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Comments
You might be on to something there. I noted up in post 1972 that I just put new tires on my wife's Elantra, and had an alignment done at the same time and my shimmy went away. What I forgot to mention was I put new brakes and rotors on the same day that I had the tires installed. I went with a set of Napa rotors that were a little more expensive than the base Napa rotors. I had the same shimmy problem with it at highway speeds, but now it is completely gone - and I have had the car up to about 80 on the highway since installing all of these new items. A few weeks prior to all of this, we had driven the car on a 900 mile round trip, and the shimmy was very annoying (although we averaged 39mpg).
My question is, how do you think the rotors could cause the shimmy while the brakes are not being applied? I only have a cursory knowledge of how the brakes actually work, so please forgive me if this is an obvious question.
Backy: Yes, I know it is under warrantee. Trying to get anything done correctly at the dealer is a waste of time. In this situation it is more trouble than it is worth. I took it to them when the car was under 10,000 miles with the same shimmy problem. They balanced the wheels and said it was fixed. It wasn't and it wasted half a day for nothing. They don't bother testing on the highway. I hate to let them off the hook but they can just wear you down.
I am by no means a brake expert either, but If the rotor were not a uniform thickness all the way around (in other words, if a portion of the rotor had worn thinner than other parts) I imagine it could cause a vibration as the rotor spins with the wheel.
Can anyone verify this theory?
I have had similar experiences with our local service department. We like our Elantra, but the service dept has left a lot to be desired. Sure, I can go to a different Hyundai dealer for service, but I shouldn't have to be inconvenienced by having to drive way out of my way to get my car serviced.
I could be wrong about the rotors but it is worth $85 and about an hour of my labor to rule them out.
Like: leather, alloys, fog lights, horse power on automatic compared to others, roomy.
Dislikes: seats seem a little small and not so cushiony, seems it wouldn't be able to drive at high speeds in freeway, might take it a bit more to get up to speed when entering freeway.
Thanks!
How fast do you need to drive on the freeway? It can easily go 80+. If you want less noise/lower revs on the highway, go with the automatic. Acceleration is on a par with others in its class. The 5-speed was clocked at just over 8 seconds by some of the auto mags. Best way to find out if it has enough power for you is to take it on a test drive that includes freeways.
As far as acceleration, that was one of my big concerns when I test drove the car. Strangely, it seems to accelerate much more quickly with moderate throttle position than when flooring it, at least when starting from dead stop (I have an AT). Now that I've driven the car enough to get used to it and appreciate the pep it has, I've taken to calling it the Red Rocket. Okay, laugh, but it really is fine as far as the freeway ramps go! One thing about the accleration, at least with the AT, is that it is very smooth at normal pedal positions (i.e., not all the way to the floor), I think because the car has a pretty smooth torque curve. On city streets if I'm not being particularly speedy, I can't hardly tell when the tranny shifts; it's that smooth.
The point is that when acceleration is that smooth and you're not getting jerked around a lot, you don't realize how quickly you're acclerating. My friend's Jaguar is *very* smooth, but it's also *very* quick. But someone sitting in the back seat would never know you just did 0-60 in 8 seconds; it feels like just a normal stroll in the park.
Why would you to think that? . . . unless your definition of "high speed" is 120mph. Do you currently drive a large car with a V8 engine or something like that? It sounds like you aren't used to small cars with four cylinder engines in general since you "like" that the Elantra has "horse power on automatic compared to others", yet at the same time your "dislike" is "might take it a bit more to get up to speed when entering freeway".
Bit more time than what? A Corvette? The answer is yes. Bit more time than other 4 cylinder small cars? Not really.
The GT will ride a bit firmer than the GLS, but not to the point of being "stiff". The GT will corner with less body roll.
The seats in both are quite comfortable on long trips. Both the cloth and leather seats have the same adjustments for tilt, recline, and lumbar support. One big difference is that the leather makes it easier to get out of the car as the fabric is quite good at keeping you in your seat. A small thing, but a lady in a dress would definitely notice the difference.
Noise wise, the GT has a bit more road noise from the back due to the hatchback. Not bad, but the sedan is eerily quiet, so the difference is noticeable. Neither will have appreciable wind noise at highway speeds.
Ah, the great auto vs manual debate. The 5spd will out accelerate the auto, hands down. Where the big difference is noticed is from a standstill. As others have mentioned, the auto is a little slow to wind up, but once you are around 20mph the acceleration is good. The auto does turn fewer engine revs on the highway due to a different final drive ratio in the transaxle.
