s/o car issues - Car stalling for unknown reason

[mcsangel2]

I sort of hope that Aquatica will see this and ask her DH's opinion since it was helpful on the other thread.

DH has a 2013 Hyundai Elantra with 70,000 miles that ran fine until a couple of weeks ago. On Tues 1/28, it stalled while he was in stop and go traffic on the freeway coming home. Nearly got hit. He said everything on the dash lit up and then the engine died. Restarted, but no acceleration power. He was able to drive it very slowly, to safety, continued on, and it stalled again near home. Same thing happened. An hour later, the tow guy was able to drive it normally. He had it towed to our regular mechanic, who spent 4 hours the next day either running a computer on it or driving it around trying to duplicate the problem. No codes came up and he could not get it to stall. He recommended we take it to the dealership.

We picked it up and DH drove it as normal on Thursday and Friday. On Fri 1/31 coming home, the exact same thing happened (except he was on surface streets this time, too nervous to drive on the freeway). He said this time, he was able to drive it normally after 20 minutes. We took it to Hyundai, who has done all the regular mainentance since we bought it 7 years ago, who has had it in their posession since 2/1. Except for Sat and Suns, they have worked with it every day and they say they cannot duplicate the problem and they can't get any codes, they have supposedly driven it more than 200 miles now, trying to duplicate the same conditions (DH left detailed notes).

We've been making do with one car because thankfully we work somewhat close together, but DH has had to alter his schedule to fit mine. They've had it for two weeks and they can't even make a suggestion as to what is wrong. They won't without a code. DH asked for a loaner, twice, and was told we don't qualify. 

WTH? They won't even make a guess? I'm not sure I quite believe them that they can't duplicate it, given it died on DH twice in three days. But what the heck are we supposed to do? I don't think the car has magically repaired itself. 

[carmenere]

I had a similar (terrifying) experience in my old 2009 Chevy Aveo which the dealership couldn't replicate, and it turned out that the spark plugs were bad.

[cmeon]

Do you remember if he'd just bought gas? This could be any number of things, but, it sure sounds like shitty (watery) gas. Or possibly fuel pressure issues- but, I imagine the mechanics would have suspected/diagnosed that already.

[mcsangel2]

Feb 14, 2020 15:39:24 GMT -5 carmenere said:

I had a similar (terrifying) experience in my old 2009 Chevy Aveo which the dealership couldn't replicate, and it turned out that the spark plugs were bad.

How did you find the problem?

[yentl]

DH had a similar issue with our 2010 Elantra. There was a recall with something... it was repaired and fixed the issue. You may want to call the dealer to check if it's something like that.

[mcsangel2]

Feb 14, 2020 16:03:40 GMT -5 yentl said:

DH had a similar issue with our 2010 Elantra. There was a recall with something... it was repaired and fixed the issue. You may want to call the dealer to check if it's something like that.

They do have recalls on 2010-2014 Sonatas and Santa Fes, but not Elantras. We looked into it. I assume whatever your issue was was different.

[sakura]

Something similar happened to me with an old car. It was scary as hell because it would stall out with no warning on the expressway. I had so many random parts replaced because they couldn’t find the problem and couldn’t replicate it. It turned out that some wiring in the anti-theft system was bad and at high vibrations the wires would short out and kill the engine.

[alleinesein]

When my car was stalling out for no reason (usually when I hit the gas after stopping), it was a bad 02 sensor. It doesn't always show up on the codes.

I dont know if there are any online forums for your hubby's car but if there are, he should do a quick google search to see if others have talked about the same issue and what they did to fix it.

[mcsangel2]

We essentially believe it's a bad engine/piston defect - same thing that led to the recall of the 2010-2014 sonatas and Santa Fes, but somehow, according to this article, Hyundai seems to have been able to get the class action lawsuit dismissed.

topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news/851141-hyundai-elantra-class-action-lawsuit-alleges-piston-defect/

It seems like, as long as Hyundai can't get a code (and they wouldn't), they can claim they don't know what the issue is and they can't be on the hook for repairs. Our car is past the 60k warranty anyway, but I think the engine would still be covered under the 100k powertrain warranty.

