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Comments
Now, I do my own work - and I'll say that both front and rear replacements have been among the simplest I've ever done. They're virtually 'snap in' - especially the rears.
Altogether, the Sonata has been the best car I've ever owned.
Resurfacing rotors, in my opinion, is a scam - unless you have deep cuts in the rotor, you're good - at 191,000 miles, I've replaced the rear pads on my 06 Sonata ONCE, and it's a very simple job.
As far as buying another Hyundai, if I were to consider doing so, I would have to build in the inevitable brake repair costs against the total cost of ownership vs other cars. Aside from the brakes, all repairs (minor) have been under warranty so haven't cost me anything. My dealer always has oil change coupons for $19.95 so that's inexpensive maintenance. They always try to sell service over and above what HMC recommends. A classic is "upper engine decarbonization" which supposedly "decarbonizes" your intake manifold and injection system. I asked the Service Mgr how carbon forms ahead of combustion. He had no answer. I declined the service. Ironically, back at 15,000 miles they recommended a $130 brake service. I declined that one, too. 6,000 miles later they seized.
Here's their Fuel/Air Induction Service.
I guess Hyundai did not consider testing in places where it would snow. I am from Michigan and hence it is true that we have 3-4 months of snow.
Reg my scenario, should I just change the pads through a local repair shop and ask him to lubricate it.. Please suggest.
Is it OK to drive until then or am I risking the rotor or any other component? Your feedback is appreciated..
It has started to rain since yesterday and I am unable to hear the sound. I just wanted the rain to stop before I can decide whether the repair shop fix works for sure or not.
The dealership that I bought the car from in Pittsburgh said that Hyundai corporation is fully aware that there are two major problems with its brake systems (especially including the Sonatas) 1) like in my case, where the brakes become immobile in the caliper and do not work or 2) the pads stick to the rotors and don't release and wear down to nothing that way. The dealer said that Hyundai refuses to issue a recall or even a TSB bulletin on the issue, instead they have some crappy "goodwill unofficial warranty" that if this happens to your car in the first 2 years or 24K miles they will fix the problem for free. Can you say hush money for not reporting the problem? My car is only 2.5 years old, and the Pittsburgh dealership was upset for me about this, so they contacted their Hyundai rep who is trying to contact the rep here in MA to take care of the issue for me. It cost me $500, hopefully I will get reimbursed. I reported this problem online to the NHTSA, and if this problem has happened to you also you should report it because the more reports they get, the more likely they are to do something about it! It is just plain frightening to me that the dealers admit that Hyundai corporation knows about these brake problems, that they happen often, and they aren't doing anything about it. Regardless of a recall etc., they should at least have the decency and sense of responsibility to tell us car owners that this problem is out there so that we can be proactive and get out brakes looked at every so often to catch things while the pads can still be replaced and avoid having to pay for all new pads and new rotors. The dealership here in MA thinks that the reason they aren't doing a recall or TSB is because this might be a regional thing linked to areas that get a lot of snow (calcium chloride on the road). Regardless, Hyundai should be telling us consumers who live in these areas to be vigilant about our brake systems!! The dealership here implemented a service that they now offer to check your brakes and calipers every X-thousand of miles. Hyundai should be telling all the dealerships to do this at the very least. BE WARNED AND VIGILANT ABOUT CHECKING YOUR BRAKES!
Sounds like they are just trying to cover their rears.
Then on my '08 they machined the rear rotors since the pads were sticking in the slides an lubed everything up, free since I'd reminded them of the issue we had with the '07. Car was 1 yr and 10.5K miles
Jessc - I'm also purchased from a Pittsburgh area dealer - Cochran in Monroeville. My service advisor is 1st rate, he was the one who'd gone to the regional service mgr. and got me reimbursed...or maybe he was just playing good cop ...either way I'm very satisfied.
Then when I went to pick the car, the dealer did not charge me anything. I was surprised immensely that a dealer not charging for something he said he would.
I asked him repeatedly whether the sound is fixed and he confidently said that it is.
Next I asked what was the fix. He said that they had to apply some sticky substance wherever the brake is being held on all 4 pads. I asked whether it needs to be done anytime I had to change the pads. He said yes. When I asked is it some kind of a glue, he said NO and said it is some kind of sticky substance. Whatever.. It has been a week since it was fixed and I have not heard the sound.
I am bit worried whether the fix is going to hold good or the issue is going to come again and without me knowing would it affect anything else..
How could Hyundai ignore such an issue and not issue a recall for a permanent fix?
In the inernet age, an issue such as this spreads so easily which would spoil their reputation.
Gotcha.
