[TBerry]

Hi all

My first post here (go easy and sorry if i violate all the posting rules..). I have done a lot of forum reading here though over the last few years; what a great site!

I know this topic has been covered a number of times,
namely here: Hyundai i30 SX 2009 (Australia) power steering failure
also here: Problems with Power Steering on i30
and here: POWER STEERING FAILURE 2010 diesel
and others.. but I didn't want to zombie any of them..

My problems are mostly reminiscent of Sallyid's early thread. I was driving my partner's car at the time and we were fortunately only slowly pulling in to a right-turn lane at the lights. The steering then suddenly became extremely heavy and the EPS and ESP off lights came on. Having had some issues previously with the warning lights, I tried turning the car on and off a couple of times, before driving the car around the corner to the side of the road on the next green light. We had roadside assist come and take a look, but they found no issues with fuses of electrics, so had it towed to a nearby Hyundai dealer/service centre.

The service centre have had a look at it and done some diagnostics and concluded (as for others in the past) that the whole steering column assembly must be replaced (verbal $3500 quote).

The two fault codes they get are C1260 (steering angle sensor failure) and C1290 (torque sensor failure). I had hoped that Sallyid's fix (wheel alignment and reset steering angle sensor) would sort it out (though the serv dept were very sceptical), however they have come back to me to report no such luck. They said something along the lines of "when they reset the computer, they get the two fault codes" and they couldn't see how doing a wheel alignment would do anything to fix the problem, but tried anyway.

The car was an early 2011 purchase, with us the first owners and has always been serviced with Hyundai. The 5 year warranty is well expired, though it has only been driven 75000km.

I'm now left with (it seems) just the options of forking out the $3500, trying to find a second-hand/wrecker assembly for <$3500 or trying my hand at lengthy discussion with Hyundai Australia Head office. Unfortunately, the car is an hour and a half away from our home, as we were out of town for the weekend so I can't just get down to the service centre to chat directly with the guys and get confidence that all options have been exhausted.

I don't suppose anyone has any suggestions to go back to the serv dept with? Is there a specific "reset" that I didn't explain well that they might not have tried? Failing that, has anyone had any experience with out-of-warranty good-will replacements and head office?

Really appreciate any advice you can offer!! (sorry for the mammoth post...)

[tw2005]

Hi all

My first post here (go easy and sorry if i violate all the posting rules..). I have done a lot of forum reading here though over the last few years; what a great site!

I know this topic has been covered a number of times,
namely here: Hyundai i30 SX 2009 (Australia) power steering failure
also here: Problems with Power Steering on i30
and here: POWER STEERING FAILURE 2010 diesel
and others.. but I didn't want to zombie any of them..

My problems are mostly reminiscent of Sallyid's early thread. I was driving my partner's car at the time and we were fortunately only slowly pulling in to a right-turn lane at the lights. The steering then suddenly became extremely heavy and the EPS and ESP off lights came on. Having had some issues previously with the warning lights, I tried turning the car on and off a couple of times, before driving the car around the corner to the side of the road on the next green light. We had roadside assist come and take a look, but they found no issues with fuses of electrics, so had it towed to a nearby Hyundai dealer/service centre.

The service centre have had a look at it and done some diagnostics and concluded (as for others in the past) that the whole steering column assembly must be replaced (verbal $3500 quote).

The two fault codes they get are C1260 (steering angle sensor failure) and C1290 (torque sensor failure). I had hoped that Sallyid's fix (wheel alignment and reset steering angle sensor) would sort it out (though the serv dept were very sceptical), however they have come back to me to report no such luck. They said something along the lines of "when they reset the computer, they get the two fault codes" and they couldn't see how doing a wheel alignment would do anything to fix the problem, but tried anyway.

The car was an early 2011 purchase, with us the first owners and has always been serviced with Hyundai. The 5 year warranty is well expired, though it has only been driven 75000km.

I'm now left with (it seems) just the options of forking out the $3500, trying to find a second-hand/wrecker assembly for <$3500 or trying my hand at lengthy discussion with Hyundai Australia Head office. Unfortunately, the car is an hour and a half away from our home, as we were out of town for the weekend so I can't just get down to the service centre to chat directly with the guys and get confidence that all options have been exhausted.

I don't suppose anyone has any suggestions to go back to the serv dept with? Is there a specific "reset" that I didn't explain well that they might not have tried? Failing that, has anyone had any experience with out-of-warranty good-will replacements and head office?

Really appreciate any advice you can offer!! (sorry for the mammoth post...)

Don't think I've tried out of wty but I would definitely try it for these reasons.

1. I would consider it non fair wear and tear, that distance and age

2. If it's had every logbook service with a dealer that should be a browny point

3. Reasonablre Life, I would consider the steering as a safety critical item and this to be a major failure

4. Given I have 2 of these cars one with 200000k and the other 187000k with original EPS systems working, yours seems premature.

5. There have been safety recalls relating to i30 (FD): KMHDC81TMAU064300 - KMHDC51TMAU267226

Loss of power to the MDPS will increase steering effort. If the defect occurs, the electronic power steering (EPS) lamp will be illuminated on the instrument panel.

