Just A Car Guy: Veloster

Showing posts with label Veloster. Show all posts

Thursday, February 02, 2023

here's the cost of a dealership replacement engine, shortblock, to the factory - because they have to build it, and not get a crate engine from inventory. Seems that event though the warranty is 10 years, the factory did not stock engines for warranty replacement

10,800... and that is nearly twice what the blue book is on the car, my commuter, a 2015 Veloster.

the bottom section is an optional 1000 dollar kit of parts that they'd like to upsell me on, to make the reinstall go smoother for the techs, who then could throw away all the small stuff, and not have to keep track of it, and install all new stuff.

I'm going to go through the itemized list of what is in the kit, but I can tell you, that spark plugs, and hose clamps, are in there. Fuck no I'm not paying for new hose clamps, and the spark plugs were just replaced 30,000 miles ago, so no, not paying for new ones of those, AGAIN, and since it's going to take time I don't have just now to see what else there is, I'll update this when I do

Monday, January 09, 2023

this is what 700 miles of oil loss looks like on my car's engine... 1.6 quarts lost in 700 miles of normal use, a round trip from San Diego to Vegas and back, for the CES convention

and for the past 10000 miles, I've had to get the dealership to measure how much oil my 2015 Hyundai Veloster is losing, because it's under warranty, BUT, the dealerships do not diagnose and repair engine oil excessive consumption. They do a series of tests to measure and document the amount of oil the engine is losing, leaking, or burning. Since they haven't found a leak in 2 years, it must be getting burnt up.

But that is not something that gets diagnosed and fixed.

Instead, the engine is replaced if after all the time, tests, and effort can not figure out what the cause is of the excessive oil consumption.

so, I've had to waste time at the dealership every 1000 miles, to wait while they figure out how much oil it's burnt up lately.

this upcoming one will be the 6th test it has proven to use up more than 1 quart, PER 1000 miles driven

and this is the survey they email to customers....

well, last time I was there, last Thursday morning because on getting my car back from the 7 weeks after I had proven that no magic had yet occurred, to reduce the amount of oil my car was burning up - as the trip to SEMA finished off another 1000 miles, and due to the trip, I had driven 1254 miles, and it used 1.72 quarts of oil... but I digress. The dealership overfilled the oil, and starting a test to measure how much is used, with more than it is designed to be filled with, changes the outcome of the test.

So I had to go back and get the oil drained to precisely "Full" and no more, no less. That is how you start a test of liquid measurement loss, you must know exactly how much you start with. So last Thursday morning I was 1st customer of the day, so it would take the least amount of time, as the tech/mechanics would have no workload yet.

And it took them 90 minutes until I lost my patience and had to ask what was taking so long.

That was the 1st indication to the service manager that his repeat customer that has an oil loss problem, was waiting 3 times longer for an oil change (drain to proper level) than is normal (20 minutes)

Now if you look at that survey again:

was my Service Experience Truly Exceptional? Not unless they consider 4 times the normal amount of time exceptionally strange.

I believe it was retaliation, vindictive behavior, for being a pain in the ass. I could be wrong, but, over filling the oil on an oil test, and then making them fix that? Might be pissing off the people at the dealership.

What causes me to think so cynically? I worked at a car dealership for 5 years.

Tuesday, October 04, 2022

after 3 consecutive tests, that proved my 68k mile 2015 Hyundai engine was losing more than 1 qt of oil per 1000 miles, the dealership (!) suddenly found that it magically was fixed, just in time to prevent my engine replacement under warranty. So I used the past 2k miles to see if it was fixed, it's not.

upper right shows the mileage WAS 72832 when they found it magically (after at least 3 tests at the dealership) didn't lose more than .43 quarts in the lower left

Here is the mileage exactly 2003 miles AFTER that miracle fix (where they could point to NO thing they'd done that could account for reducing the loss of one quart of oil per 1000 miles

and here is the oil container showing that I've had to add 3 quarts in that 2003 miles, to keep that Hyundai engine topped off.

That's proof to me, and anyone that doesn't have to get a paycheck from Hyundai, that my engine is STILL losing over the minimum legal amount to qualify as "excessive" oil consumption per Hyundai policy.

So, why post this? Because now that I've proven that I've been cheated out of the warranty replacement engine, the dealership tells me that in order to prove that it's still in violation of the allowable amount of oil consumption per warranty replacement I have to go through the 4 dealership visits again... and that means at least 2 times where I have to leave the car there at my expense for a rental car, and that was about 200 dollars. (For the cheapest rental car)

Time to consult with Hyundai warranty dept honchos on this.

