Familiar refrain of HyundaiTech...Please Help filters in from afar.

Strangest experience happened to my wife in her '06 Sonata V6/LX.

Caveat, mind you, she called her in-house tech support (*me*) after the fact
and the car only duplicated 1 out of 3 symptoms with me driving.

When she got in the car to pick up the kids this afternoon, the check engine
light and the ESC Off light stayed lit beyond the system check. She drove to
the bottom of the hill that leads up to our house (~1 mile) and turned onto
the highway at which time she says that the car wouldn't go any faster than
20MPH. (Some sort of failsafe mode perhaps?) She immediately turned around
and brought the car home and left me a message to see if I could see a ready
problem. I did a visual inspection inside and out, underhood, undercarriage,
etc., tightened the gas cap several notches, checked the fluids and took her
for a spin. I still get the check engine light, but not the ESC off or
failsafe mode (if that is what it was).

The reason I asking the next series of ?'s is not because I'm being stupid
for not taking it to the dealership to get the codes read right away, it is
simply because we live in the sticks and it is a 103 mile drive to the
closest Hyundai dealer, the Service Manager there was not able to provide me
with much insight or clear recommendations as to what I should do and I'm
trying to determine my best options.

Do you have any similar experiences with this model? Ideas?

I called our service manager and he said that I could take it to the Kia
dealership across the state line (80 miles closer) and have the codes read,
but they couldn't do any repairs if necessary, and that he didn't *think* it
would hurt to drive it to them as long as the C/E light isn't blinking (it's
not), but he really wasn't sure, what do you think?

Would the roadside assistance provide towing back to the dealership in such
an instance? (SM here didn't know)

TIA

KW

 

Hey there,

I had the same issue and mine had to do with a TSB that has been issued
for the car. It involves the brake switch. Take it in and have them
check it out. See the link below for the TSB.

http://jerrystout.us/sonata/tsb/stop lamp switch adjustment.pdf

 

Your car has gone into some sort of power management mode. Whatever it
saw
was serious enough that the computer probably thought the electronic
throttle control might not operate properly. Roadside should tow it to
the dealer. In fact, that's what I'd recommend considering it was in
power management. Even so, you'll still need to trek to the dealer to
pick it up.

 

Thanks wolfcub I'll have check in to this one when I take it in. This
morning we started her up and everything was back to normal......so we'll
see.

KW

 

Thanks for the reply HT. This morning, everything was back to normal, but
based on your comments, I'll get it to the shop for a look-see anyhow as
soon as possible.

KW

 

I don't know if this will help, but yesterday I was at a Hyundai dealership
and out of the blue the salesperson started telling me that if the check
engine light comes on, be sure to check that the gas cap is closed all the
way until you hear it click. He said people see the check engine light and
bring it someplace to be fixed and sometimes end up with the wrong work
being done on the vehicle when it was just the check engine light sensing
the gas cap not being tightened correctly. He said something about the
vacuum which didn't sound logical to me, but I guess they have seen this
come up and he wanted to let me know about it. Maybe it was BS, but that's
what he said to check if the light comes on and you don't know why.

 

It's not BS - it happens on all cars today. It does not result in the OP's
symptoms though. It causes nothing more than the CEL to come on.

 

Good to know. Thanks.

 

No, it is accurate. I did not know it a few years back.

On my '97 LeSabre it came on shortly after getting gas at a full serive
station. Great feeling when you still have 250 miles to travel to get to
your vacation destination. I had, at the time, no idea why it went on but
after a couple of days, it stopped. Meantime, the car seemed OK, but I was
concerned. I was tepmted to stop at a dealer to have them read the code but
since the car was running OK, I did not.

On my '01 LeSabre, the DIC reads ot "Gas Cap Loose" so you know. They after
you tightent he cap, it takes about 10 cycles of starting to have it go out
again (after you tighten the cap) At least I knew what the deal was when
that happened.

I can see an unscrupulous shop making a quick $500 to tighten the cap for
the unsuspecting.

 

Interesting. I am curious what the issue is that makes them want to monitor
the gas cap. The salesperson said it needs to make a seal so it can create
a vacuum in the gas tank. If that's true, I'm sure there's a good reason.
But I would think that a vacuum would be something that would not be good to
have.

I thought maybe it's a safety feature designed to keep gas from leaking out
if the vehicle is overturned in an MVA.

 

It's about pressure, not vacuum. DAGS and you will find quite a bit about
this. It's a factor on all of today's cars.

 

DAGS...nice one...not heard that before but it sure saves a lot of time.

 

The body computer tests the emission system on a regular bases IF it
detects a vacuum leak The CEL light will come on. Another thing When
filling with gas DO NOT OVER FILL THE TANK putting that extra $1 worth of
gas into the tank can get very expensive if gas gets into the purge
canister or another part of the evap emission system