At this point, we are pretty well resigned to the idea of getting a new car (which sucks because we JUST replaced my old car 3 months ago). I just...wondered if there was anything we could do to force Hyundai's hand.

[DotAndBuzz]

Definitely check the online forums to see what they say. The Piloteers forum (on pro boards, incidentally), has given me a ton of insight about issues with my Pilot. I never post, but every time I have a problem with it (which is effing constantly), I look online at my model year forum and sure enough, there's a giant thread with that exact issue, and how people have dealt with it. The most helpful one was where they ended up replacing my transmission just shy of 3 years of ownership. Since it's such an expensive fix, Honda was dragging their feet, but after reading the forum and seeing what other people did/tried, I knew how to approach it so the dealer would stop bullshitting me.

Not sure if it's anywhere close to what you're dealing with, but they just replaced my ignition switch (push button) because of my car doing something similar. In stop and go, it would light up the whole dashboard, then give a brakes warning, then stall out/turn off until I restarted it

[gibbinator]

We just had that happen with a 2018 truck. Dh was driving it, went to turn into a parking lot and bam it died completely cutting off access/exit to the store. Couldn't get it going. Had to get it towed.
The dealership tried to figure out the problem but no errors showed up on their computer. It spontaneously started working again. They fiddled with connections and sent it back to us.
Then it stalled again while driving a couple weeks later. Got it towed. Same thing.
Then it stalled again a few weeks later...

Long story short, this went on for 2 months before we gave up, sold damn thing back to them at a reasonable price (they lowballed us and we were like no, you said it's running great so take it) and got a new vehicle. Who knows what was ever wrong with it.

[Aquatica]

My H says:

"If you have the 10 yr/100,000 mile warranty that comes with most Hyaundai and Kai vehicles, the dealer requires there to be an active fault to authorize a repair and to assist with diagnostics. What it sounds like is a crank shaft, crank shaft position sensor, cam shaft position sensor, ignition signal loss, or ignition module signal loss. These things are continually required to put out signals as you drive to keep the engine running. All these are common reasons but if you send me your engine size, I'll look up common faults associated with your vehicle. If your vehicle is under warranty, the dealership will be hesitant to test these items individually with a multimeter but that is what is required with an intermittent engine control sensor problem. If it's not under warranty, the local mechanic you use needs to do those tests. The normal operating details of engine control sensors are on the internet to reference. Two types of tests exist for the sensors: unplugged isolated ohms test will diagnose the sensor itself and a plugged in and operating sensor while back probing with a multimeter will diagnose the control circuit (is it getting what it needs?). Expect to pay up to 3hr of diagnostic time for just the mentioned sensors but by no means could that be the extent of your issue. Keep in mind, you're chasing an intermittent problem and also if there are no history codes for the check engine light then there is no direction or system to pinpoint the diagnostic approach. Decide now how much time, money, and effort this car is worth to you. Too common with an issues like this, it will nickle and dime you and become a money pit."

[carmenere]

Feb 14, 2020 15:58:16 GMT -5 mcsangel2 said:

Feb 14, 2020 15:39:24 GMT -5 carmenere said:

I had a similar (terrifying) experience in my old 2009 Chevy Aveo which the dealership couldn't replicate, and it turned out that the spark plugs were bad.

How did you find the problem?

It’s been so long now I don’t recall exactly how they figured it out. My car stalled a couple times and occasionally did this weird shaking thing, so i took it in. The mechanic couldn’t replicate it so he told me it must be a one-off thing. Then it stalled again (in a low-traffic situation) so I brought it back to the dealership, and on the way there it stalled in the middle of the interstate. When I finally got there I went in with guns blazing and demanded that they check every single damn thing.

[wildrice]

No idea what the problem is, but I would take it to an independent mechanic and see if they can find an issue. If the dealership isn't helpful maybe they are being shady. Unless you need something huge like a new engine, paying for a mechanic to fix it out of warrantee is likely cheaper than buying a whole new car.