Alright folks, I am in dire need of advice or knowledge, and this is the first place I thought to turn to.
I was driving today, at a red light. I began to accelerate normally. Suddenly, after I picked up some speed (20MPH?), I lost all response and gained no power from the gas pedal. My check engine light came on, and the engine began to vibrate. I quickly pulled over, with the CEL still on, I noticed the idle vibration was even worse. The car rolled without gas, but wouldnt accel otherwise. I have to admit, I'm 18, and know only a bit about cars.
I proceeded to turn the car off, checked the motor oil, transmission fluid (I have an AUTO), and just glanced around. Things seemed normal. I do want to add, that it was raining, showers, nothing major. I have a snorkel intake now, WITH the filter box and a K&N filter. It scared me ****less that I may have hydrolocked, but since I have a filter box still in use and the fact that I never went over a large puddle, calmed me down.
Anyway, the engine started, but would gradually begin vibrating. It was so bad the interior shook. My uncle wonders if this has to do with a broken timing-belt.
My car was towed back to my house, not to the dealer, because the dealer might nag about the stupid minor mod. But, being that a few hours have passed, I tried to start it again. The idle seems normal now in Park, but engaging everything else (AUTO) produces vibration.
I really need some assistance, so if anyone, RANDOM, VISIONZ, anyone can help, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

 

Start with the simple checks.

Pull each spark plug wire to make sure you didn't fry one.

When I fried one not too long ago, I had basically the same symptoms.....

- Car was sluggish and didn't want to accelerate
- Vibrations (prolly due to only 3 cylinders firing)
- Cell light came on

Check to see if you got a bad wire. If not check here again for more possible answers.

 

Pull out the plugs and come back and tell me what color they are...

Im guessing you hydrolocked...

Pull the plugs... tell me the color

Then ill let you know if there "might" be water in the system

To check the crank pulley... its 4 10mm bolts... its easy to take them off...

Check to see if its scuffed

 

I am with Hootie on this one. I would put money on the wires being bad from the way you described it. I have seen a couple do the exact same thing and wires fixed it.

 

Thanks for the quick responses. I'll be checking the spark plugs first. But, I was curious, what would my situation be if it were hyrdrolocking? If it turns out to be, I'm gonna be kicking myself for putting in that snorkel...

 

You might want to check the coil pack as well... ive had one go bad...

 

I seriously doubt you Hydrolocked. If you did, you would KNOW It. Your tailpipe would have belched large clouds of steam for about 60 seconds. I seriously doubt it is the timing belt, but it is fairly easy to remove the top cover to check it's condition.

My first instict was that you just shorted out an electrical system with a splash of water. But you mentioned that the vibration only happens in drive and reverse, but not in park, and that the idle is normal.

What if you rev the engine in park? Smooth? If so, then you also might want to check your tranny. Check your tranny fluid (engine warm, on level ground). If Tranny fluid level is fine, what color is it? It should be redish clear. If it is brown or "milky"...then you should change it first thing. See if the change of fluid helps. (doubtful but possible).

If all electrical systems check out, and the plugs/wires are good, and the tranny fluid is fine, and the problem persists, you might want to have the tranny looked at by a transmission shop. Keep in mind, it may be cheaper to buy a used/rebuilt tranny than to have a shop try to repair it.

 

Random I do believe he said he had only 20k on the veh. his trans. should be unser warr. if I'm not mistaken.

Sorry he did not say how many miles. But check for warr.if it needs a trans.
Sounds to me like elc. problem (loose plug wire, damaged plug wire, ect.) Or you picked up a little water in your C.A.I.
But it would be a good idea to check all your fluids anyhow.

[ October 17, 2002, 10:11 AM: Message edited by: DAWHAT ]

 

Remove the cone filter and convert it back to stock

Under warranty you should be able to get your car towed back to the dealer (5 year service i think or something like that)

A screwed up tranny will cost a lot $$$$

Its best to take the time to convert to stock and get it covered under warranty

 

Yup, yup. It's all good now. After reading all these posts and losing sleep over my car, I finally remembered smelling something in the air, like I fried something. Jaws, after reading your post about the coils, I went out this morning and looked at the wires, and voila, ignition coils went bad! Just called Hyundai and had them pick it up; just recently got call confirming the fact that it was the ignition coil pack.
Like Random said, hydrolocking would kinda be noticable, and since the car didn't die, I suspected something other than hydrolocking. But yea, thanks to Jaws's hydrolocking post, I didn't sleep last nite . Anyway, thanks for all da suggestions, you guys continue to keep the Hyundai community in shape.