[ale] [OT] [way OT] dealing with funky problems in hyundai vehicles

Fri Sep 13 15:40:55 EDT 2013

On my old van I solder the wires directly to the sealed beam light. The new
connector is
 $14. The new sealed beam light is $14. Soldering process about a minute :)

On Fri, Sep 13, 2013 at 2:57 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE) <
atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> This is a diverse group of people with many different interests that we
> discuss here.  I've been working on solving problems in power protection,
> gps's, scripting, lighting, audio recording, eyeglasses, and automobiles
> over the last year and you have given me help on many of these.  I
> appreciate that.  I always try to share what I learned back to the group in
> case the info will help others.
>
> For some time, I've been trying to solve some funky problems with my 2005
> Hyundai Santa Fe.  I think I've found some solutions, and I want to share
> them in case someone else can benefit.  This applies to other Hyundai's too.
>
> This is a bit long, so if this topic doesn't interest you, feel free to
> skip it.
>
> If you reply, feel free to snip it since we may hit the board's length
> limit.
>
> * If you own a Hyundai, you should know that they, unlike many other
> manufacturers, publish almost all their technical data online.  By signing
> up for a free account, you can get access to shop manuals, technical
> service bulletins, schematics, obd data, etc.  The address is
> https://www.hyundaitechinfo.com/ .  I tried to use the system with
> Firefox, but couldn't get the sign up procedure to work until I used
> Internet Explorer.  After that, I was able to get much of the site to work
> on Firefox, but a lot of the graphics and schematics wouldn't load.  The
> only way I could get everything to load was to use IE and load an svg
> viewer from adobe.  Nevertheless, lots of the data should be accessible to
> you even if not using IE.  See the site requirements link.  What can I say,
> it is what it is.
>
> * We had a thread not long ago about car air conditioning.  You can refer
> to that for more info.  But, long story short, my ac would cut out at idle.
>  I tried to charge the refrigerant on my own and overcharged it almost to
> the point of being dangerous.  I had to have a mechanic set it straight.
>  Bottom line, the little cans of r134a that you buy with the little gauges
> are virtually useless for the purpose of determining how much refrigerant
> charge is in the system.  It's better to have your mechanic do the ac
> recharging.
>
> * My ac is still cutting out at idle for a different reason that I just
> discovered.  The 2005 Santa Fe (not sure about other years) has two
> electric cooling fans on the radiator.  Both can run at either high or low
> speed, and both can be turned on at any time the car wants.  One is
> considered an air conditioning fan and one is considered a cooling fan, but
> they both have a role to play in engine cooling.  The ac condenser coil is
> mounted in front of the radiator on the driver side.  Right behind this
> coil toward the rear of the car is the radiator.  Behind that, in the
> engine bay, is an electric fan.  I think this is commonly called the
> radiator fan, but it is the one of the two fans that helps cool the ac
> condenser coil.
>
> It turns out that this fan was failing to turn on.  But, the second
> radiator fan was working.  The only real symptoms I had were that the ac
> would cut out and blow warm air after idling for a while; and when I have
> to work in the engine bay to check fluids, etc., the air in there felt
> REALLY hot.  I put a funnel in the transmission oil opening for just a few
> minutes and it was almost too hot to touch to take out.  The engine temp
> gauge wasn't showing anything unusual.  I finally attached my tablet to the
> obd port and read the coolant temperature at 235 deg at idle.  That seemed
> pretty hot to me.  When traveling down the road, it would be about 195.
>
> By observing the fans, I determined that one would run whenever the ac was
> on, and the other one never seemed to.  I was going to have the mechanic
> replace the driver side fan, which he thought was a good idea.  By the way,
> it pays to check online.  The OEM fan was $ 260.  A Dorman replacement from
> AutoZone was $ 130, and the same Dorman fan was $ 80 on Amazon, of all
> places.  I like OEM when it's really necessary to pay the price, but a good
> aftermarket part will often do the trick too.
>
> The mechanic worked on diagnosing the problem and sometimes the fan would
> go on and sometimes not.  He thought it was the motor.  I told him I might
> order the part elsewhere.  Note that the mechanic will not warrant the part
> that way, so if it failed again, I'd have to pay to replace it again.  I
> got the car back while I was waiting on the fan from Amazon.  So, no
> repairs had been done.  But, I noticed the fan was running one day.  I
> cancelled the order from Amazon and told the mechanic we'd just wait and
> see how long it would run.
>
> I noticed that, with both fans running when the ac is on at idle, the ac
> continues to work just fine.  So if I can fix my fan problem, I fix the ac
> problem too.  This was likely the problem when I first decided to charge
> the ac.  However, I didn't have any clue since my engine temperature gauge
> didn't show any problem.  I hooked up my tablet again and found out that,
> with both electric radiator fans running, the coolant temperature doesn't
> get above 205 at idle.
>
> A couple of days later, the radiator fan cut out again.  I started poking
> around and wiggled the wiring harness and it came back on.  So, it's a
> wiring issue.  I took it over to the mechanic and we poked it some more and
> eventually isolated the problem to the connector pair which joins the car
