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Hyundai Azera Front End Problems
Several members are experiencing a "clunk" in their Azera's front end. Let's compare notes here.
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Comments
First, thank you for responding.
I have checked the tire pressure and all is fine there. And yesterday I took the Azera to the dealership. The service manager and I took it for a ride and he recognized the "clunk" right away. I explained to him that I would have expected to heard a good solid "thump" from my car as opposed to a "clunk". They took it into the service bay (I stayed in the waiting room) and here's what happened.
First, they put the 17" wheels back on the car (I had asked for 16" wheels as all the reports I had read on the internet said that the 16" wheels and tires provided a quieter ride).
Second he told me that the "only thing wrong with the 17" wheels were that they would make the steering wheel shake a bit at high speeds". He was right. As soon as I got on the freeway and reached about 67 mph there it was, the shake he said I would have! As you can expect, I am really annoyed by that.
Third, after the car was returned to me I was told that the "clunk" was a typical noise and the car had checked out fine. He said that all of the front end bolts were checked and retorqued.
Third and quite interestingly, when they took my car to the service bay he said he would drive another Azera Limited to see if he could experience the same "clunk" as my Azera and I WAS NOT INVITED TO GO ALONG. In hindsight I should have insisted to ride along.
I still have the "clunk" (there was virtually no improvement after putting on the 17" wheels) and I am certain that something is wrong. I have half a mind to go to another dealership with my wife's car and test drive a couple of Azeras, find some bumps and see if the other Azeras respond like mine.
Your thoughts?
Take it back to the dealer or a different dealer and raise havock with them. Its a new car, it ought to be clunkless as well as shakeless.
Had our 17" wheels over 80 mph and no shakes, clunks, shimmies or nervousness.
Take it back and don't accept it back until its fixed as its a safety factor.
Don
As for wheel shake, I've done over 80 with not a hint of shake or shimmy. I seem to recall that there is either a recall or a TSB on "mixing of wheel weights" but it could have been another car.
Thanks a ton for the information. While I don't know where Eastside Hyundai is, many kudos to Jim. I have printed the information and will show to the service manager (in Houston). One question for you. My clunk seems to more prevalent at the passenger side, was this the case for you?
Thanks again,
jmjk
My point is that I want to make sure that I understand before I point out your "discovery" to my Hyundai service manager.
jmjk
I think that is a piece of useless mis-information, right up there with a bad gonkulator valve, a loose johnson rod and worn muffler bearings. Thank you very much.
By the way, I'm a retired engineer with 40+ years of technical experience. (I designed airplanes). I've done multiple major repairs (3 engine rebuilds, 2 clutches, 3 trans.). And you?
I think I just saw Chilliwack go down in flames.
Your information and experience will probably be valuable to others on this forum.
Fortunately for all of us, chilliwack's parachute opened in time and our initially skeptical friend recovered just in time to land deftly on his feet. (Crow is a main course properly accompanied with bitter ale and humble pie. I've oft dined on it, myself...)
With apologies to rockybob, I just cannot see how this part could be "up-side down". I have viewed the front suspension on-line at HSA site, and the front stabilizer bar assembly is one piece. It passes over the tie rod end assembly, undulates through two bushings to the opposite side and then again passes over the opposite tie rod end assembly.
Maybe the bar is shifted one way or the other(?) but there are fittings that rest right up next to the bushings, so I doubt that. I haven't jacked up my car for a closer inspection to see if perhaps there are spots that seem to be impacting other solid parts. I just want to be armed with all relevant info if taking this to the dealer.
Your take? Thanks
As another reader asked, please let us know if and when you receive any response to your message to the troops at the Hyundai head shed. You will certainly earn the title of MISTER BOB!
I have exercised just about all my options regarding my clunk. I met a manager from corporate on Sept. 19th and we drove the car around so that he could get a first hand sense of what I was hearing (i.e. the clunk). I was promised to get a copy of his report. So far no report.
We left one another with primarily three goals. One, he was to identify where the noise was coming from - more specifically from what component or components of the car. Two, he was to obtain the answer as to why the noise is not persistent on the driver's side of the vehicle. And three, after the problem is identified would Hyundai repair the problem. I told him that I was very hopeful that a fix is available as I am not satisfied with the current condition of the Azera. I also told him that much less classier cars such as the Toyota Corolla, the Chevrolet Malibu and even the Chevrolet Aveo come equipped with a much quieter suspension.
I too like the car but am extremely disappointed with the clunk. It sounds like the front (passenger side) wheel is about to fall off !!!! Perhaps if enough people complain something will get done.
Please post a message when you get new information.
I will also post a message when I get his report.
JMJK
Any solution to this condition would be appreciated.
Hyundai US Consumer Affairs is the pits.
They always refer you back to local dealership.
We left one another with primarily three goals. One, he was to identify where the noise was coming from - more specifically from what component or components of the car. Two, he was to obtain the answer as to why the noise is not persistent on the driver's side of the vehicle. And three, after the problem is identified would Hyundai repair the problem. I told him that I was very hopeful that a fix is available as I am not satisfied with the current condition of the Azera. I also told him that much less classier cars such as the Toyota Corolla, the Chevrolet Malibu and even the Chevrolet Aveo come equipped with a much quieter suspension.
I too like the car but am extremely disappointed with the clunk. It sounds like the front (passenger side) wheel is about to fall off !!!! Perhaps if enough people complain something will get done.
Please post a message when you get new information.
I will also post a message when I get his report.
JMJK
JMJK -
Please post the results of the report when you receive it. I suspect there are quite a few of us who have the "clunk" problem, but haven't identified so on this forum. We are all eagerly waiting to here what you find out and what the solution is. Thanks for your willingness to share the results with us. Lots of us from around the country will be grateful.