The four wheel disc brakes on the GT are really not much different than the disc front / drum rear on the GLS. A good brake design only uses the rear brakes to keep the car straight while braking, which is why most cars will go through several sets of front brakes to one set of rear.
Final opinion: Both the GLS and GT are excellent values for the content provided, and both are very solid cars that drive well and provide good fuel economy on both city and highway driving. My '02 routinely achieved 28mpg in town and 34mpg highway. The '05 GT with the auto gets 26mpg in town, and also around 34mpg highway.
And both will cruise comfortably well beyond the legal speed limits.
Jim
Cars I am considering: new ford fusion, new mercury milan (fusions twin brother), scion xa, scion tc, toyota matrix, mazda3, and the elantra gt.
My husband gets special pricing on all these cars because he works for TI. Cheapest one is the scion xa, then elantra, then mazda3, then scion tc, then toyota matrix, then ford fusion, then mercury milan.
-Thanks!
On the Elantra GT, be sure to look at the GLS 5-door also. Same underpinnings as the GT, but lower price and w/o a few things like leather, purple gauges, fog lamps, and alloys.
Before I started looking for a car I knew absolutly nothing about cars. Being a girl, didn't help but I just could never keep car related info in my head long enough to remember anything. Now I know so much about cars I think I could sell them for a living! :P
Aslo looking in on the Sonata. I am worried that even though I know alot about cars (what means what, abs, airbas, stability control, etc.) that I don't know enough about the manufacturer to know if it will be a good car in the long run.
-Thanks
It probably was only rated for 90-100hp to begin with and if something was wrong with it the actual output could have been even less. I think you'll find any of the cars on your list, or really any car sold today, has plenty of power for normal driving needs.
I have a 2003 Elantra, and my right rear brake light is dead; I need to know how to access the bulb to replace it (I already bought the replacement), but don't know how, and the manual is unclear. Does anybody have any experience or pointers on where to look or unscrew?
Thanks
Henry
Jim
Henry
Well, this past weekend I was an independent shop getting an oil change and state inspection, so I asked the mechanic to tell me what was causing the squeak. He showed me where the rear wheel brake cylinders were leaking on each drum, and he said those were the cause of the squeak. I am having him replace the cylinders today, along with the rear shoes (since he is in there anyway). I assume these started leaking back at 45K when the squeak first started. I just wish the Hyundai dealer had caught them back when the car was still under the bumper to bumper warranty, instead of just cleaning and adjusting the drums and sending my wife on her way.
I can tell you from experience that if the cylinders were leaking badly you would not have passed a state inspection here in Texas as they really do check to see if the emergency brake will hold the car. If the wheel cylinders are leaking either the car will move with the emergency brake applied, or it will make the most incredible noise when the shoes chatter on the drums due to the brake fluid allowing slippage.
Losing wheel cylinders at 70K is not unheard of on a car, but still a bit of a hassle.
And you are correct in your statement of not complaining on the cost. Ask someone who has had that repair done on a Toyota or Honda what it cost.
These cars can have a complete 4 wheel alignment. How many miles are on your car, and have you nailed any curbs or potholes with the right front?
Am I naive in thinking that since I purchased this car, that while I may not have the 100,000 mile warrantee as a second hand owner, that the 60,000 mile warrantee that I have inherited should mean that Hyundai should be able to correct this defect for me on my car?
Let me hear from those knowledgeable on this question.
Thanks
John W
You can see what Hyundai tells their dealers about wheel shimmy here. Click on "NVH", then "Wheel & Tire". They know it's a problem and tell their dealers how to fix it.
Good luck.
I /
I I
It must be like a half inch out of alignment. But the thing is, is that I was reading posts on here from before and everyone says you can't do an alignment on this car. I think you can though. It does pull to the right. Thanks,
I installed the Tib sway bar a couple years ago with metal links and have had no problem.
jim
Part numbers. You need the following parts to do just the sway bar (Hyundai Dealer part numbers):
Bar (1 req'd): 55511-2C000
Bushings (2 req'd): 55513-2C110
I paid $82 for the bar and $10 each for the bushings at a dealer. I quoted several dealers and the prices were significantly higher at others. So shop around.
I did just the sway bar at first because the end links seemed kind of expensive. To install just the sway bar and bushings, you don't even need to jack the car up; you can get full access just by sliding under. On a new car, it takes literally about 10 minutes.
