Hyundai GDI Thoughts

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Purchased an 11 Sonata GLS with 2.4L GDI engine. Some thoughts after about 8k miles of driving.

Purchased car with 29k miles, looks as good as factory new. Noticed oil stunk like fuel, and changed it as soon as I got home.

Assumed it was due to dealer short tripping it, and not putting highway miles on the car.

Valvoline oil filter was causing a startup knock, so I changed to Hyundai OEM and Chevron Supreme 5w30 oil. Knock was filter related and is gone.

After 3750 miles, oil was jet black and stunk like fuel again. I drive 30 minutes each way to work and the car is not short tripped.

We drove to New Mexico and all over Texas in this car this fall/winter.

Changed oil with same Chevron/Hyundai filter combo. Again oil looks trashed after 3k miles.

Added Techron fuel treatment to car 2x so far. Car pings on 87 octane fuel from non Top Tier stations.

Does not ping at all on 89 from Top Tier Valero station.

I find it hard to believe that a 30k mile car would need valve deposit cleaning service, but not impossible I guess.

Overall car runs excellent and sounds interesting at idle, almost like a piece of farm equipment or sewing machine.

Previous owner or dealer put an orange dipstick on the car, which raises the level from 4.8 quarts to 5.2 quarts. I think Hyundai started doing this to reduce its claims for engine replacement in these cars.

Steering coupler is worn and steering has a bit of a knock to it. Will call dealer and see if this car has any warranty left on it. 6 dollar part and probably 3 hours labor to install a plastic gear that causes the clunking in the electric assist steering column.

Otherwise, like the car very much. It is just a car that I would not want my wife taking care of, as it requires more maintenance than our toyotas. Her girlfriend has a Kia Optima, I drove it the other day, it is way down on power, and pings like crazy. Also she is running the oil out to the non-severe maintenance schedule, and I bet the car is full of deposits and goo.

I'm considering a couple things, a BG 44k fuel system cleaner ($17), and maybe new spark plugs? I can't fathom why this car would ping on 87 octane.

I have an obd2 datalogger, I'm going to set it up to see how much timing is being pulled on 87 versus 93, etc.
 
I had to take a uber into New York because i did not want to take my own car. The uber driver had a Sonata and i asked him how he liked it and he said it was trouble free except for front brakes, he said he has to replace them much more often than his last car he also drove the same way. The car i was in had a little over 120,000 miles on it and got driven day and night by both himself and his brother.
Hyundai makes a good engine but they are not the quietest.. A few years back they had a bad batch of engines due to a bad cleanup of metal on the cranks but they fixed that issue.
You should have a good reliable vehicle if you take care of it.
 
Originally Posted By: JustinH
Purchased an 11 Sonata GLS with 2.4L GDI engine. Some thoughts after about 8k miles of driving.

Purchased car with 29k miles, looks as good as factory new. Noticed oil stunk like fuel, and changed it as soon as I got home.

Assumed it was due to dealer short tripping it, and not putting highway miles on the car.

Valvoline oil filter was causing a startup knock, so I changed to Hyundai OEM and Chevron Supreme 5w30 oil. Knock was filter related and is gone.

After 3750 miles, oil was jet black and stunk like fuel again. I drive 30 minutes each way to work and the car is not short tripped.

We drove to New Mexico and all over Texas in this car this fall/winter.

Changed oil with same Chevron/Hyundai filter combo. Again oil looks trashed after 3k miles.

Added Techron fuel treatment to car 2x so far. Car pings on 87 octane fuel from non Top Tier stations.

Does not ping at all on 89 from Top Tier Valero station.

I find it hard to believe that a 30k mile car would need valve deposit cleaning service, but not impossible I guess.

Overall car runs excellent and sounds interesting at idle, almost like a piece of farm equipment or sewing machine.

Previous owner or dealer put an orange dipstick on the car, which raises the level from 4.8 quarts to 5.2 quarts. I think Hyundai started doing this to reduce its claims for engine replacement in these cars.

Steering coupler is worn and steering has a bit of a knock to it. Will call dealer and see if this car has any warranty left on it. 6 dollar part and probably 3 hours labor to install a plastic gear that causes the clunking in the electric assist steering column.

Otherwise, like the car very much. It is just a car that I would not want my wife taking care of, as it requires more maintenance than our toyotas. Her girlfriend has a Kia Optima, I drove it the other day, it is way down on power, and pings like crazy. Also she is running the oil out to the non-severe maintenance schedule, and I bet the car is full of deposits and goo.

I'm considering a couple things, a BG 44k fuel system cleaner ($17), and maybe new spark plugs? I can't fathom why this car would ping on 87 octane.

I have an obd2 datalogger, I'm going to set it up to see how much timing is being pulled on 87 versus 93, etc.


