poor experience at Hyundai of Tempe....

I was told I had a transmission leak by the person who did my last oil change. Sounded kind of odd on such a new car (06 Sonata, 6k miles) so I took it in to have it looked at. While I was there I asked for a few other things to be looked at. One was the automatic door locking at

5mph. The other was a really funky smell coming from my A/C vents. The odd thing is, this is the exact same smell as in my 03 Elantra.

I just received a call from the fella I dropped the car off with. No transmission leak, which is good. The other things he said disturbed me a bit. Firstly, the door locks. He said they "managed to get it to work the way I wanted." He also said that normally they charge $90.00 for this service, but he'd kindly waive that fee for me. Additionally, he told me that the air conditioner smell was a normal problem that exists on all Hyundais. The only thing they could do would be to do the "fresh air" service or some such thing. Of course that costs 49.99. This car is less than six months old, has 6000 miles on it. I'm supposed to just cope with a god-awful-smelling A/C problem? How can my warranty not cover that? Is this just a crappy dealership?

-B

Reply to
Blair
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Are you sure the smell is not the one typical of Korean plastic? There has been a long history of a nasty new car smell on the korean cars. It goes away with time like all new car smell. Detroit uses a prettier smelling plasticizer. I don't know which one is less toxic.

Reply to
nothermark

The issue is one of mold growth in the A/C system. I've heard it can be remedied by turning the A/C off for a few minutes before exiting the vehicle, so the system can dry out, but I imagine that's a bit of a hassle since you're in Arizona and need to use it a lot. I haven't had a problem with my car yet, but I rarely use the A/C.

I don't know, but they don't cover it in Elantras, which are somewhat infamous for the problem. I've also heard that freshening treatments are a temporary solution at best. For fifty bucks, they're probably just going to spray something akin to Lysol into the intake in the hope it will kill the mold for a while. One thing you can do is to locate the drain tube for the A/C system and make sure that it's not crimped or plugged. If your vehicle drips after you use the A/C for a while, that's a good indication that the drain is working.

It sounds like that's probably the case too, based on the description about the lock problem. Whenever you have any questions about service, contact Hyundai directly before paying for anything. Do not accept any explanations that don't seem reasonable. A lot of dealerships will try to scam you if they think they can get away with it.

Reply to
Brian Nystrom

Was the odor there from day 1?

Does it have a musty or rotting smell, or a chemical smell?

Reply to
Bob Adkins
  1. The dealer is being nice to you by not charging you for setting up the locks. There are (I believe) a few features on this car that can be programmed to operate in different ways. What you desired was for the locks to be programmed to operate in a way different than the factory setting. This can be done, but it is not Hyundai's responsibility to do so. Hence, they will not pay the dealer for this work.

  1. The reason your a/c odor wouldn't be covered by your warranty would be that there's no defect. While I haven't looked at your car to determine there is indeed no defect, I can say that I've never seen a case of such an odor be caused by anything other than some nasty growth in the evaporator case. As for the , just say no. You can go to the store yourself and purchase a spray air freshener and spray it in the intake yourself. The air intake is at the bottom of the windshield on the right side through the plastic cowl. Simply turn the heat and a/c on full using fresh air and spray the freshener into the cowl.

Reply to
hyundaitech

Neither. Its really very difficult to describe. It is the exact same smell my Elantra developed after about 5 months. Incidentally, I rented a brand new Accent while my car was in the shop and it had the very same yucky smell.

-B

Reply to
Blair

It only takes about 5 minutes according to the tech I spoke with. To charge 90 dollars for something like that would be obnoxious, and would truthfully be a pretty poor way to do business.

As for your suggestion, thanks :) I will definitely be doing that.

-B

Reply to
Blair

True, but it's not uncommon. My girlfriend recently got royally ripped-off on some brake work by Tracy VW in Hyannis, MA. Among other things, she got charged $225 (2.5 hours) in labor for work that any competent mechanic could have done in under an hour. They're explanation when confronted with this? "That's what we charge." Real A-holes!

Reply to
Brian Nystrom

Then they should design them like Chrysler so that the owner can enable and disable these selectable features. If they make it so the user can't change it, then they should pay the dealers to do it for free for the owner.

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting

Agreed.

-B

Reply to
Blair

Regarding the odor from the a/c ; im an HVAC Tech and run into this often on residential/commercial applications . After i clean the surface of the evaporator with special detergent and make sure the pitch is good on it so all the condensate runs toward the drain opening , I finish the job by using vinegar on the evaporator coils which nuetralizes the odor for a pretty long time. If there is any way of getting vinegar on the evaporator surface in spray form thru the return air intake then it will make a big difference (im assuming its a draw-thru application on Hyundais where the blower is downstream of the evaporator/heating coils ; maybe HyundaiTech can confirm this ). Also, if you can get in the habit of turning off the a/c but allowing the blower to continue to run a few minutes before youre ready to shut off the engine, this will re-evaporate whatever condensate is still on the coil surface to the air , so it doesnt linger ... plus the evaporator housing will rid itself of any residual condensate that may be puddling from the motion of the car . Stagnant condensate is the biggest cause of foul odors in a/c systems of any type.

Dave

Reply to
dave

don't faint, Matt, but I agree with you. :o) Another possibility is that Hyundai or their supplier of the ducting used recycled HDPE, which can come from milk bottles. Those have the nastiest smell from spoiled milk. We had some plastic pallets molded from them and you could smell them from one end of the plant to the other. Finally, put them outside and then shipped them back. One of the downsides of recycling. Detergent bottles give all sorts of odors to newly molded parts also.

Tom

Reply to
Tom

Not a problem! :-)

Wow, I'm surprised that any smell would make it through the remolding process as usually that gets things up to reasonably warm temps. Seems like it would burn off any milk film that might remain.

Matt

Reply to
Matt Whiting

I would think so too, but it does. They even use vented extruders that have a zero pressure section part way down the barrel where they can exhaust out the gases. It still stinks to high heaven. With the price of resin skyrocketing just like gasoline, the incentive is back to use recycled plastics. It also makes people 'feel' good until they smell their cars. :o)

Reply to
Tom

I'm sure that at least the glove box will need to be pulled to get to the evaporator coil. Some cars have an access panel on the side, and others you'd need to pull the whole evaporator housing. Some are made as a one piece climate control unit, which would require pulling the dash. I haven't had the occasion to monkey around with the evaporator an an '06 Sonata yet, so I'm not sure which design it uses.

Reply to
hyundaitech

Plastic doesn't need to be heated to a high enough temp to drive off impurities or odors. Plastics also absorb odors and hold on to them tenaciously. Once a plastic pitcher is used for Kool Aid, it practically ruins it as a water pitcher.

Reply to
Bob Adkins

Gotta watch vinegar around switches, wires, terminals, and unpainted metal. Vinegar vapors are mildly acid, but can be quite corrosive to nearby metal.

Just as "new car smell" fades away, the odors in plastic ducting itself will eventually fade after a few months in the hot sun. Odors caused by moisture will come and go with the seasons.

Reply to
Bob Adkins

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