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Sedans Hyundai Sonata Hyundai Sonata Transmission Questions
155 messages, Last post on Oct 13, 2009 at 12:20 PM
You are in the Hyundai Sonata Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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I've posted a couple times in the Hyundai message boards section of Edmunds. Not to ask questions, just shooting the breeze. I own a 2009 Sonata Limited V6 and while I initially came here a few times praising the car, I've grown to really hate it. My list of problems: 1. Cracking and popping sounds from the dash. Sounds like a bowl of Rice Krispy Treats whenever the heater or A/C is turned on. Must be the cheap plastic expanding and contracting with a change in temperature. I know of 15 year old cars that do this, embarrassing! 2. My right speaker has developed an annoying rattle whenever music is turned up to about half way. The Infinity system stinks anyway, but this issue just makes me not want to turn it on. 3. My navigation system has frozen up on me a bunch of times, forcing me to restart the car to get it working again. 4. Various strange noises coming from suspension system. These noises started showing up at the 10,000 mile mark, and they make the car sound like a 10 year old car, not a one year old car. 5. The worst of all these issues is the evil transmission in this car. The 1 to 2 shift is brutal, and is rarely smooth. Makes driving the car a nauseating experience. Even more serious than that, is the extreme, violent lurch of the entire car when slowing down from freeway speeds, say coming off an exit ramp. It's like the transmission gets confused, and instead of slowly down shifting, dumps the gear to 2nd car while I'm still traveling at a good rate of speed. I can't tell you how unnerving this is. It sounds like the transmission system is just going to grenade out of the car into the street. There are other issues, but I'm too tired to list them all, those are the main annoyances. I know some of these issues (maybe all of them) could be fixed with trips to the dealership, but what a PITA to have to do that. I bought a brand new car so I wouldn't have these problems. Otherwise I could have bought used and let some other sucker take the depreciation hit. Instead now I'm the sucker, both for buying new, and for believing Hyundai is of the same quality as Honda, Toyota, or Mazda. This will be the last Hyundai product I own. Thankfully I also own a 2009 Honda Fit Sport that I'm sure won't have any of these issues. The Fit was supposed to be a secondary car to run errands with and take my big dog around on the weekends, but it has now become my primary vehicle. My $18,000 Honda Fit drives better, much better than my $27,500 Hyundai Sonata. The Sonata is up for sale. Anyone want a lightly used (12,000 miles) 09 Sonata Limited V6 in the Dallas area? Should be interesting to see what kind of hit I take on this car with Hyundai's stellar resale value.
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Replying to: dgs4 (Mar 30, 2009 11:10 pm) 1. Cracking and popping sounds from the dash. I have had cars in the past that the windshield would creak over bumps and potholes.... but only a couple of times a year... My sonata couldn't go 45 seconds... it nearly drove me mad! 3. My navigation system has frozen up on me a bunch of times, forcing me to restart the car to get it working again. My nav froze up a few times and the voice command didnt work at all. 5. The worst of all these issues is the evil transmission in this car. The 1 to 2 shift is brutal, and is rarely smooth. 1-2 shifts made my insane, i would back off the gas just before the shift and it was almost smooth. 2-3 was a little better but not much. Tranny in general is not the most intelegent. My dealer was able to correct these issues for the most part. Windshield squeaks and nav issues are totally resolved. He flashed the tranny as per this buttlin http://sonata.jerrystout.us/tsb/tcm_calibration_update.pdf and I am a happy camper. The 1-2 shifts are smooth as silk... at least by comparison.... is my wifes acura and my previous inifinti better... of course... but this is a Hyundai and overall it's amazing!.For the money, best car I ever had. See your dealer... he can make you like your car again. |
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Replying to: pat (Mar 09, 2009 4:30 am) http://sonata.jerrystout.us/tsb/tcm_calibration_update.pdf
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Replying to: dave868 (Apr 12, 2009 7:14 pm) Your link in posts 126, 134 and 135 all work perfectly for me; I have tried each one individually. I can't imagine what the problem is that they don't work for you. Perhaps a browser issue? Maybe you need an updated Adobe Acrobat plug-in? Sorry I can't be of more help. |
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Replying to: dgs4 (Mar 30, 2009 11:10 pm) van |
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Yeah, I'm going to take it to the dealership and try to get the problems resolved. I just don't understand why such a new car is having this issues. It has driven me to the point of trying to sell the car but as expected I'm not getting any calls. I think that's a good thing as it would be cruel to sell someone my car with these issues. Ever notice how these sorts of things never rear their ugly heads in a test drive? In my 09 test drive there was no crackling dash, no navigation freeze-up, no harsh 1-2 shift, no strange suspension noise etc. But over the course of a year I've now had all of those issues. I really believed Hyundai was at the quality level of a Honda or a Toyota but I don't think they're there yet. I, we, specifically bought a new car so we wouldn't have to deal with issues like mine. It just has me very worried about future reliability of the car if I'm having all of these issues in the first year of ownership. |
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Guys, I am new to this forum, but have been lurking around at other Hyundai forums with questions. Basically, I am not happy with the performance of the car. I think my issues have been discussed before, but I will highlight the issue that is bugging me the most and making my living with this car VERY hard. It is the transmission shift quality. The 1 -> 2 shift under slow acceleration is quite jerky and unsmooth at all times. Also 2 -> 3 shift under slow to moderate acceleration is jerky from time to time, but not all the time. It seems like on both these shifts, if I back off the gas at the shift point, it is seamless. Also under hard acceleration (not as bad a WOT), the shifts are MUCH better. Initially when I bought the car, these shifts were horrible. Last Nov, I got the latest TCM update and although the shifts have gotten better, they are still bothersome. The dealership says there is nothing they can do anymore since they can offer only what Hyundai provides them. I have had the service manager drive the car and although he understands what my annoyance is, he does not have a solution. Hyundai says there is no further TCM update available. I do not know why I did not discover this problem during the test drive. My bad!! Do you guys have any suggestions? If the shifting was smooth I could probably live with this vehicle. Thanks!
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Replying to: dandaroy (Apr 21, 2009 1:29 pm)
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Replying to: bigredtx (Apr 21, 2009 1:38 pm) Hang in there... the dealer can fix it.
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Replying to: bigredtx (Apr 21, 2009 1:38 pm) Have you done the TCM update? I did and still I have the problem. |
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