Headlights, fog and,taillights

2004 Sonata I have had to replace every headlight,foglight,and tail light bulb in my 04 Sonata, I do not drive on rough roads, I have 57 k for mileage, had anyone else had this experience?

Thanks Tom

Reply to
twfsa
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I have an 04 Sonata and as yet, I haven't had to replace any lights. Have you had your car checked?

Reply to
Mike Marlow

The dealer says the bulbs are not covered under warranty. Tom

Reply to
twfsa

Certainly the bulbs would not be covered under warranty - no manufacturer covers bulbs. You are experiencing a pretty high rate of failure of bulbs throughout the car though and that alone would point to other problems. I would like to believe the dealer would investigate this.

Reply to
Mike Marlow

If you've got 57k on your car and you drive with the lights on, then that's quite a bit of time in use. As long as they all didn't blow at once (or near the same time), it's doubtful there's anything else going on.

The headlamp bulbs are covered under warranty until you reach 60k.

Reply to
hyundaitech

If you've got 57k on your car and you drive with the lights on, then that's quite a bit of time in use. As long as they all didn't blow at once (or near the same time), it's doubtful there's anything else going on.

The headlamp bulbs are covered under warranty until you reach 60k.

Reply to
hyundaitech

Typically, bulbs fail prematurely for two reasons:

  1. Excessive vibration and
  2. Overheating caused by overcurrent caused by overvoltage.

Do you drive on a lot of really rough roads?

If not, have you had your charging system checked? I assume that the ECM monitors voltage, but I'm not sure of that.

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting

I had two headlight bulbs replaced in my 2001 Elantra. One at 21.000 miles by one dealer for about $22 and the second at 59,800 miles at another dealer which was FREE. He told me headlight and foglight bulbs are guaranteed for five years, all other bulbs for one year. He added, "Either the other dealer doesn't read the warranty details or he is "double dipping," getting paid by the factory and the customer.

Reply to
HaynaGuy

This is my daughters car and I called the dealer, and complainted about the fog and headlight bulbs, and was told that it was not warranty and they probably are double dipping.

Thanks Tom

Reply to
twfsa

You should perhaps begin taking your business to another dealer, then.

In response to Matt, the PCM monitors voltage, but does not control it on the '01 Elantra. It will know when there's a voltage issue, but it won't be able to do anything about it (until it fries and the car won't run).

Reply to
hyundaitech

It won't set the MIL if over voltage is detected?

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting

I think the MIL only sets for undervoltage. Go figure.

Reply to
hyundaitech

It makes some sense. The battery should be a large enough load that it keeps the voltage down to a safe level for the electronics. OTOH, if the voltage is too low the electronics won't work right.

If I was losing lights and did not have another reason I could see I would start looking for a bad connection to the battery or a failing battery that was letting the charging voltage go a bit high. I'm thinking 0.1 v ranges. Measure the voltage accross the lightbulb and accross the battery posts with the engine revved up to cruising speed. It should be the same or very close.

Reply to
nothermark

For the OP - not sure if you checked this but my wife just came home with a ticket for a headlight out in our 04 Sonata. I went out and pulled the connector and reseated it and now the headlight works again. Did you try to reseat your connectors before buying new lamps? It used to be common for cars to experience this but that was mostly years ago. Can't go by my one-off experience, but I wonder if the Hyundai connectors are prone to either moisture or corrosion buildup.

Reply to
Mike Marlow

The alternator regulates system voltage. I've seen numerous cases where the voltage regulator (inside the alternator) fails and produces too much voltage. Most of the time the owner sees the problem and has it fixed (or the alternator stops charging at all) prior to other electronics in the car blowing up.

Reply to
hyundaitech

This is a common failure mode for these halogen headlamps. In my case the headlight was out until I opened the hood and then closed it. The shock of dropping the hood 12 inches made the headlight start working again. This "trick" worked twice in the following 3 days or so and then the light was out for good. I thought I had a wiring or socket problem but it was the bulb. The parts guy at the Hyundai dealership where I got the new light bulb from said this is pretty common.

Reply to
Dan K

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