I have owned a 2014 Hyundai Veloster Turbo with a dual clutch automatic transmission for 3 years, as my highschool car. Bought at ~80,000 mi and currently sitting at 108,000 mi.
During the years I was in highschool, I had no idea what was and wasnt bad for the car. every single day I would idle this car for hours on end (on average it would be idled for at least 4 hours a day just so I could skip class and listen to music) And on weekends I would idle the car for up to 9 hours straight as it sat in the same spot that entire time. When i say this car has spent more time in idle, engine on and not moving at all, more than it has been driven on the road, I am not joking or lying in any sense. Not to mention I beat the crap outa the car because I was young and it was somewhat quick.
How much damage could I have done to the car by letting it idle more than actually drive it? It feels super sluggish and doesnt accelerate right until im at about 20mph. When I rev the engine black and white smoke comes out of the exhaust, its almost greyish. The only time it even remotely seems to run correctly is when the gas tank is almost empty. I burn oil slowly when im driving it normal but if I drive quickly and get my rpms up I can smell the oil burning a lot more intensly. No codes tripped but the car is garbage, or it feels like it is. Its incredibly hard to drive because it feels like the road is yanking me all over the place and its just all around a sketchy feeling vehicle to be behind the wheel of. The trans also slips like hell for 1st through 3rd gear then it smoothes out.
I basically want to know
A. What kind of damage did Idling the car for that long and so consistantly do to my engines internals
B. What I can do to the car to at least help it get a little more life out of it (If anything)
Thanks for the read and let me know what you think! I now have a 96 4runner manual as my backup car that runs like a clock even with 230000 on the odo so Im not entirely concerned on this one anymore
The Hyundai-Kia Gamma T-GDI engine is not your typical modern engine - It's just a regular gamma engine (pretty much the same one as you'd find in a 2006 Elantra) with both direct gasoline injection and a turbocharger just hastily slapped on it without the major modifications you'd need to make it last.
The results were that the cylinder sleeves would rapidly deteriorate, but the worst design flaw was that the engine's original spark plugs (not meant for the pressures inside the cylinder) were literally falling apart. When the spark plugs fell apart - they just destroyed the cylinder's internal lining. Furthermore, Hyundai-Kia's turbocharger (I think it's a BorgWarner unit) was terrible, it would literally begin leaking and sending oil into the intake of the engine even on practically brand new cars.
A kid putting some an eBay no-name turbocharger probably has done a better engineering and parts picking job then Hyundai-Kia 😆
As far as the jerking, The transmission on your vehicle is a very early dual clutch automatic, I remember people had a lot of complaints on these - in most cases they're extraordinarily jerky - usually the first thing to fail are the clutch pack and their actuators and by your description they might be starting to also go out.
When you're idling in a dual clutch automatic, in the P position it might actually already select 1st gear and is just hanging on the clutch (at least that's the case with some Ford products, I'm unsure on the Hyundai D6GF1). You should open a repair manual and check what are the fork positions in P - cause in many cases you should switch to N and then you're not sitting clutched in for hours wearing down not only the clutch frictions but the clutch assembly it self.
In general, when you're idling most older engines are in a low load state (as if you're slowly driving on the highway), I do idle my naturally aspirated Ford DuraTec quite a bit and except for lowering my timing-belts' life-span, needing to change the oil earlier - I don't run a risk of causing any significant engine wear.
Ideally if you don't need AC, you can sit in your car with the key in the "Radio" position - most cars will even let you use the fan to blow air. Just remember that you'll need to replace the battery quite a bit earlier as you're discharging it much more then in regular driving.
On a more modern engine, the idle is typically set much lower (causing the operation not to be as smooth and load to be high), there are just more moving parts that will fail (like turbochargers), and the timing chains do tend to get stretched when it's a high-load low RPM scenario. (with hybrids that shut off and start up their engine every ~5 minutes of idling this is even worse)
You might be able find a cheap low millage complete engine in a junk yard and if you can verify that your transmission is in good shape, it might be worth a try. just don't spend any real money on it... these modern Hyundai-Kias just do not last...
TLDR;
IMO the car is done for - I'd just get rid of it.
To answer your question - A LOT.
The first thing I would do is clean out the throttle body and MAF sensor with their respective cleaners. Those might be dirty and you could be running slightly rich. That can cause smoky exhaust. I doubt that's actually the case from how you describe your driving habits, but it's worth $8 to find out.
Run your finger Inside the lip of the tailpipe. If it's carboned up, that tells you it's running rich and if it's oily, you're probably burning oil, which I'm guessing is the issue. Beating the hell out of a turbo wears it out that much quicker, especially if you didn't keep up on the oil levels (increased friction and less cooling, oil cools the turbo). It also wears the engine out purely due to the wear very high speeds cause, so monitor the oil level. That will help indicate the wear on the rings, valve seals, turbo, etc. If it noticeably drops, like a quart every 1,000 miles or less, stuff is pretty shot.
IIdling for a really long time, even if it doesn't overheat, can really mess with things. The engine bay is cramped in modern cars and it traps heat, which embrittles plastic parts under the hood, not to mention it stresses out the cooling system and fans. I would check all of those to make sure they work correctly.
I mean... it's a Gamma engine that's making 200hp. from my experience with those, 110k miles with those driving habits is about what I'd expect one of those to last.
I agree that modern engine are too cramped and that plastic is overused 😩
I'm not very knowledgeable on that particular engine, or Kias in general, so I was going on just general engine knowledge. Usually smoke is a bad sign, but could be benign. I was under the impression something that looks as intimidating as those Velosters would tolerate crazy driving up to at least 150k. But it depends on maintenance, as anything else. I guess that means stay away from a used one! 110k is not hard to hit these days.
Yeah although I'd recommend staying away from any modern Hyundai-Kia product.
On the old ones you could buy a $13k brand new car and get ~150k miles out of it (with some repairs but usually nothing over $1k)
- the new ones are expensive, complex, and very poorly engineered...