Hyundai Sonata Start Up Noise

drgnass

Well I bought a used 2006 Sonata 6 months ago I really loved it in the beginning until 3 months ago when I started my car there was a noise it sounded like something was grinding. I took it to the dealer they said it was normal, they could do a oil change and that should quiet the noise. The noise got louder. they called in the regional inspector to listen to it. Well he came in and listened to it and now I am being told this is a normal noise, that I now have to deal with because there is no mechanical problem according to them. They call it a "characteristic" and since there is no mechanical failure they will not correct the problem. Although the car never made the noise when I bought it. I bought a new car to have it not sound like a piece of junk, the looks I get when starting a very nice car is like WOW what a piece of junk. The 2005 to 2008 Sonata's all make this noise, so I am being told now. So needless to say I will be down at the dealer this weekend asking them how much they will give me for my car that sounds like the engine is going to blow any minute when I start it. I know for sure I can't get top retail value for it, as soon as I start the car for an interested buyer and they hear that noise and I tell them this is normal and I have a piece of paper that states this is normal for this car they will laugh in my face and walk away. I am now stuck with a $14,000.00 car that the value I am sure just decreased buy $10,000.00. I wonder how this engine was able to be tested and pass inspection on the production line at the plant and make it in the vehicles without this being disclosed to the unsuspected buyer. I would like to hear from anyone with a 2005 to 2008 Sonata V6 who is currently having or had this problem. With this piece of paper I am being told if there is mechanical failure with the timing chain or tension pulley they will fix it as long as it is within the warranty period. I am sure the problem won't arise until 100,000 miles just as the warranty runs out.

krishnakonline

Hi,

I bought a 2009 Sonata limited V6 with NAV, just a week ago......and now its 350 plus miles and since past 2 days... the engine cries like anything....when I start the engine and till the time it reaches 0-30 mph(with jerks while it shifts the gears), it feels like I am driving a used car/truck. Real terrible...

One of the dealers said it needs 89 Ocatne gas....you should not put 87 Ocatne..where as my user manual says 87 Octane gas is fine.

Where as the dealer from whom I bought the car asked me to get the car tomow. to their service center..... as they said they r going to fix it..if not then replace the car. Where as its not typically expected of a new car if it really passed Quality tests.... So all you people seriously need to rethink before you go for it.

m6user

You don't have to post your problem on several different threads. People read most of the new posts on these threads and they will see it. Gets boring reading the same problem on all the different threads. Thanks.

pat

Let's continue this conversation here where you have gotten a reply: krishnakonline, "2009 Hyundai Sonata" #575, 28 Aug 2008 3:05 pm.

kimweigel

Your startup noise is the timing chain tensioner. It is a small spring-loaded gear that keeps tension on your timing chain. There is a technical service bulletin out on these from Hyundai. The dealer will replace this part for free. They do, however, have to take the engine out of the car, so you need to be prepared to leave it with them for a day or two.
I know all this because I also bought a used 06 Sonata, and had the same problem. It sounds much worse than it is, and didn't always happen. If people were around my car, I could count on the horrible start-up noise. When I took it to the dealership to show them, it was, of course, quiet as a mouse. After several trips to the dealer, I finally left it with them overnight so they could hear it start up cold in the morning. Evidently that did the trick, because they ordered the part that day.
Look for timing chain cam tensioner in the Hyundai forum, and you will find the TSB for it, If you print it and take it to the dealer, they can't claim ignorance.

drgnass

I did in fact take it to the selling dealership on 07/15/08 and I started the car in front of the service advisor to let him here it for himself. It did make the noise for him. After they looked at it, he called me and told me that an oil change would take care of the noise. I agreed to the oil change since it was due for one anyway. When I returned to get the car, I started it up not knowing the car was just shut down before I started it up ( It makes this noise everytime it sits 10 minutes or longer). I did not hear anything. This is what the invoice said after I paid for the oil change, "Customer states there is a clicking noise when starting after sitting for a little bit. Check advise confirmed noise coming from timing chain area. Performed TSB 08-ECM-001-1 inspection. Ran 10 minutes sat 10 minutes on start up grinding noise for 3-4 seconds normal."
What I don't understand is the part where they say that grinding noise for 3-4 seconds is normal? The service advisor told me that all the 2005 - 2008 do this. How can any of these cars/engines pass the production line. And if something like this is normal, why is it that the dealership does not disclose this to the buyer?
Another thing is that when the service manager said if this happens again, he will call out the Regional Inspector to look at it. This tells me that only a service tech/mechanic looked at it. We took the car in to another dealership to look at it and that service advisor told us he had another sonata in there because someone else was having the same issue and that the Regional inspector for Northern California would be there to look at it the next day so we left the car with them to be looked at as well. After picking up the car the next day, the service advisor said that the inspector heard the noise then after sitting 10 minutes there was no noise. They are also saying it is a "Characteristic noise". The service advisor then told us to the side that we need to take the car back to the selling dealer and have them do something about this soon. Oh, we also were told that the Regional inspector said that he has checked our car about this once before. What I am getting from this is that he must have look at our car before we purchased it. He did not look at it when we took it in for the first time. Note we did purchase it used. Another thing is that the second service advisor told us in quiet is that we need to take the car back to the selling dealership and have them do something about it right away. Why is he saying that but not the Regional inspector? Interesting!!! Seems like these sonatas are :lemon: 's. Don't get me wrong, we love our car but geez.