Tuesday, May 04, 2021

Hey everyone, today, was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

I woke up, after not sleeping very well. I got online to check email, comments on the blog, and then facebook.

Cause I was hoping to see some good news. Instead, I learned a cousin died, suicide.

So, that news just changed today from my birthday to a bad day. What do you possibly say to his mom? I don't have a damn clue, but it went something like, I'm here to talk if you need or want to, distract you if I can, and maybe even cheer you up for a minute. I'm good at that.

Then I went to work, with the problem of my car being at the dealership on my mind, and the service advisor I was interacting with - not answering text, phone message, or email. What the hell right?

I needed someone to know I wanted not just the two ignition coils on my commuter replaced which were giving the OBD a code that they were bad, but the other two also... because if two were shot, at 64995 miles, the other two probably weren't good for much longer.

Why the haste to get that done? Well, it took 24 hours to get two out of stock and replaced on the car, and I seriously don't need to waste another day paying for a car rental to get the other two replaced, you know? Replace them all, at the same time, and the spark plugs, and that was what the dealership said BEFORE they would tall me what the hell is going on with my clutch. I can't make that up. They would NOT (the service advisor told me) take even a look to find out what is the condition of the clutch, and WHY THE HELL IS MY CAR LOSING 1 Qt of OIL per 1000 miles?!?!

So, a whole lot of not happy. You know?

Then was a fun little drive over during my lunch halfhour to get some face time to discover why there was no reply to my voicemail from 430 pm Monday afternoon, at 1130 the next morning.

What would you do? Right?

So I find out that my service advisor has been in off site training all morning.

Oh.

well, that doesn't get my car worked on any faster, at all.

Through the rest of the afternoon nothing brought any satisfaction from the communications with the service advisor on getting my clutch looked at, and my oil loss problem diagnosed.

Now, was some of that cause I wasn't in the right frame of mind, with damn little sleep? Maybe.

So, after work, I take the rental car back and find that I was told 35 a day, for a Nissan Kick, BUT I got charged 44 a day.

Where the actual hell are the prices written down? Well, if you want to rent a Compass, or a Tesla, you want to know how much, am I right? The guys at Enterprise rent a car, they say it's not written down. Anywhere.

Not on their website, not on their cars, not on any sheet of paper.

Huh. Well, the rest of the day went downhill, and I knew I was running out of time to get over to the dealership to get my car. It was 5pm, and I had a couple blocks to walk to get to the dealership.

I get there, and wanna guess how bad it went? Double that.

Know how they are required to check your tires, oil, wipers, etc?

That didn't happen, which I was pretty sure of, because, I already knew that the passenger side wiper was falling apart, and since I was dropping off the car at the dealership, it was a good known issue to check and see if they were on their game, or not.

Not.

Whoever gets paid to see that the tire pressures and that stuff is good or bad, didn't look a the wipers.

But, I was already talking to the service dept manager, and said, well, a lot. It's late, I'll skip most of it, but it all boils down to, why the hell can't I get your service dept to tell me how my clutch is? Why can't I get them to tell me if my oil is leaking out a gasket? Valve cover, oil sump, or timing belt cover?

SO, yeah, I was a hot mess of anger, stress, frustration, and outrage... but kept it together sorta well.

Hey, when in a bad situation, I said so, and apologized for whatever I might do when no longer able to keep it together.

Wouldn't you?

Well, I asked the service manager to sit in my car, and turn on the wipers.

Bingo, there's that streak of not working area of the wiper, then I raised the wiper off the windshield, pointed out the rotted rubber, and said, nothing on this vehicle inspection sheet matters now that you have seen that the simple easy wiper check wasn't done.

How am I to believe anything, any little or big thing, did get done right, when someone lied about checking my wipers?

Serious. I was stone cold evil eye on that.

Well, he was sure nice about it. Honestly, I had him to rights, and then we got to talking about the other stuff.

I left in a lot better state of mind, after 90 minutes of shaky mental state, but completely liking this guy. He's got a bad spot, to be the one responsible for all the mechanics, service advisors, cleaning crew, parts dept, etc. When they screw up, he's got to deal with the ugly mess coming at him all guns blazing with evidence that he can't do a damn thing about.

Well, he has moxie, I'll tell you that. I also can say that I really have issues with my serive advisor, but holy shit, she kept the best comms replies I can tell you that. Not that she's on point what what she said, but damn, I want her on my side in any verbal discussion where she can't lose face, can't slip on tone, and must stay upbeat when everything discussed is terminal.