Here’s what we know:
1.The chronic clunk (for me it is extremely chronic) generally comes from minor asphalt repairs or “washboard” type road surfaces.
2.It seems to come from the passenger side of the car
3.It seldom emanates from the driver side (I speak for myself on this one)
4.If the clunk was truly a suspension problem the driver might feel it in the steering and I haven’t really felt it through the steering wheel
5.Just yesterday I happen to accelerate (just slightly) through a turn - 90 degrees - near my neighborhood that had the ideal road condition (i.e. the washboard surface). I heard the awful clunk and to my surprise I felt it in the gas pedal – the same harmonics – every time the clunk rang out it was felt in the gas pedal.
Is Hyundai looking in the wrong spot? Could it be that the clunk is coming from an engine mount?
This may be worth examining for a number of reasons.
1. Driving over the washboard surfaces at a fixed rate of speed, for me the speed is between 23 and 30 mph, could cause an exciting force that while the suspension is able to manage it, the motor mount cannot. (Is a know fact that gas turbines – those used in the generation of electricity and in some cases aircraft – go through what is termed critical speed. At certain speeds there is little exciting force to cause excessive vibration in the turbines but at other windows of speed, vibration can increase slightly. As the turbine continues to ramp up in speed it ramps through that critical speed and once past the critical speed all is well. It can sometimes happen with our tires too.) Those washboard surfaces may, at that window of speed (23 to 30 mph), be the critical speed where the engine mount(s) vibrate excessively, banging around and creating the clunk. Further the washboard surfaces of the road may provide the “perfect” exciting force frequency whereby the engine vibrates in perfect harmony with that same exciting force.
2. What is the gas pedal linkage connected to – certainly not the suspension – it is connected to the engine. If the engine is banging around under the hood anything connected to the engine (e.g. the gas pedal linkage) would be the recipient of the banging via the ripple effect, but certainly to a lesser degree. Feeling something in the gas pedal may be an indication that the clunk may be from a place other than the suspension.
If there is a bad motor mount on the passenger side then this may explain why I hardly ever hear anything from the driver’s side. There may be other owners who experience the clunk from both sides but I don’t recall reading anything (in this forum) to that effect.
Additionally, this may explain why the clunk is not heard all of the time. Often times when I drive over a bump in the road I hear the normal thump from the suspension that is typical of a good solid suspension.
While I am not an engineer this seems reasonable to me. If any engineers read my explanation, my apologies to them if I butchered the explanation.
Lastly, everyone who has this problem ought to stay on top of Hyundai. I have no idea how pervasive this problem is. There are likely a very small percentage of Azera owners who subscribe to this site therefore I would be willing to bet that there are a great deal more owners who are having the same problem. I have been relentless with Hyundai and I am sure they are tired of me but I didn’t buy a Limited just to hear that awful sound.
If my theory sounds plausible let me know and I will “carry the torch” to Hyundai.
Thank you for taking the time to post, ykang - do you work for HyundaiUSA? Let us know as I'm sure many Azera owners would appreciate the opportunity to discuss their cars' issues with a quasi-official Hyundai spokesperson. I believe what you're referring to is a single event clicking whenever the the car is driven after starting the motor and takes place at approximately 15-20 mph. The other posters are referring to repeated mechanical clunking somewhere in the front suspension components in response to abrupt bumps and pot-holes. While these clunking noises are probably harmless, they're decidedly annoying and not at all in character in Hyundai's premier U.S. offering and which compares itself in its sales brochures to much higher priced models from established prestige manufacturers.
I love this car!
The only problem with that particular basis for your theory is that the Azera uses drive-by-wire technology. There's no direct mechanical connection between the accelerator pedal and the engine - only an electrical connection to the engine control module which silently and electronically controls fuel delivery and ignition timing.
Many owners seem to have this clunk problem, but to my knowledge, Hyundai US has not acknowledged a problem, and has yet to notify dealerships how to respond to our complaints.
It appears that various local service departments have attempted different types of fixes.
More help is needed from corporate.
As a weekend mechanic, I have tried alot. It's still there but a lot less than used to.
You guys may try
1) re-tighten the strut top nut(use a torque wrench and a hex key, no guess work). This make a little more preload between the strut top upper and lower bushings. The strut top bushings lose the preload force over time.
2) avoid parking your car on slope. This makes the bushing further deformed.
Btw, I believe the clunking sound is most likely caused by the impact between the strut rod and the strut collar upon compression and release over the bump or similar load conditions. Go to google group and type "clunking sound, bump" you will learn a lot.
let me know if that makes some difference
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One would think that with enough Azera owners complaining about the same problem, the engineering department of Hyundai would deal with it, or at least tell the dealerships what to inform complaining owners.
They seem to be completely avoiding the subject.
Thanks a ton for the information. I have been complaining about my clunk since the 4th day after I took delivery of the car. I can't wait to get this behind me.
BTW what color is your Azera? The reason I ask is because it seems that most or perhaps all of the posts on this forum who complained about the clunk have white Azeras. If that's the case it would be very weird.
Lastly, did you receive any resistance from Hyundai, in other words were they willing to replace the struds or were they reluctant?
Thanks again,
JMJK
Don
If you notice this noise one time only after each engine restart, you're probably hearing the anti lock brake test. Do a search on brake test and see if this is what you're hearing.
How do I access the online Azera shop manual?
Thanks,
JMJK
Thank you technishaw
Make sure you download the appropriate plug-ins to see the graphics.
I've been curious about the weak clunk after starting.
I love my Azera. It's very quiet, smooth and powerful.