Hey Scotty,
I have a 2014 Hyundai Accent that I bought new in late 2013, the car jas the port injected 1.4 gamma engine mated to a 4 speed automatic transmission and it has 205,000 km. Oil is changed every 10,000 km as per owner's manual, transmission fluid and filter every 70,000 km.
Lately I have been hearing loud ticking noise on cold starts, sometimes it sounds like a diesel engine, do you think it is piston slap? Also the transmission started to slip going from 3rd to 4th and now I'm hesitant to replace the fluid.
Worst case scenario, how long can I drive it before it falls apart?
Cold start
https://youtu.be/Rrz-E_xWnR0
Warm engine start
https://youtu.be/xye9-7eQLPM
Thanks in advance!
Make a YouTube video of the noise & post the link here.
You’re already on borrowed time.
Either get rid of it ASAP or drive it as-is till the wheels fall off.
Modern Hyundai products start to fall apart >100,000 miles and yours has just begun its death spiral..
What kind of engine oil you use in this Accent? Does the ticking noise go away after engine warms up to its operating temperature?
In any case, have your engine and exhaust manifold checked. H/K Gamma engines have a catalytic converter installed inside the exhaust manifold, and in many cases it gets overheated and starts to fall apart. Since most cats are made of ceramic nowadays, this ceramic dust gets sucked into the combustion chamber and damages the cylinders, which in turn leads to engine knocking and increased oil consumption.
In Russia, many Hyundai Accent (known as "Solaris" here) and Kia Rio owners actually remove the cat and reflash the ECU to make it ignore the second oxygen sensor. It will result in worse exhaust emissions, but at least your engine will be safe. Another option to try is to use "catalytic converter friendly" motor oils, specced as ACEA C group. ACEA C2 is a good oil spec that is very easy on the cat and has pretty low viscosity, suitable for Gamma engines. ACEA C3 may work too, but these are a bit thicker, so I don't recommend using those unless you live in a very hot area and put a lot of stress on your engine.
Also, there's a third option: replace the cat with an aftermarket one. It'll probably perform a bit worse, but you can use a metal-made one to eliminate the risk of it falling apart.
I use shell helix hx8 5w30 fully synthetic oil. I live in Saudi Arabia, the coldest I've ever seen in my life is 0 degrees celsius, I'll try to investigate the exhaust manifold and cats, Thanks!
Shell Helix HX8 5W-30 is not bad, provided that it's genuine and conforms to either ACEA A5/B5, C2 or ILSAC GF-5 spec (yes, there are motor oils that are seemingly identical, but actually made to meet different specs and standarts). Actually, since it's rarely freezing in your area, you can try a 10W-30 oil if you drive a lot (e.g. you do a lot of highway driving, as opposed to short-trip city driving). If you do a lot of city driving, though, try 0W-30 oil — it'll put less stress on your engine during cold starts.
Its a situation of everything falling apart. You should have changed the engine oil a bit more frequent like every 8.000km but that wouldn't have helped on such a car. Hyundais, especially the Accent, are cheaper cars and don't tend to last much beyond 200k km, if you get lucky. I'd say drive it until it falls apart if you can't get a good amount of money for it.
As I mentioned earlier in another post, Accents/Solaris/Rios are considered "immortal" in Russia, and they manage to easily live through 400~600 thousand kilometers of use in taxis, of all places. 😉
But of course it depends on how (and where) the car was built and how it's (ab)used.
@spijet
Yes, but either way they are cheaply made. I know and see them lasting 200-300k km in other countries, and they generally reach 100-140k miles (160-220k km) here in the states. For some its enough, for some its not.
But for the sake of relevancy, an 8 year old Accent with 200.000km is worth basically nothing.
True, especially if it has a transmission problem. 🙁