[Jason Jones]

Hello there! 

I purchased a 08 i30  back in June and must admit that although I had never driven a Hyundai before I was delighted with how this car felt.  However my honeymoon period was short lived!   Even though there was just the 1 lady owner and a mileage of 39000 kms I have had and am currently experiencing many different issues with the car.... 

As both myself and my wife are careful owners we decided that we would pay an extra 350 euros for an extended Mapfre warranty...in hindsight it was a good decision!   

To get to the point... we asked our mechanic who we always found excellent and is with great reputation to check over the car after we had driven it for a few weeks, in that time we noticed a few things like finding it hard to engage gears at times and a noise which I can only describe as the sound a manhole cover would make when being removed when we were reversing, also a tapping sound from the engine when starting up but not every time.  Also the air con wasn't working.

Anyway we brought it up to him last week and he said we needed gas for the air con, a rear wheel bearing and also that the clutch release bearing was worn out.   As he was going to be stripping the engine he suggested that now would be a good time just to do the entire clutch as it was out anyway and would work out a lot cheaper in the long run.  We totally agreed and told him to go ahead.  Now this is where the fun begins....read on...

I delivered the car to be repaired during the week and was told it would take about a day and a half, fair enough.  Also was told that Mapfre warranty would cover both the rear wheel bearing and the clutch release bearing but obviously not the entire clutch which we would pay for,again that was fine.

Now this gets a bit complicated but read on and I will do my best to fully explain...

When I delivered the car it was low on fuel so I told him to put some petrol in, the light had just come on as I was leaving my house ,a distance of maybe 4 miles away from the garage at most so plenty enough to get to a garage..I thought.

The next day I rang up to see how it was going and was told everything was fine and pick it up in 2 hrs.  The mechanic was just out on a test drive.   

An hr later I get a call from him telling me my car had run out of petrol on the way to the garage and that when they put some in that it would no longer start...perhaps the car had sucked up some dirt from the empty tank and they would have to check the fuel lines, they said it should only take an hour or two. 

Well after 4 hrs I rang up but they had not been able to find the problem so I am without the car for the weekend now! 

The mechanic said there was a lot of gunk in the tank but he would keep working on it..   at this point he thought that it was either a blocked fuel line or even a fuel pump had burnt out.

He worked on the car the next day also to try to find out what was going on..   

Finally I got a call from him to say that the problem with the car was not that it had run out of fuel but the reason it wouldn't start was because of a timing chain problem!!     He had removed the rocker cover to find that it was out and that a tensioner had loosened.  He also said that my Mapfre warranty should cover it but he would not start until he got the go ahead naturally...my question is how can these things happen with such low mileage on a car?  I am obviously very disappointed in all this .  Thanks for reading.

[Phil №❶]

Can't say I've ever heard of a timing chain problem, or a wheel bearing on a car with such few kms on the clock.

That's really bad luck, I hope the info you're being fed is true and accurate. 

[Surferdude]

I agree. Terrible stuff for a low(ish) mileage car.
Be interesting to see how it goes when they do actually get it started again. The "manhole cover" noise needs further investigation, too.

I must admit to having always been suspicious of the old "don't let the fuel get too low or it'll pick up gunk in the bottom of the tank" story.
The fuel pick up, in order to get the most out of a tank, must, by design be at the bottom of the tank anyway, so I don't see how the level of fuel can have any effect.

[Jason Jones]

Yes indeed Phil I am more than a little perturbed by all this,  my fears are that the mileage is not genuine although the mechanic has said he reckons it is, and that my warranty won't cover the repair if they conclude the mileage is wrong, here in Ireland we have a ridiculous situation wherby they don't record mileage at the annual MOT so it can easily be falsified.  I do have faith in my mechainic but when I delivered the car to him I had no issues with timing chain problems i.e . no problems with starting !  Also I cant help feeling that he was barking up the wrong tree in diagnosing the problem in the first place...i mean 10 hours on the assumptiion that it was a fuel line or a pump problem and now it;s a chain problem?  Very confused!

