I may be reading too much into this.
 
How’s your overall opinion been on the HPL Oil, I switched to PUP 5w-30 in my Elantra N to see how it feels to me, didn’t care for the slight start up rattle I was getting on Mobil 1 AFE from time to time. So far it is gone with the PUP 5-30, same experience as you. I’ll try to grab a sample on the next oil change so I can see if my numbers are similar to yours. I’m only at 8.5k miles right now so have been putting off UOA’s.
 
Well, I doubt I’ll be returning to PUP without a sea-change at Pennzoil, but am definitely interested in your HPL results…but would be awesome to have apples-to-apples comparison HPL to run-of-the-mill synthetic oil (rightly or wrongly, I consider PUP ROTM…maybe upper end ROTM, maybe mid-pack ROTM). Would also really like HPL to Amsoil SS comparison…semi-unicorn to maybe-semi-unicorn.
I use Amsoil and will say the product is not in the same ballpark as HPL. Red Line, Ravenol & Liqui-Moly neither.

HPL has several offerings and their lowest, cheapest PCMO is better than anything Walmart sells.
It took me too long to figure this out, when I made my Amsoil purchase and I still have three OCIs of the Amsoil left to use..
 
How’s your overall opinion been on the HPL Oil, I switched to PUP 5w-30 in my Elantra N to see how it feels to me, didn’t care for the slight start up rattle I was getting on Mobil 1 AFE from time to time. So far it is gone with the PUP 5-30, same experience as you. I’ll try to grab a sample on the next oil change so I can see if my numbers are similar to yours. I’m only at 8.5k miles right now so have been putting off UOA’s.
Are you sure the start-up rattle wasn't the oil filter choice? Do you normally change oil filter brands a-lot?
 
How’s your overall opinion been on the HPL Oil, I switched to PUP 5w-30 in my Elantra N to see how it feels to me, didn’t care for the slight start up rattle I was getting on Mobil 1 AFE from time to time. So far it is gone with the PUP 5-30, same experience as you. I’ll try to grab a sample on the next oil change so I can see if my numbers are similar to yours. I’m only at 8.5k miles right now so have been putting off UOA’s.
Overall good impression, but PUP also worked well. Unless something happens that gets attributed to the oil, opinion will remain positive. I'm currently driving the car in Texas, and my driving patterns have greatly changed passed about 38K. I plan to add this info to the main post once I get new oil results. Driving was consistently 4-5 long highway trips a week and has since switched to very short city trips.
 
Overall good impression, but PUP also worked well. Unless something happens that gets attributed to the oil, opinion will remain positive. I'm currently driving the car in Texas, and my driving patterns have greatly changed passed about 38K. I plan to add this info to the main post once I get new oil results. Driving was consistently 4-5 long highway trips a week and has since switched to very short city trips.
What’s the new target (miles) on this oil ?
 
Overall good impression, but PUP also worked well. Unless something happens that gets attributed to the oil, opinion will remain positive. I'm currently driving the car in Texas, and my driving patterns have greatly changed passed about 38K. I plan to add this info to the main post once I get new oil results. Driving was consistently 4-5 long highway trips a week and has since switched to very short city trips.
Yes it did, and due to the specific engine and operating conditions. Random UOA aren’t going to discriminate relative oil quality.
 
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