Hi Scotty. My brother introduced me to your videos on youtube when I started having trouble with my 2018 Hyundai Tucson SEL. Mileage is about 122K. In June it would not accelerate. I took it in the mechanic said it was a plugged catalytic converter. It never tripped the check engine light before I took it in, just couldn't get it to go faster than 50 and was worried my transmission was going out so I took it in. They replaced catalytic converter. 6 weeks later check engine code P0420 comes on. Take it back to mechanic said O2 sensor in front of catalytic converter bad. They also recommended a cleaner for the gas to make sure the catalytic converter hadn't plugged at all since O2 sensor was bad. Did both of those. The front wheel well cover caught on the tire and partially ripped away 20 miles down the road. Mechanic said wasn't them so I need to replace that myself. They said the car was down 2 quarts of oil each time I took it in. I am having the oil changed at 3000 miles or before which is usually before every 3-4 months. Mechanic said to run some cleaner through the next oil change to clean any gunk out of the engine. I had them do that. 15 miles later the check engine light came on and it was the same P0420 code. Mechanic said must be something else in the catalyst system. I have no idea what that means. I've put over $2k into this car this summer. I've lost faith in the car and the mechanic. I still owe on this car and if I traded it I might break even. Just looking for some honesty about whether I should keep driving this car and whether you think the problems are really minor and I'm being fleeced or whether I should trade the car. This is our only car for our household of 4. I'm the only driver in the house but most of the time I have my 84 year old mother, my blind husband and my 8 year old in the car, so I need something reliable that I can trust. I'm hesitant at buying a used car because I bought this one used and it's been such a problem. (We've owned it for 3 years. Bought with 40K miles.) We live in Montana and have checked the dealers within 100 miles of us and no one has new cars on the lot to look at, they just want you to put money down and order one. What are your thoughts on our Tucson. Could we get some more use out of it or should we trade it in? Thanks Linda
All of the symptoms and solutions could happen to any car and you could chalk it up to dumb luck except one. The oil consumption. That's a lot of oil in 3 thousand miles especially on a car that's 4 years old. That probably caused the catalytic converter to fail. It was just overwhelmed with hydrocarbons from un-burned oil. It will fail again with that kind of oil consumption. I take it your in rural Montana so the majority of your driving is highway which should have extended the life of the car. You should at the very least contact Hyundai. Sound like you need an engine. If it you can't get Hyundai to fix it and if it still runs do a Carvana so whoever gets it won't know you or where you live. It's sad. I like Hyundia and Kia and especially the Tuscon. Sound like whoever you bought it from unloaded a lemon on you.
Whoever is working on your vehicle either doesn't know what they're doing or is fleecing you on purpose. I would -
A. Find an honest independent mechanic or
B. Get rid of it as soon as possible
If your are burning that much oil, the rings and hence the engine are shot. I would pick plan B.
I would pick both, A&B.
You’re not the original owner, so Hyundai might not be interested in fixing the oil consumption..
I would recommend you offload it as-is without burning any more money on this vehicle.
The trouble is, what will you replace it with? Can you find any RAV4/CR-V near you?