I have that cars cousin, a '12 Kia Optima 2.0L (Turbo). Yup, use only the OEM filter (there is a revised version now as well and is made by Mann+Hummel in Korea; seems like a good filter). They issued a TSB about aftermarket oil filters but besides the OEM filter, the FRAM Ultra (XG9688) would be an excellent choice I believe. You should run BG44K and use only a Top Tier fuel (Shell, Costco, etc.) to help clean up the fuel system, etc. I also have had very good luck with Redline SI-1 fuel system cleaner (better than the newer version of BG44K in my experience). I would certainly change the spark plugs as well and inspect them (after running the gas treatment through it). Use the Denso OEM plugs and make sure they are gapped to 0.028". I've used M1 0W-40 oil with good results but the Castrol Edge 0W-40 oil is also very good considering I'm running the 2.0L turbo engine. You would be fine with 5W-30 or 0W-30 and keep the OCI to under 5K miles. Yes, the oil gets dark very quick in these GDI engines. I would not worry about that as much as the fuel smell. You likely need to change the PCV valve as well. You should also consider a simple drain/fill of the ATF at 30K mile intervals using the new SP4-M full synthetic ATF from the dealer (~$8 qt, takes less than 6 qts.). The steering coupler has a warranty of 10yr/120K miles (free replacement/labor) and I just had mine replaced last week with excellent results (took 1.5 hours at the dealer). Since you have the "improved" oil dipstick (5.2qts to full), you also have the 10yr/120K mile full short block warranty (used for ALL owners) from the dealer. To get this, the engine had to pass the "Knock test" at the dealer which supposed to attempt to see if the rod bearings were bad. The new warranty, which came as a result of them getting sued, covers all the engine internals to the extended mileage and for ALL owners (also provides reimbursement for ALL owners if they had the dealer replace their engine for big $$$).
 
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For (T)GDi engines use xW40 oil and change oil at 7500kilometers (5kmiles?) MAX....

Acea A3/B4 oil... I think you have eqvivalent in Pennzoil ultra euro there

From time to time use injector cleaner...
 
Question: Why would you automatically associate pinging with carbon deposits in a low mileage car?? Similarly, it doesn't take much fuel to create a smell in the oil, so we'd probably have to know if you're snorting the dipstick versus smelling it when you open the hood.

Another question: How do you know the oil is trashed at 3K miles by the look of it?? I've had oil that was dark and mildly gritty that still had around 3.0 TBN in the sample. The oil is dark in 2000 miles on my car.

I currently drive a GDI Hyundai and I can tell you mine will occasionally ping ( and not that often ) on 87 but using 89 both eliminates it totally and impacts my gas mileage in a positive and repeatable way. I can get away with 87 but the 89 seems to have benefits that are worth the 8-10 cent/gallon difference. Pinging is not an unknown issue in these engines but it likely has nothing to do with carbon deposits.

Being that Hyundai recommends Top Tier Fuel and OEM oil filters, I'd use both as you've apparently found out that you may experience problems if you don't. Many use non-OEM filters with no issues. In GDI vehicles, I think it's worth it to use a low NOACK/SAPS synthetic oil and it's often recommended. I've had good luck with QSUD and PP over the four years I've had it with 5-6K OCIs.

My take is that more than most cars I've had, I try to stick with OEM spec wherever possible including plugs, oil filters, and aftermarket products that may or may not match cleanly. I've seen a non-OEM oil filter spec'd for my vehicle that was a tenth of inch larger so the gasket doesn't even fit into the filter housing lip like the Mann-Hummel OEM. I can understand where there might be issues.

I really like my car a lot and it's been totally trouble free so there are no complaints. Hopefully, you can identify and fix everything that's creating a problem for you.
 
I've owned three...
Veloster 1.6 GDi
Sonata 2.4 GDi
and current Santa Fe Sport 2.0 T-GDi

The only issue with any of them was initial throttle pinging from the 2.4 since new unless Premium fuel was used.
 
Originally Posted By: maximus

I guarantee the intake valves are coked up. I refer you to this thread:

http://www.hyundai-forums.com/yf-2011-so...aning-pics.html


And other than looking "ugly" what exactly does it do? Poor idle, poor MPG, what? Cause I'm sure the valves in my 2 Ecoboosts look "nasty" but they run great as they have from day one.

And a catch can will do nothing for the deposits!
 
Originally Posted By: maximus
The coupler is NOT covered under the 100k mile warranty unless they just changed it. Its 5yr/60k b2b item. Cost me about $290 to have replaced. It wasn't something I felt comfortable taking on.

I guarantee the intake valves are coked up. I refer you to this thread:

http://www.hyundai-forums.com/yf-2011-so...aning-pics.html


Yup, Kia at least (and I'd assume Hyundai) has a warranty/recall on it. I got my letter concerning it but I was also at ~57K miles anyway so it should have been covered by the 5yr/60K mile warranty prior to the warranty/recall coming out.
 
I had that same fuel smell in the oil of my 2011 Kia Opitma with the 2.4 l engine. It was especially bad in the winter. I put a catch can on it and it seems to have cleared up the smell. I now put SynPower in it and go 10,000 km between oil changes. I empty the catch can every few thousand km in the winter and 5000 km in the summer. I get much more [censored] in the can in the winter.
 
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