kimweigel

Vehicle: 2006 Hyundai Sonata
Summary:
3.3L & 3.8L TIMING CHAIN TENSIONER - PART UPDATE. ( NHTSA ITEM NUMBER - 10021137 )

drgnass

I take it this is the part number for the tensioner. Thank you very much! Not only will I walk in with the TSB but this part number as well. Nothing like going in with all the info needed. Have a great day.

targettuning

To answer your rather harsh blanket statement that "(it) seems like these Sonatas are (emotorcon depicting a lemon)." The fact of the matter is some 2006 Sonata V-6's (as others here have correctly stated) do have a timing chain tensioner noise. It is not potentially destructive to the engine and already has been addressed by a service bulletin. It is not characteristic to all or even a majority of the 3.3 V-6 engines but affected a small portion of the 2006 model year. It is most definately NOT normal and I have found the 3.3 V-6 to be one of the quietest engines around. I do not know why the TSB addressing the timing chain tensioner was not applied to your car (it seems it wasn't from the account) but if it were applied that would, most likely fix your problem.

bobisnext

I purchased a 2006 Sonata V6 in Aug of 2007. with 20.8K on it. Heard the same rattling noise on a cold start up right after i bought it. (It only occurs for a few seconds). took it to the dealer, told me it was timing chain tensioners and replaced them under warranty. even gave me a free loner for the 3 days it took to fixit.

i would go to another dealer.

drgnass

I have a question for you. What did you have to go through before the dealership repaired your timing chain tensioner?
Today we played phone tag until we decided to take the car in and talk to the face to face. It turns out that the Hyundai Rep will be there tomorrow to look at the car for a second time in the past month. The dealership is telling us that it is not up to the dealership to repair it but the Hyundai Co. to make the call on doing the repair. This is our third time trying to get this issue resolved and we are finding out that the next step would be to contact the Consumer mgr. then the BBB.
Did you have to jump through all these ropes like this as well?

lightfootfl

I am not positive, but pretty sure there is a TSB regarding this problem, so there should not be any questions about it. Obviously there are dealers that don't keep up with such things.

van

drgnass

Well, it turns out that the Hyundai Rep decided to approve the work on the car finally. As mentioned before, this was the third time we took the car in for this issue. We know that there was a TSB and we told the Dealership about it but they kept telling us that this noise was normal. Them mention about taking legal action next probably put the fire in their pants. we took all the steps as listed in order to get this taken care of and it worked.
For anyone out there that has issues with dealerships doing their job, just stay on them and in a matter of time they will give in.

bhmr59

Sure seems like this was a "dealership" problem, not a "Hyundai" problem. Although that's perplexing since the dealership would be paid by Hyundai. Is this dealership not service oriented?

drgnass

The dealership wanted to repair the problem but according to them their hands were tied because they said they needed authorization to do the job by the Hyundai Corp. The dealership has a huge service center. we should be getting the car back tomorrow so we will see if they did their job.

carolina322

I just bought a used Hyundai 2006 Sonata V6. Has 91,000 miles, but has a very quiet engine and runs great. However, it has the engine rattle on start up.

Will any Hyundai dealer repair the problem with the timing chain tensioner, under the recall notice- since the car is within the 100,000/10 year warranty?

drgnass

I just went through this issue. We bought our 06' Sonata used and ours did the same thing. After the third time the dealership fixed the problem There is no recall on this problem. You need to take the car to the dealership and have them look at it. At this time the dealership will tell you they need to have the Hyundai Rep look at the car. We were told that this problem is up to the Hyundai Corp to determine whether or not it needs to be fixed. The dealership has to get authorization to do the repair. I think it is a load ob B.S. if you ask me.
When we first had the car looked at, the Service Advisor told us by having them do an oil change will quiet the noise. Well we agreed to have it done but the noise only got louder. Keep on the dealership to have a Hyundai Rep look at it. Hyundai has a 60k manufact warranty. Did you purchase an extended warranty? I hope so! Since your manufact warranty is past, you can have it fixed that route with what ever deductable you have on it. If no warranty, the cost will come out of pocket. This is what we have been told. If you have any more questions, write another post and I will help you out. Good luck!

carolina322

I didn't purchase the car from the Hyundai Dealer, I bought it from a smaller used car lot. They sold me a 2500 mile warranty to cover 50/50 on any powertrain repairs.
I am quite sure they knew about the problem, because they just added the warranty on, and reduced to total price of the car by $1000.

Do you have any idea what the repair will cost, or how many labor hours the repair should take?

lightfootfl

Hey guys, dunno for sure... but I think there is a TSB regarding the problem, and I would think they should do it for free, but knowing how some places work...good luck.

van

drgnass

I am not sure what the repair will cost out of pocket. I do know they have to lift the engine to do the repair. It took the dealership 2 days for them to do our repair. Go to Hyundaiforums.com and go to the Sonata V6 forums and you can print out a TSB bulletin and that will not only give some idea of what they need to do to repair the problem but will also show the dealership you have done research about this problem.

carolina322

I printed the TSB bulletin.

Thanks for advice, guys ! I'll check back in a week or two, to give my report on what happened.

debbie257

I bought my 2004 Sonata 6 cylinder in 2005 brand new. I had several problems from whinning in the steering wheel which I ended up taking to a private mechanic to fix after five times taking it to the dealship. Now I have the start up noise. This is "not normal" as the car would have done it when I bought it. The dealerships have a standard statement, "It's normal" BS. I'm so sorry I bought a Hyundai and look forward to buying another car. If the dealership won't own up to the problems of the car then I won't own up to the car being a good choice.