Top 5 Problems Hyundai Sonata Sedan 7th Generation 2015-20

Hey, friends, it's Len here from 1A Auto. Today, we have a 7th Generation Hyundai Sonata inside the studio, and I want to go over some of the top problems that we've come to find with it. Let's get started.

Now, for our first problem on this, you know me, I'm going to talk about safety. We're going to talk about the airbag on this, and I'm not talking about all the airbags because it has plenty of them. We're going to talk about this left front one, right inside the steering column. Now, airbags are going to be super important inside any passenger vehicle. Everybody knows that, we all learned to love them and, of course, we're going to be wearing our seatbelt. But on the airbag that's inside of this actual steering column here/steering wheel, it actually has an issue with one of the seals that goes along it. So, theoretically, what could happen is the seal could actually open up sooner than what it should, not make a nice puffy cushion right here for a nice, you know, pillow just in case, and it might actually make it so you end up giving your head a little bonk on the steering wheel. Obviously, nobody wants any of this. A safety item like this is something that we need to talk about, which is why we, kind of, really wanted to get this into the studio. And also, it's something that's generally covered under a recall. So, just go ahead and get a service appointment for free really.

Now, for our second problem, we're going to continue hanging out inside the car because I got to tell you, it's kind of a nice comfy seat, but it's gonna come down to the steering column once again. This one's going to be, kind of, more of a noise that's located inside here. You're going to have a little bit of a hard time trying to locate it because it's going to be hidden behind all these plastics. But essentially, what it's going to come down to is a little worm gear that's part of the joining system for this. So, as I'm turning the steering wheel, it's going to be going down this worm gear, which is going to essentially make it so it can turn the wheels way down at the end by the power steering rack. When you hear the noise inside there, generally, it means that there's an issue inside of that worm gear. And generally, it just comes down to replacing it. Some people might try to clean it off and maybe even try to relubricate it, but if you've got that kind of noise, more than likely the damage is already done. This is kind of an advanced repair. It is something that you could technically do in the driveway, but you definitely want to follow the procedure very strictly.

Now, while we're still inside the car, let's talk about the third problem. You go to start the car after it's been sitting, and the first five to six seconds, I can almost hear a noise. It's a very strange noise, but it's coming from under the engine compartment there or inside the engine department. Let's get under the hood and take a look. Okay. So, now that we're under the hood, we need to think about one thing. Are you up to maintenance? What I mean by that specifically is have you done your oil change recently? If your oil is dirty or low, that's something that you're definitely gonna want to service because if your engine's either of those, you're obviously going to have some noise going on from inside your engine. Other than that, though, if you did happen to find that you are up-to-date on your maintenance and the oil is perfect as it should be, you're going to have an issue that's actually inside of the engine, right about this side of the passenger side and that's going to be a timing chain tensioner.

Now, servicing the timing chain tensioner on this isn't necessarily going to be the easiest job. It is a little bit more advanced and just like all the rest of the things, I'm sorry about that. But here we go. I want to pay attention down along the passenger side of this. And what we're going to do is we're going to start it up and we're going to take a listen. And if we can hear the noise coming from inside around this area, whether you have a stethoscope or even a pry bar and you can just lean it up against there as you start on the initial start after sitting for a couple of hours, if you hear a chattering noise coming from inside here, that's going to tell you that you do have the issue with the timing chain tensioner. If that's happening, then you're going to obviously want to replace the timing chain tensioner. While you're in there, you would, of course, inspect everything else, and assuming everything else is good, then you should be good to go.

Now, let's talk about our fourth problem on these. And that, we're going to stick right along the belting system, right along here. On the 1.6 turbo engines, you're going to have an issue because you have a manual adjusting serpentine belt on that. Essentially, what I mean by that is that there's going to be two bolts on the alternator and one of those bolts is going to be attached to an actual adjuster unit. What happens on these, though, is that the adjuster bolt that goes through the adjusting unit tends to freeze up for some reason. It's very common. You can try to spray it down with some penetrant and if you're smart enough, maybe you could even be proactive on this and just, kind of, loosen it up, put some grease, tighten it back up, make sure it's adjusted. Unfortunately, a lot of times people don't necessarily think about this type of thing, so it gets very rusted, it gets frozen inside there, you go to adjust it, the bolt breaks off. Well, at this point, now you have to either service that or you have to try to replace it. Generally, you can get the unit as an assembly and you shouldn't really have to replace the alternator at the same time.

Now, for problem number five on this particular car, we're going to talk about an issue with acceleration. For this particular issue, you're going to have a couple of different symptoms. One of them is just kind of the name of the title, an issue with acceleration. You step on that gas pedal and it just doesn't want to go. Maybe it, kind of, just goes a little bit, but it won't get you into traffic like you need it to. And this is going to happen on different engines. So, there's multiple engines that actually have this issue and you might even find a check engine light code, and it's probably going to come up saying something along the lines of P1326 or something like that. And essentially, what that's going to come down to is you have an internal engine issue going on. It's not necessarily something that I would want to do in my driveway. I would like to have a nice cushy studio or even a garage, but it's definitely something that's a lot more advanced, kind of like a lot of the other things that I've been talking about in this video.

With that said, I hope you liked the video. If you did, smash on the like button for me. It would mean the world. If you've got one of these cars or another car of your own but a story of your own, leave it in the comment section below because I always love to hear from you. While you're at it, go ahead and subscribe and ring the bell, that way you can be kept up with all of our latest content. Thanks.