I am experiencing engine hesitation. My 2013 Hyundai Sonata 2.0T Limited intermittently gets stuck at either 15-20 mph or 35-40 mph and will not accelerate.
A few times, I had to pull over and restart the car because it was so bad, and taking my foot off the gas and trying to accelerate
didn’t do any good.
There are less than 42,000 miles on this car, and I have religiously taken it in for routine maintenance.
When I took it to the dealer, they checked everything on their computer and did not get a single error code.
They also stated that they could not duplicate the problem.
I then took my car to an independent mechanic where I get it serviced on a regular basis. He also could not get an error code to come up, but did say he felt that
there was an issue when he test drove it that was similar to what I was experiencing. He thinks there may be something wrong with the turbo and recommended
I take it to yet another dealer since it should be covered under warranty.
I noticed that I no longer hear the turbo winding down when I turn off the ignition, which seems unusual, and there is definitely a loss of power.
Is there anything I should ask the mechanic to check to see what's causing this since the error codes aren't showing anything?
Thank you!
Kevin
@rockerchild13
I have a 2013 Hyundai Sonata. There is a Class Action Lawsuit involving the engine, hesitation losing oil, but no oil light comes on. My car is drinking a quart a month. You can check on the main website for hyundai. My car has 110,00 miles on it, I’m facing having to buy another car. I hope you’re problem gets better.
Wow, sounds like an interesting problem. Just curious though, what oil rating do you use? I ask this because I had a very similar problem with my turbocharged 2016 BMW a few months ago. When I would try to accelerate, my car would noticeably hesitate and jerk around for a few seconds and then accelerate normally. I was very confused because no codes were showing up, and I data logged only to find no issues (no misfires, no boost drops, etc.). However, I did find a shadow code using special BMW software saying that there was "super-knocking" on cylinder 4. This type of knocking is detrimental to the engine if left unaddressed! After doing research, super-knocking, or low speed pre-ignition, is common on newer turbocharged engines, and it mainly happens at low speed, high load situations. The main cause is due to the oil vapors burning inside the engine from the crankcase breathing system. Turbocharged engines use very high compression, but vaporized oil has a low octane rating so it will ignite prematurely and cause the entire mixture in the cylinder to ignite AS the piston is moving upwards. This is the hesitation you feel. This is why there is a new API SN+ oil rating specifically to address low speed pre-ignition. Now this may or may not be the case for your situation. I'm just basing this all off of your description. I would check to see what oil rating you are using and maybe give SN+ a try. When I switched to SN+, my problem went away. I suggest maybe doing some data logging if you're able to...it is crucial to figuring out specifically what is going on. You can't just base everything off of codes.
Also, the turbocharger having an issue would result in over/under boost codes. But again, even with no code, data logging will show what's really happening. You may see that not enough boost is being built, but it may not be significant enough for the ECU to store a code about it.
@razmigb
Hi Razmig, Thank you for your response. I took my Hyundai back to the dealer and they replaced the brake pedal stopper which they said was binding against the pedal, causing false brake actuation. That did help with the hesitation, but I am still experiencing issues with very slow acceleration. I have been using a semi-synthetic 5W 30 in Arizona. Do you have any recommendations for how I can do the data logging? Thanks!
Oh, I would not be using semi-synthetic in a turbocharged car. I would switch to full synthetic with that API SN+ rating I was talking about. All auto manufacturers require full synthetic oils in their turbocharged engines (you want high quality oil to lubricate both the engine AND turbo). As for data logging, you can get yourself one of those Bluetooth scan tools that can connect to an app on your phone to log data. BlueDriver or OBDLink MX+ are great ones. You can select what information you want to graph while driving and then save it as an excel file. So maybe you want to plot engine rpm, turbo boost/intake manifold pressure, oil pressure/temperature, and ignition timing...just to give an idea. Always plot engine rpm so that you can see at what engine speed a potential issue occurs. Hope this gives you some advice to diagnose the problem!
I would check the turbo performance. The point you mentioned that you don’t hear the turbo when you shut off the car, indicates that the turbo is not functioning either due to the oil or any other thing. Check it out with a professional mechanic.
Get rid of that car while you can. I had a 2013 Hyundai Sonata 2.0t as well and it caught on fire out of nowhere after I only owned it for a month. Now there is a class action lawsuit against Hyundai because of engine seizures and fires