[Phil №❶]

 

[asathorny]

The Release bearing, aircon recharge and other minor snags are, I would have thought to be usual for a car of this age????

If the rocker chain has gone out of flunter due too a tension pulley then I am amazed they they didn't hear an almighty crashing noise because it is my understanding that Hy's have an interference engine, ergo, the vales and the pistons occupy the SAME space, but not at the same time unless the timing chain goes out of whack occasioning enormous engine damage.

It will be very interesting to hear how this pans out.  Please keep us informed

 

[Dazzler]

Welcome Jason, that is a shocker.. very hard for us to diagnose by remote control, but I sincerely hope everything pans out in your favour. The i30 is one of the most reliable cars in its class (usually)

[Doggie 1]

 

 

[cruiserfied]

Hi Jason and welcome,
It's a shame to hear your issues.

For a timing chain to have jumped teeth the engine would have had to have lost all oil pressure, and even then there is a spring inside the tensioner which holds tension on the chain for start up before oil pressure builds 100% I have my doubts, but I'm not there inspecting the engine.

Also I've had countless fuel senders out of every model Hyundai. Petrol and Diesels and have yet to see any sludge buildup. Maybe a bit of dirt and if you get a bad batch of fuel it can cause some algae growth on the inner strainer of the Diesel I30's but that's it. And I'm pretty sure your fuel quality is better than ours.

Hey, just to say I have the same noise reversing with a 2010. I'm hoping to get it looked at next week, so will update if I find out what's wrong.

[Asterix]

Hmm, strange things with your car.

Aircon not working on a car that age is not unusual, get it re-gassed and problem solved, unless of course, there's a leak.

The early models with the 5 speed gearbox are known to have a notchy gear change. I changed the gear oil on mine, it improved the gear change a lot, but that was at 150.000 km.

[Jason Jones]

UPDATE.     

Ok so just heard from mechanic and the good news is my Mapfre warranty will cover the repairs due to the car being in a standstill condition, for those of you considering these type of warranties this is a very important stipulation...if my car was able to drive albeit in an unsatisfactory way then  I would not have been covered!  Anyway I digress...

So basically he is now starting to strip down the engine having been given the go-ahead from Mapfre...he says he is still  not certain what the actual  exact problem may be but the only way to find out is to get stuck in I guess.

Hopefully all will be good and I will of course update when I have more information, I must say this forum is a wonderful place to obtain other users feedback and experiences.

One question I have is this,  he has spent over 10 hours in diagnosing the fault so far, this is before he has started to strip the engine, I am almost afraid to ask him what he intends to charge me for this time,  in a way I feel he has to be reasonable and not charge anywhere close to the full hourly rate because to be brutally honest he was very much barking up the wrong tree...he decided that as the car had supposedly run out of fuel (it did not as it transpires) that it must have been a fuel system issue.  I should like to konw other members opinions regarding labour charges for a wrong diagnosis, am I being unreasonable to expect to pay less than his given hourly rate or should I just suck it up and pay the full amount? 

[asathorny]

Nope...   Go for whatever ya can get.

He has acquired a lot of work from you so he isn't exactly out of pocket now is he.

I am very glad your getting it sorted 

[Mike SX]

UPDATE.     


One question I have is this,  he has spent over 10 hours in diagnosing the fault so far, this is before he has started to strip the engine, I am almost afraid to ask him what he intends to charge me for this time,  in a way I feel he has to be reasonable and not charge anywhere close to the full hourly rate because to be brutally honest he was very much barking up the wrong tree...he decided that as the car had supposedly run out of fuel (it did not as it transpires) that it must have been a fuel system issue.  I should like to konw other members opinions regarding labour charges for a wrong diagnosis, am I being unreasonable to expect to pay less than his given hourly rate or should I just suck it up and pay the full amount?

