2006 Elantra owners

A clutch failure after 17,000 miles is absurd. Something was seriously
wroing with the car or your driving habits. My guess is you don't
know how to drive a stick properly.

I put 135,000 miles on an Excel, 105,000 on an Accent and now have
an Elantra. I've had absoulutely no clutch or transmission problems.

- Mooron

 

funny 1st time I see you post in here and yer slammin Hyundai... figures....

 

in defence. to his response.. I did have an 04 Elantra GT that had the
clutch assembly replaced due to a bent throughout bearing.. clutch was
fine.. throughout bearing was bent so they replaced the whole assembly.
What I find is funny is this is the first time I have seen him post here and
its only to SLAM Hyundai.. maybe he should have spent another 5K and got
his Honda..;-)

Pete..

 

Perhaps I should have spent the 5k extra and purchased a Honda. The
last Honda I owned went 125k on the first clutch, a fine machine. This
clutch problem is not operator error. I have owned at least 10 cars
since 1972 that have had manual transmissions, and all the clutches
went at least 60-100k miles. If you do your homework, you'll find that
the Hyundai clutch problem is posted all over the Internet, that
Hyundai is well aware of it, and that they refuse to fix it. Yes, it's
a value car, but where is the value in spending $1,000.00 every 20,000
miles to replace a clutch? You bet I'm slammin Hyundai. They're cheap
because they're cheap. Lousy clutches aren't the only problem.

Captain Ron

 

big difference I didnt have to pay to have mine replaced was done under
warranty.... guess loudmouth assholes like you dont get good service.;-) I
am on my 3rd Hyundai and will buy another... best car on the market for the
money...

 

I beat a 99 Accent 5 speed pretty heavily and now my buddy's kid is
driving it. I have around 6K on my 2006 Elantra 4 dr hatchback I
bought in mid December. I won't buy an automatic. No significant
problems, around 30 mpg in a mix of town and short expressway runs.

I looked at the equivalent Honda as a coworker has it. The cabin is
too tight. It's drive by wire so the throttle sometimes does weird
things according to him. He does beat my milage by 1 or 2 mpg but I
have a bigger engine.

If she is going to college with this I woud go for the 4 dr hatchback.
The rear seats fold flat so she can load a lot of "stuff" to get it
back and forth. The 4 door makes getting things in and out much
easier. The vehicle has a decent tow rating if she needs a small
trailer. She can also get roof racks if she is in to ski's, kayaks,
bicycle's or canoes. OTOTH she may want a better radio as the stock
one doesn't take her Ipod or do mp3's well.

;-)

 

Before I bought my Elantra I lurked on the Honda, Hyundai and Subaru
lists. FWIW Hundai had the least problems and bitching and the most
help. There has got to be a really interesting "rest of the story" to
the clutch deal. Would you care to enlighten us?

 

I haven't seen a Hyundai throw-out bearing, but it is pretty hard to
bend a bearing. Can you describe what happened in more detail? A
bearing is two races with balls or needles in between. You can crush
them, but it is hard to bend them.

Matt

 

60-100K miles is terrible clutch life and does indicate that you don't
know how to properly drive a standard shift vehicle. My 1995 K1500 has
92,000 on the clutch and it plows show which is very hard duty. I've
never had a clutch fail EVER in 30 years owning standard shift vehicles.
Your information above confirms what we all suspected.

Matt

 

I think everyone who wants a honda should buy one and go to the honda post
and leave the rest of here to admire our VERY GREAT Hyundais

 

should we all go over to the honda site and slam them for a while?

 

Did some web surfing. There was a problem with the 2003 6 spd
Tiburon with some bad parts. That one os going class action lawsuite
so it should be interesting. Didn't see anything on the Accent or
Elantra. So much for it being a "common problem".

 

Yeah, same here. I only turned up the 2003 Tiburon problem.
Other than that, there is very little about Hyundai clutches.