> to the fan.  Looking inside the connector, we found the plastic shell
> partly melted, which would lead you to believe that the connection had
> excessive resistance.  The mechanic suggested that I search for the part,
> since that would probably be cheaper than going to a dealer.  I looked and
> looked.  Nobody had it.  Nobody sells it.
>
> I know I could hot wire / splice the wires.  But, I don't want to.  This
> would make it harder to ever replace the fan and harder on any future
> owners.
>
> I eventually called the dealer parts desk.  That guy said they didn't sell
> individual connectors, but I could potentially buy the whole wiring harness
> for $ 2K.  He wasn't totally serious, but I declined to do that.  He
> suggested junk yards.  I called several, but couldn't find my car.  Someone
> told me they usually want to sell you the whole harness too, rather than
> letting you chop it apart.
>
> I kept searching and googling for a whole day.  I even tried calling
> Dorman to see if I could get their engineering data on the connector they
> use.  I kept searching.  Eventually, I happened to see a google listing of
> a hyundai technical service bulletin which mentioned radiator fan
> connectors.  I went to the afore mentioned website and pulled up the TSB.
>  Sure enough, this problem is common enough that they DO sell a parts kit
> just for this connector pair.  I called the dealer back, gave them the
> specific TSB number, and he was able to order the part for me.  I should be
> able to pick that up tomorrow, and the mechanic can install it within an
> hour.  I could install it myself, just splicing wires and such, but I'd
> rather the mechanic do that and put his warranty on it.  Once that's done,
> it should fix my ac problem and my really hot engine bay problem.  Also, it
> will be far less likely that I would have NO cooling fans like I would now
> if the 2nd one went out.
>
> * I have a slow transmission fluid leak.  I haven't solved it yet.  But,
> if you have something similar, just know that there are some TSB's on the
> Hyundai website about that too.  (Note: a TSB is not the same as a recall.
>  It doesn't mean that they'll pay to fix it if the car is out of warranty.
>  But it does acknowledge the problem and give the techs info on repairs.)
>  I went up and down some really steep north ga mountains not long ago and I
> don't think the transmission liked it.  Both my Sante Fe and my wife's
> Sonata seem to have a really low 1st gear, which is good for acceleration.
>  Normally, on a mountain, if you don't want to go down a hill beyond about
> 20 MPH, you could put it in 1st gear and let the transmission slow you
> down.  For these cars, I don't think that's a good idea.  It seems to put a
> severe strain on the transmission.  After several minutes of this,
> something smelled hot.  Use the brakes discretely.  I read a forum post
> once that said, essentially, so ...!
>   you (the original poster) are saying that you'd rather stress out and
> potentially damage a transmission that costs $ 2K to fix than stress out
> and potentially damage the brakes that cost $ 300 to fix.  Ron talking
> again, I see his point.  Personally, I'd just rather avoid the mountains.
>
> * I've been troubleshooting another problem on the car which is very
> intermittent and very annoying.  On about 4 days out of the month, usually
> after starting the car, driving, and parking somewhere; the car will not
> want to start.  The starter spins the engine fine, but it won't fire.  I
> try to start it about 7 more times, then it starts.  My mechanic thought it
> was the crankshaft position sensor and replaced that.  Problem still
> exists, so he's going to replace it again under warranty.  Neither of the
> mechanics at that shop think it's the fuel pump.  I tried replacing the
> fuel cap, and it's not that either.
>
> Googling hyundai crankshaft position sensor cps ckps will get you lots of
> interesting reading.  Apparently, they're a bit infamous for this problem,
> mainly the older cars.  This can cause the symptoms I've described, also
> engine sputtering while running, and sometimes, even shutting down.  The
> car uses this sensor to know when the piston is at top dead center and when
> to fire the spark plugs; and if it can't read the sensor, it won't fire the
> spark plugs.  There is a shop bulletin on their website about how to
> inspect, align, and troubleshoot this sensor.  I asked my mechanic if we
> could check the alignment of it.  He said no, not without taking apart half
> the engine.  Replacing it is apparently easy by comparison.  One other
> thing you might want to be aware of is that the old hyundai's, at least
> Santa Fe's, are somewhat famous for baking the wires on this sensor.  Then,
> the insulation crumbles, things short out, and bad things happen.
>
> Overall, I like these cars and think they're a good value.  My mechanic
> says the newer ones have very good quality.  My 2005 may be on the
> borderline where they were having some quality issues.
>
> Hopefully, soon, my car will be (relatively) cool in the engine bay, cool
> inside, cranking when it should, and not dripping any fluids.
>
> Hope you found this information useful.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ron
>
>
>
> --
>
> Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9 Mail.
> Please excuse my potential brevity if I'm typing on the touch screen.
>
> (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
> call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
> mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very
> quickly.)
>
> Ron Frazier
> 770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
> linuxdude AT techstarship.com
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>
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