The short version of the story: the accent started misfiring Wed night so I replaced all of the spark plugs. However the coilpack on cly3 had oil all over it to the point it was dripping (though slightly). It worked and continues to work, but that's not likely to last.



Yesterday morning I took the car to the dealer and he said oil on the coilpack is "normal." Maybe on my Tib at 150k+, but a 3 year old Accent that as close to mechanically immaculate as possible, there is no excuse for this. Then he went on to tell me that the valve cover gasket and o-rings need to be replaced as part of the 30k incremental service.



It took me 2 hours of working them over and being my tenacious a**hole self before they offered to consider the warranty repair. I've never had this problem with a Hyundai Dealer. Ford every time, but a Hyundai dealer never.







So pissed.

 

I'm considering another car other than Hyundai if I buy new again just because of the crappy service department. When my wife's car was new and in warranty we did the oil changes and maintenance at the dealer. On a previous visit to the dealership they flushed the transmission and the rad (they were due according to the mileage). While waiting for the car the next time (oil change only), I was sitting in the waiting area. A service advisor comes over and tells me my trans oil and coolant are in horrible shape and I'm over due to change them, I can cause LOTS of damage to the car if they aren't done right away, blah, blah, blah. After he finished I advised him they were JUST done last visit and why is he trying to sell me stuff I don't need, AND lie to me about the condition of the fluids. All the other customers in the waiting area starting getting interested now. He didn't have much to say other than he was sorry and he must have mixed up the files. When I pointed out he was holding and looking at my file and info while talking to me he mumbled something and when back to his desk. I asked for the service manager, told him what had happened and NEVER went back for service again. I got that oil change for free too. I've been back there several times since to buy parts, and haven't seen that service advisor again.

 

If it's an automatic, and if it's anything like the RD platform, he may have been right. The stock ATF cooler was deficient, and the oil was burned (dark brown) within 10,000 miles. This IS a recipe for disaster, and Hyundai made it that way.

 

The 07 Accent has had zero maintance since 40000 kms and its at 100000 now. Just oil changes. I consider the car disposable, so we will see how long it goes for, but may be traded in before we find out. My 04 on the other hand get the best of everything and is MINT.

 

you're up for a timing belt, or you may be disposing of the car sooner than you anticipate.

 

The manual says replace the timing belt at 60k, that seems a bit soon to me, but better to spend the money now than when the engine fries.

iirc the Tib said 90k and I can't imagine that there is much difference between the two.

 

timing belt on the rd tibs was due at 60k miles. back when they were late model vehicles, one could find a tib with 70k miles for pretty damn cheap due to the owners realizing they had to spend thousands around that time frame and would trade them in instead.



60k service back then was ~$350 bux and the timing belt was ~$450 iirc. that didnt include pulleys or water pump either. just the belt.



iirc hyundai switched belt companies and rated em at 90k miles but realized if the belt broke sooner than 90k they had to warranty the repair and switched it back to 60k miles so they could blame the consumer for not replacing it.



ive bought, fixed, and sold a few hyundais that had timing belts snap. made good money