After checking around I found more reasonable prices on the end links. To do the end links as well, you need to buy 2 of one the following part numbers:
Hyundai Dealer Part No.: 55530-29500 ($25-35 each)
Moog Part No.: K90360 ($15.99-18.99 each)
TRW Part No.: 18343 ($11.48 each)
Moog and TRW parts are available at auto parts stores; ask for prices on each part number because a store may sell both lines. I bought the TRW end links and guess what: they're made by Moog anyway (TRW box with Moog markings on the part)... so buy the cheaper one, they're the same. Not sure if I'm allowed to say where I bought them, but name of the store means "to go forward" and begins with "a".
To do the end links you need to remove the wheels to get access to the upper end of the end link, so you have to jack up the car. Put it on jack stands because if you just jack up one corner at a time (one wheel in the air and one on the ground), you load up the sway bar and make the job harder than it needs to be. Note that there is a grease fitting and the metal end links need to be lubed.
Is it worth it? Definitely. My biggest complaint with my new Elantra was its lean in corners. Does it make the Elantra a sports car? Sadly, no. The mod takes the car from clearly inadequate to okay. Putting an even bigger diameter sway bar on, such as the available 22 mm aftermarket part, is rumored to cause failure of tab the end link attaches to on the strut.
Is there any difference in feel between the plastic and metal end links? I suspect that objectively there isn't. But there seems to me to be a qualitatively different feel. The plastic end links seemed like they prevented roll to a point, then dumped it all in at once while the metal ones seem to make the car roll more gradually and predictably. This is a very subjective, non-scientific, one-time observation on my part.
In the end I decided to go with the metal links for the simple reason that when Hyundai put the 19 mm sway bar on the 03 Tiburon GT, they used metal end links. That does not say that the plastic ones can't take the load, but the only configuration that Hyundai used to put a 19 mm sway bar on had metal links. It could be that the plastic ones are more durable, but there is nothing from Hyundai either way about whether the plastic ones are okay.
Including end links, this cost me less than $140 dollars and was worth every penny.
it now has 1000 miles on it.
1) I have a sulfur smell that permeates the car at times. I called the dealership and they say that the coating on the exhaust. It should go away- true?
2) I have a squeaky ?front seat- like a springy sound that occurs over bumps- what to do?
3) Most annoyingly- I feel acceleration is not consistent. Sometimes that car runs smooth- others times I feel I really have to push on the gas pedal with a very sluggish response. The tranny seems to downshift or become indecisive at times. Is this normal for the first 1000 miles?
Re squeaky seat, if I were you I'd show it to the dealer the next time you go in for service. Maybe a squirt of silicone lube is all it would take. Is it a GT? If so, I've noticed that sometimes the plastic cover on the seatbelt cable on the right side of the driver's seat will rub a bit on the leather and squeak a little bit. I can make it stop just by moving the seatbelt cable a fraction of an inch.
Re the sluggishness, I have no idea. I haven't noticed that kind of behavior on our GT with automatic. It is an adaptive automatic and does change shift points based on driver input. If different drivers drive the car with different pedal pressure, it might stumble while adjusting to the new driver but that is a guess. Could also be a problem to check out--could be related to the rotten egg smell--bad gas maybe?
1) I have a sulfur smell that permeates the car at times. I called the dealership and they say that the coating on the exhaust. It should go away- true?
The was a nasty smell to my new Elantra for a few weeks; it eventually went away. I wouldn't describe it as "sulfur" though. I would let it ride for a bit and see if it gets better.
2) I have a squeaky ?front seat- like a springy sound that occurs over bumps- what to do?
I removed the back cover of the seat and tried lubing the springs and metal frame, as well as the pivots and pivot springs with silicone lube spray, but it didn't work. I finally isolated it to the seat belt latch. I could wiggle the seat belt back and forth and could hear it itching in the buckle. I sprayed some lube into the buckle opening of the latch and it went away instantly.
3) Most annoyingly- I feel acceleration is not consistent. Sometimes that car runs smooth- others times I feel I really have to push on the gas pedal with a very sluggish response. The tranny seems to downshift or become indecisive at times. Is this normal for the first 1000 miles?
I haven't seen that. However, I think these cars have some adaptive logic in the engine/transmission controls where it learns how you drive. If it was test-driven by several people it could be all messed up. I think to reset it you have to disconnect the battery for about 10 minutes, then after reconnecting, do a gentle acceleration, a moderate acceleration and a jackrabbit start. I have no idea if this will work but it's worth a try.
One theory: With the software controlled engines these days, and the 10/100 warranty, it would be quite easy to program the engine parameters to keep the performance at a slightly lower level until a few miles and or time have been accumulated. This is a cool way to protect the engine during break in and extend the long term life. Owners manuals have always had specific instructions regarding break in, and now the technology has advanced to where things can be somewhat managed by the car itself.