So, hats off to Aric Erlandsen, service manager at Kearny Mesa Hyundai, and Michelle O'Neil, service advisor. If she learns engines, and never says a word about them, she's going to become great at her job. Until then, she needs to remember to try and upsell. They don't get paid much, but make more if they can upsell you on stuff, and I had to ask to get 320 dollars of ignition packs replaced. I can't recall who brought up replacing the spark plugs, at 23 dollars apiece.

Oh, and if you can select your finance guy, ask for Jay. Serious.

Other things, 23 dollar spark plugs, iridium ones, can't recall the brand, but I'll get that info tomorrow, are said by another service advisor to need replacing in turbo engines at 45k miles.

The Hyundai Veloster service manual, for the 2015 R Spec I bought, and finally paid off, has line 8, of the required and recommended maintenance, the spark plug line.

No where in the required mileage guide (5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, etc etc etc thousands of miles) all the way to the 100k or more, does it ever say replace the spark plugs.

I'll post a photo tomorrow of how the look at 65,000 miles, and I'd replace yours at 50k. You'll see why.

Summed up, great service manager, horrible service, horrible experience, no satisfaction, or even attempt, to hear me out on the clutch or oil, by the service advisor, and how mfing important those were to me to get diagnosed... and the manager ever mentioned that part of the initial dialogue, was deleted.

Hmmmm, not good. Seriously 90 minutes that sucked to deal with, but dang, he was awesome. Nothing else about this was. Rental car rates jacked, 2 days to do 3 hours of work (but I get it, lots of customer cars to deal with, they don't focus on any one to complete it, they do this, then the service advisor tells the owner, then gets the parts, then when the mechanic gets time to get back to your car it's the next day) and it's all been just the worst, even catching that the wiper was not looked at, but reported good.

I can say I was really happy to find the old parts in the car, even the spark plugs. YOU know, and I know, you can see what the engines been doing by looking at the spark plugs. I pointed it out to the service manager, and he got it, but... no one else involved seemed to know, to learn how the car is running, look at the plugs, not the mfing OBD readout. Plugs don't lie. 65 thousand miles of evidence.

Anyway, it's really damn late, sorry there's no time to look around for stuff to post, but just typing this while it's fresh, took 30 minutes.

Avoid looking at facebook first thing in the morning. You'll be better off waiting til after work.

Worst birthday ever. Worst dealership experience ever. I still have to get the clutch looked at, I still need to know where the hell the oil is going to, and though there might be a warranty coverage of the engine going through so much damn oil, 1st the customer has to foot the bill before Hyundai decides if it's warranty covered.

More on that later, but get this, Hyundai policy says they must change the oil to begin an "Oil Consumption Test" which is a new thing since this March.... then the customer comes back after a thousand miles. Then they might decide to charge a thousand dollars to open the top end up, clean out carbon on the intake, then repeat the oil change and thousand miles drive, to now see, did that fix the loss of oil.

Not a mention of a THOROUGH exam of all gaskets that the oil system passes through.

NOT just mark the damn dip stick and come back in a thousand miles to see how much it's down.

2 oil changes and a thousand dollar cleaning of the intake. Maybe the head too, I can't recall, it's 11pm, on a bad day, after 5 hours of sleep, with only 6 possible before waking up tomorrow, so, damn, it's time to post and shut off the laptop.

As for extended warranty vs paying for repairs? It's about 3500 for the "platinum" warranty. I've now had to pay about 1500 for repairs. So, so far, it looks like you're better not giving Hyundai your 3500 to pay for repairs (how can anyone call that paying for an extended warranty?) but instead hold onto your money and risk that you'll either get a different car before your Hyundai breaks serious parts, or that you'll spend less on repairs than the 3500 they already factored would be the break even amount.

Because car companies have been compiling info for decades on how much things break, how much to charge, and what they'll cover with a warranty and what they won't

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

They went a bit silly on the Veloster in the upcoming super hero movie, Ant Man and the Wasp

Nice Weld Star rims, but the side pipes? A bit silly, especially when you see this car drive away and see that they still have the two exhaust tips in under the license plate

the movie looks like it's going to be terrific

for gods sake they even have the passenger side pipes block the back door!

Saturday, November 14, 2015

there were only two Velosters at SEMA this year, this full race one, and one at the Hyundai booth that is stock

this air scoop on the roof had me curious, so I looked inside the car, and found this well designed air box with the vents from a typical Ford or Chevy (certainly not the stupid old venetian blinds design that Hyundai uses.