- Mooron

 

Not necessarily true. I've been driving standard transmissions for 40
years now, but did have one lemon among the bunch. My 2001 Ford Escape
with the 4 cylinder engine was a great vehicle except that the clutch
was replaced 3 times under warranty. The clutch lining wasn't worn, but
the clutch would shudder starting in first gear. The Ford dealers kept
throwing parts at the problem but I really believe the engine seal was
allowing minute traces of oil to get on the clutch lining causing the
shudder (or judder as more commonly known).
I didn't read anything about this being a major problem with Ford
vehicles, but it was a problem with my particular vehicle. I don't blame
Ford for the problem, it's one of those situations that sometimes
happens and that's what warranties are for. The fact that it wasn't
fixed properly reflects on the dealer that didn't try find the cause and
simply tried to fix the symptoms.
Don't know if that's what happened in "Captain Ron's" situation, but if
it did, it would/should have been covered under warranty. If it was a
worn lining, then you're right, it was probably poor driving skills and
that's not covered under the warranty.

I'd probably buy another Ford Escape if I didn't find the Hyundai Tucson
more appealing and a better value.

John

 

TOWING: I was at the dealer yesterday because I wanted to check on
smaller vehicles than my V-8 truck that were capable of pulling my small
pop-up trailer. I checked the Tucson 2.0 4 cylinder and it was rated at
1000 lbs without trailer breaks and 1500 with trailer breaks. I had read
earlier that the Elantra had a pretty high tow rating (Edmunds.com says
3086 pounds) so I asked the dealer to check that for me. He looked it up
in his details book and said the 2006 Elantra is now "NR", not
recommended for towing. You might want to double check on the tow rating
if you go to the dealer to see if he showed me the correct page if you
want to use it for towing. Unfortunately the web seems to give lots of
differing values for tow ratings, and other countries seem to get better
tow ratings than the USA. Hyundai doesn't list tow ratings on their
website like most dealers do.

HATCHBACK: I agree with the hatchback version, much more useful,
especially if you need to transport stuff from "home" to the "dorm". I
once had a Ford Escort sedan with rear seats that folded down. It had
plenty of room inside to carry the 23 inch TV I wanted to transport, but
there was no way to get it inside because the trunk opening was too
small, and the door openings were too small. If I had the hatchback, the
rear opening would have been much larger and accepted the TV. I now have
the Accent hatchback, which only comes in 2 door version in 2005. All
Elantras are 4 doors in the USA, but the hatchback gives better access
(and looks sleeker).

SAFETY: From a safety standpoint, the Tucson might be a good choice for
your daughter since it has additional safety features to help her get to
her college safer, such as seat mounted side impact airbags, roof
mounted side curtain airbags, Antilock braking system (ABS), traction
control system (TCS), and electronic stability program (ESP).

John

 

Only smart people.

 

Nonsense! If you burned up a clutch in 17K miles, it was YOUR fault. I
don't care how many manual transmission cars you've had in the past.
I've got 35K on my '04 Elantra and haven't had a hint clutch problems.
If you frequent the Hyundai enthusiast site, you'll find that the only
people that are replacing clutches prematurely are those that admit that
they beat the crap out of their cars. The Elantra may not have the most
durable or best feeling clutch on the market, but there's nothing
inherently wrong with it. Whether you like it or not, a clutch is a wear
item and unless there is an obvious defect in one of the clutch
components, Hyundai has every right to refuse to replace it.

 

we finally replaced our clutch at 160 000 kms this winter, like new now

 

What had failed? Clutch disk worn out? Pressure plate worn? Springs
weak? I'm just curious as 100,000 miles is on the short end of what I
consider to be decent clutch life. I hope my Sonata lasts much longer
than that. A couple of friends have gotten over 200K on the OEM
clutches in their Corollas. I have 145,000 on a 1995 Jeep Comanche and
92,000 on my Chevy pickup. I put 145,000 on a Chevette and have never
yet kept a car long enough to wear out a clutch!

Matt

 

it's like talking to Mac users about why Intel is good. They are very
conficted these days.

;-)