An "Engineer" arrived on site (M25 Potters Bar) to find the reason a split drum concrete batching plant sometimes did not open and therefore failed to release the concrete & drop it into the delivery lorries (waiting & parked below the drum).
He said that he had never seen a Batcher before & spent 27 hours trying to find the problem, at one point I asked him how much longer he would be, he answered "No idea, still finding my way around". 2 hours later he announced that he had found the problem.
So we paid him 2 hours labour.
Rest of time spent "learning" 

[Lester]

Begorrah, Bejesus, you got a dud one boyo.   Was 2008 first year for the i30, you got the prototype.

Good luck with it anyway.

[Jason Jones]

Ok well the final diagnosis is that a timing chain tensioner failed hence  the car not starting, the warranty company are happy to cover it as previously said.  My mechanic has described it as a freak occurence but he has seen it before on other low mileage cars just never on an i30.  Also the reason for all the gunk build up according the engineer from Mapfre is likely not because the mileage is falsely high but rather far more likely because the mileage is so low!  6 yrs  and only 39k meand the car has hardly been driven causing a sludge residue, weird I thought but there ya go!  The parts are on order as they have to do the entire chain assembly not just the tensioner and I should have it back by the weekend.  Hopefully after this experience my i30 will run as reliably as the reputation they seem to have...otherwise its back to Toyota !

[Doggie 1]

Begorrah, Bejesus, you got a dud one boyo.   Was 2008 first year for the i30, you got the prototype.

Good luck with it anyway.

2007 was the launch year.

[Phil №❶]

Ok well the final diagnosis is that a timing chain tensioner failed hence  the car not starting, the warranty company are happy to cover it as previously said.  My mechanic has described it as a freak occurence but he has seen it before on other low mileage cars just never on an i30.  Also the reason for all the gunk build up according the engineer from Mapfre is likely not because the mileage is falsely high but rather far more likely because the mileage is so low!  6 yrs  and only 39k meand the car has hardly been driven causing a sludge residue, weird I thought but there ya go!  The parts are on order as they have to do the entire chain assembly not just the tensioner and I should have it back by the weekend.  Hopefully after this experience my i30 will run as reliably as the reputation they seem to have...otherwise its back to Toyota !

I'm sure you'll be ok after this unfortunate event. I would suggest some decent driving to heat the engine up properly then an early oil and filter change.

[Asterix]

Glad to hear you get it sorted.

My parents bought a new Nissan Primera 2,0 in 1997. Only 2,5 years old the engine started to accelerate "bumpy" Turned out the chain was close to break.!  My Mum just scrapped it 3 month ago @ 350.000 km without any other major issues.

I'm sure the i30 will serve you well in the future.

Regarding the low milage and gunk build up, there's a recipe for that; Drive the car "fresh" for a while. Only when the engine have reached operating temperature, of course. 

A friend of mine once got an old Mazda previous owned by an old guy. When he got the car it could only do 130 km/h, after 3 month of "fresh" driving it could do 170 km/h 

Hey, just to say I have the same noise reversing with a 2010. I'm hoping to get it looked at next week, so will update if I find out what's wrong.

Hey, thought I'd update as I said I'd get back. The dealer has had my car for 3 days now. They are planning to replace the clutch, although they still haven't said what is actually wrong with the current one, other than it makes a noise. The more posts I read on this and other forums I'm starting to doubt replacing the clutch will actually solve it. The i20 loan car makes a similar sound, a lot quieter but its definitely there. If I put into reverse, and then slowly release the clutch while holding the handbrake up you can hear the noise just at the biting point. Any threads I've found seem to be for the 1.4 petrol.

[eye30]

Release bearing???

Build up of dust they tell me.

[The Gonz]

Jason, in all, I am inclined to congratulate you on the warranty wisdom and resolution with very likely a bright future with a known quantlity. Enjoy your 'new' car!