I was in for an oil change last week and the guy who sold me my car asked how I liked it. I told him other than the brake issue I like it. He asked if I'd buy another one and I said "I'm not sure (read: I don't think so)". He called me an honest man. I recommended that he go to Edmunds.com and read the thread on Sonata brakes to see what he may have to defend against.
Other manufacturers don't have this problem. Hyundai and Kia do. They have made great progress with nice cars and this one problem could be easily solved and would avoid a disastrous change in customer quality perception.
The dealer blamed it on my in-laws missing a regular inspection to charge them the repair work (over $300.00) and not cover it under warranty.
Does anyone know who to contact at Hyunday to appeal to the decision of the dealer?
Inspection or not, breaks are supposed to hold on to the car and 16,000 miles is too early to have to replace pads.
There is no requirement in the owner's manual that specifies anything other than inspecting the brake pads at 15,000 which was done. They actually looked good on both sides at 15,000 miles when I inspected them myself. This should be a warrantied repair.
I also noticed that my gas mileage dropped by 5 mpg in the last 3 weeks. Now I know why.
I will definitely not be buying a Genesis from them ( I was actually close to buying one this week!), as they do not stand behind their designs or product. It costs more to service a darn Hyundai than it costs to maintain my wife's Lexus IS250 or my Porsche! I can imagine what will happen with an expensive Genesis when they want to service that car!
Also, try and find or contact the zone office to discuss your problem. Or, call the 800 number and get put on hold for 5 - 10 minutes to talk to an employee who works for a company contracted to take customer service calls for Hyundai who can't connect you to anyone at Hyundai. A very weak support structure, in my opinion.
The dealer says they don't make much money on the cars, so they need to make it on service.
>Beware of Hyundai. In my opinion, they manufacture a flawed product (especially for the northern salt climate) and the company does not stand behind their product! The "10 year warranty" is a fantasy, as they look for loopholes to stick-it-to their customers.
:mad:
To recap: I had the rear breaks redone at 36K while still in warranty because the Hyundai dealer said the caliper was stuck. Now, at 55K, when I got my oil changed and breaks checked at Mr. Tire last Saturday afternoon, they told me that the caliper was stuck, and said they "popped" the caliper out of the stuck position so that I could drive it to the Hyundai dealership without wearing the rotor down too much more--I wanted to see if the break repair would be covered again by warranty since I had them worked on only 15 months ago.
At the Hyundai dealership yesterday, they found the same problem as dave09se--heavy wear on the outside of the driver's side rear pad to the point that it was cutting into my rotor, while the inside pad on the driver's side rear break was still fine. Perhaps not surprisingly, they observed the same imbalance of wear on pads on the passenger's side rear break, except that it wasn't as bad. The mechanic said I still had 25% left on my right break--not sure if that was the inside or outside, but both driver's side and passenger's side were wearing unevenly!!!!!! Roberto, the manager, said there was a break part that had rusted (supposedly the problem wasn't the caliper) and that this part was inhibiting the ability of the pads to move into breaking position simultaneously. So he admitted that the pressure on both sides was so uneven that it was making the breaks don't wear evenly. The manager said he couldn't get the caliper to malfunction again, and I really had to have my car, so we "split the cost" of a rear break job and it's hopefully working well again. He offered me a free oil change after another 3K at which time he wants to check the caliper again to see if it was faulty. BUT, now I'm beginning to think that perhaps it isn't necessarily a caliper problem, and was perhaps misdiagnosed by both Hyundai when I had my breaks done at 36K, and also at Mr. Tire.
The point is, the break pads should not be wearing unevenly on each wheel, correct???? The inside pad on each wheel should wear in sync with the outside on the same wheel. Otherwise, you aren't going to get the breaking power you should have, AND you're going to end up replacing breaks and rotors more often than you should have to. I believe Hyundai may be getting its break parts from someone who is not making them with good enough materials to make them last long enough for natural break wear to occur. They need to check the specs on the manufacturing. Does this make any sense? I'm just a girl who knows very little about cars, but I can reason enough to know that if I have to change my breaks every 20K simply because one pad has gone bad, I'm not getting my money's worth.
http://www.hyundai-forums.com/index.php?s=adc60abf930925258ed0866c51979af7&&act=- attach&type=post&id=10408
The Sandman :sick: :shades:
2023 Hyundai Kona Limited AWD (wife) / 2015 Golf TSI (me) / 2019 Chevrolet Cruze Premier RS (daughter #1) / 2020 Hyundai Accent SE (daughter #2) / 2023 Subaru Impreza Base (son)
So what's your point???
