Hyundai Sonata shifted onto recall list, 883K vehicles may feature a gear glitch

By Mark Hawver, Tech Times | July 30, 6:17 PM

Like Follow Share Tweet Reddit0 Comments SUBSCRIBE

Close to 900,000 Hyundai Sonatas are being recalled for gear shift problems. A cable in the transmission could separate from the gear shift, leading to unwanted vehicle movement or failure to start.
(Photo : Hyundai.com)

Shifting gears in our ongoing series of automobile recall stories, we bring news of the recall of 883,000 Hyundai Sonatas for gear-shifting problems.

All of these cars were sold in the U.S., with 3,000 of them sold in Puerto Rico.

The recall involves the 2011-2014 Sonata, a midsized car that is Hyundai's second best selling car after the Elantra.

It seems that the automatic transmission shift cable might detach from the shift lever pin. Should that occur, the gear selection indicator may not show the correct gear -- drive could actually be reverse, drive could be neutral, etc.

Compounding the risk, a driver may put the transmission in park, but the car may still be in gear. It could then roll away, risking injury to drivers, passengers, and bystanders.

In some cases the driver may not be able to shift the car into park, which would prohibit re-starting the vehicle.

Hyundai reports 1,171 warranty claims related to the problem, but they report no crashes or injuries.

Sonatas being recalled were manufactured from Dec. 11, 2009, through May 29, 2014.

The next step is for Hyundai for notify owners by mail starting now and going through the end of September. Hyundai dealers will inspect the cables and make repairs as necessary.

In addition to this recall, Hyundai is also recalling 5,650 just-introduced 2015 Sonatas in the U.S. and Puerto Rico for front brake calipers that may crack, possibly leading to brake failure and raising the risk of a crash, according to the NHTSA.

This recall consists primarily of a stop-sale order to Hyundai dealers, as only 200 of these Sonatas are in consumers' possession. Owners of these cars have already been contacted by Hyundai and told to not drive their cars. Dealers will replace the calipers at no cost.

The 2015 Sonata was also recalled last month for a faulty wiring harness that could impair the power steering by significantly increasing steering effort. The defect could also prevent drivers from moving the shift lever out of the park position.

Korean industrial company Hyundai's Sonata was designed in California and is manufactured in the U.S. in Alabama.

With these last three recalls, Hyundai joins the bumper crop of vehicle recalls in 2014, which stands at 40 million vehicles and counting, already easily passing last year's entire total and surpassing the all-time record set in 2004.

Neutral-Thinker

9 Apr 16, 08:11

These are the Sonatas that were manuctured in USA.

Don't know whether the Sonata taxis in Singapore were manufactured and designed in South Korea or USA.

But I also had gear problems with two out of six Sonatas that I have driven before.

Once the problemd recovered by itself in 5 minutes after I used manual overwrite to change gear.

The other time, the vechile had to be towed back to the workshop.

getcarter

9 Apr 16, 09:44

Here got ppl still drive pte sonata meh?

Neutral-Thinker

9 Apr 16, 13:39

Originally posted by getcarter:

Here got ppl still drive pte sonata meh?

I often see them on the street but not too many compared to BMWs and Mercedes.

After driving Sonatas for more than a year, my accessment of Sonata is still good. At least it could go 1 million KMs with not too much problems and it seems to be overall substantially cheaper than the previous make of car Comfort was using..

I sometimes talked with mechanics and car owners and found out that many luxury cars also have problems here and there. Also often in the news we hear Japanese manufacturers having factory recalls for defects.

bowah

9 Apr 16, 13:49

Sonatas here are make in Korea, but car making today is not about where it is make, it is about where the parts come from, today, many OEM parts are manufactured in cheap labour cost and location places like China, India and Indonesia under OEM quality control. It is then assembled in car factory where all parts are joined and the car is produced, therefore, it could be a supply chain issue, and as we know that jap and Korean executives are also corrupted, they may offer to firm who bribed them and produce out of cheap stuff. Corruption in these countries are seldom reported due to their culture of not wanting to be embarrass, shame and also for reputation sake.