A friend of mine has a 2006 Acura TSX. At 43K miles, his front pads were completely worn (less than 5% pad material remaining), and his front rotors were warped noticeably. He drives about 50/50 city/freeway, and his driving style is moderate; he doesn't abuse the car in any way. I very much doubt the Accord's brake system components are of higher-quality or better design than the more expensive, and sportier, TSX.
Is his car's braking system defective? Absolutely not. The front brakes wore out at a typical mileage for his driving style and his mix of city/freeway driving.
The Sandman :sick: :shades:
2023 Hyundai Kona Limited AWD (wife) / 2015 Golf TSI (me) / 2019 Chevrolet Cruze Premier RS (daughter #1) / 2020 Hyundai Accent SE (daughter #2) / 2023 Subaru Impreza Base (son)
Per this discussion of REAR brakes, they have only 1 piston, which presses the inside pad against the rotor. The caliper is a "sliding-type", which transfers forse to the outer pad.
If the pads are wearing significantly more on the inside pad (which seems to be the case for you folks), the caliper is obviously not sliding correctly. This is probably due to road-salt, brake pad dust or lack of lubrication (or a combination of these) causing the caliper to bind, or not slide freely.
Working in California, I can honestly tell you I have had zero complaints of this, which seems to make road salt the most likely culprit.
Speaking of things breaking I think I told you my Sonata had a sticky rear caliper that had to be replaced under warranty by Hyundai just over a year ago (around 36K miles), but when I took my car in for an oil change, I asked to have my breaks checked, and the guys are Mr. Tire said that the driver’s side rear wheel caliper was malfunctioning again and was starting to affect the rotor. I took it back to Hyundai Monday to see if repairs would be covered again (I’m at 55K miles now) since it was a recurring problem. They said the caliper was working fine, but that there were “pins” in the wheels that were badly corroded, and for that reason, the two pads on that wheel weren’t squeezing both sides of the rotor synchronously (or releasing) as they should, so one pad wore completely down, while the other remained okay. Checking both rear wheels, they found the same thing on the passenger’s side, but not as bad as the driver’s side.
When they tried to charge me the $288 for the repairs, I spoke to the manager, and although he was willing to give me 50% off my repairs, I still wasn’t satisfied. In my mind, both pads on both wheels should hit and release from the rotors at the same time, right? I mean, I know I’m a girl and everything, but I at least understood that much. And because both sides were malfunctioning and wearing unevenly, I pointed out that I wasn’t getting all the breaking power I should—albeit the front breaks are the workhorses of breaking, but the rear breaks are there for a reason. Then I mentioned that if I had to come in every 15 to 20K miles (who knows when it might happen) to get my breaks changed because one pad was gone, that would end up costing me a lot of money, not to mention the fact that I would worry about when it would happen and it might damage my rotors even further. I also surmised that since both sides were corroded and wearing unevenly that the parts they were supplying were made of inferior metals. So
After doing online research on the problem I found out on Edmunds.com that this is a common problem on Sonatas, and in particular, the 2007 Sonata seems to be worse. A friend told me to forget about it since every car has problems, but I sent an email to Hyundai Consumer Affairs and copied several of the comments from Sonata owners I found on Edmunds.com. They had a rep call me, and the first person I spoke to (a woman who obviously knew nothing about cars) tried to spit back the same story that Hyundai’s service manager did, but with no real compensation or resolution to the real problem, which is that the parts they are putting on their cars are poorly made. So, I asked to speak to a supervisor, and of course none were available right then to talk to me, so I had to wait for a call back, but now I’m glad I did.
The supervisor called and he said they are going to reimburse the charges for the repairs, and he explained that sometimes when they have problems that are common like this, parts are “updated” but they don’t always send out a recall. Their reasoning is that, because eventually everyone has these parts replaced when they get their breaks serviced, the “fix” just kind of works itself out naturally, but let's face it--their customers have to bite the bullet and now they're getting a lot of bad press because they didn't recall those parts. Furthermore, when their cars get a bad reputation, our car resale values go down, so it's just better for everyone to be in touch with Hyundai Corporate and get these things worked out.
I asked the supervisor if the “shim kit” (which he told me was the problem) had been “updated” in the last year since I had my first break job, and I asked if there was any way of telling whether the parts recently installed were the "updated" ones, which were supposed to be more durable parts. He said he would find out and let me know. Then I requested that if he found out the parts on my car weren’t an updated version, I wanted them replaced on warranty whenever they are finally updated. He reiterated that he will check on the update and get back to me. In the meantime, the service manager at my local dealership has said that they would be willing to give me a free oil change 3000 miles from now and check for corrosion and uneven wear problems again at that time. So
I feel like they’re really trying to work with me, and I respect that, but with all the bad press they’re getting, I can hardly think it’s saving them money to hold off on the recall. They should just do it.