1 November 2009 - 30 April 2010

Who's to say it may not involve more?

How driveable is it without?

[Dazzler]

  I picked the most sombre as not a happy time for you.

Don't apologise for your post. It was excellent the way you summarised the problem, your situation and the diagnosis so far.

Is there another dealer closer you can talk to/ negotiate with? I really feel your pain!

We have some excellent tech heads on here (including Gerard who has already come up this some valid feedback)

Lets see what some others have to say...

@cruiserfied @nzenigma and anyone else with some ideas!

[Surferdude]

As Dazzler said, a well laid out post.
Can you give us an idea where in Qld you are and where the car is?

It might help us in suggestions as to who else to talk to.

[sundiz]

If you decide to get new steering column you might want to get it somewhere else. Koraps sold those at some point for 1200$. Shipping + couple of hours labour and the total cost would be somewhere around 1500$.

[tw2005]

There's so many of these wrecked, good chance you can find a low K unit. Seeing prices around $500, I have a spare which will go into the hatch at some point

[nzenigma]

Good morning TBerry,
Nice clear post, thanks. Sorry its such a gloomy topic.
It does sound like your power steering drive has failed. If it is just an electronic glitch, the EPS and ESP can be reset quite quickly, no need to do a re-alignment ( assuming it has been ok previously).
The power steer failure is rare so I would go to a wrecker and get a low kms  FD column. To give you a price guide I looked on Ebay and GD columns are selling for $250.
Next talk to a good local mechanic, not the dealer, and get a price to fit it. It is about a two-three hour job to swap columns if he knows the car. Before he fits it , its worth checking the inner rubber bush that can fail and cause knocking on the first columns. It is a $5 item. Ask if he knows about it, that should give you a hint about his experience.
The ESP will need to be reset again He will be able to do it .. simple procedure.

[beerman]

The Warranty Hyundai provide does not exclude your consumer rights to have a product that is of acceptable quality. Though this may not apply depending on how the car was purchased.

Speak to the good people at Fair Trading Queensland and get some advice. As others have said speak to the dealer. What is the point of paying their inflated prices if they don't look after you.

If that is unsuccessful, there are plenty of good used (or even good new) cheap parts out there. Personally I would ditch the dealer and find a good mechanic and some good low k second hand parts. I dare say it will be much cheaper than $3500

[novice30]

Hi TBerry,

I am currently dealing with a similar issue although my vehicle is 2 years older than yours. My EPS went twice but thankfully both times while parked - still needed to be towed twice though so not great and second time was after my usual mechanic thought a new battery had fixed the problem. It has now been sitting at my local Hyundai service centre for 3 weeks while they try to negotiate a "goodwill" repair. The cost quoted was $3700 for replacement of the steering column which had both a sensor and a hardware problem show up during diagnostic testing. Given I have already outlaid $1000 and am still no further advanced I am not all that happy with how the future is looking - definitely can't afford to proceed if they decide to not do the fix for me. I have looked at the recall info and am concerned that they have not extended the recall of the i30's to cover as many of them as they may be should have. My vehicle missed the dates by approx. 6 months and yours is on the other side of it but both seem to have exactly the same issue as the one the recall was for. An American VIN decoder website listed the recall dates as being a whole year longer than the Australian one but I have not as yet been able to verify if that information is correct and if so why there are differences. Good luck. I would love to hear if there are others out there with the same problem - I am very concerned about the safety side of a whole lot more of the i30's with a potentially faulty EPS.

[Dazzler]

  Novice,

Thanks for your input and feedback. It is certainly a grey area and in view of the cost and safety aspects of the problem a real concern.

If it happened to me I would fight hell and high water to at least get a pro-rata contribution for the total cost if out of warranty or a no cost fix if in warranty.

Good luck to both of you..

[tw2005]

Any updates TBerry?

[TBerry]

Hi guys

Thanks so much for all your helpful replies. Unfortunately I've had a really busy last couple of weeks at work, so I haven't had a chance to progress my issues with Hyundai Aus yet..

My plan is to call them this morning though and try on a few of the suggested arguments. If they don't agree to a full reimbursement, then I'm going to speak to the MTAQ and then QLD Fair Trading and see if I can get anywhere with them.

To answer some of the questions above:
- The car is driveable, but I would be nervous travelling at any significant speed and I wouldn't want my partner to drive it
- The car is at the Sunshine Coast (Caloundra Hyundai dealer) at the moment and I live in Brisbane. I might be able to try other dealers or mechanics up there, but I don't know any and per above, it will be tricky to get it to other locations
- I'm aware of the Aus Consumer Law obligations on merchants, but I'm not at the right dealer for that (bought in Bris) and it was a Jan 2010 purchase (ACL came in to effect 1 Jan 2011)
- I'm not 100% sure whether the car is within the bounds of the failed power steering recall (KMHDC81TMAU064300 - KMHDC51TMAU267226). VIN is KMHDB51TLAU23xxxx, but it has had the coupling replaced and a software upgrade (job id 51C013 - Heavy Steering Wheel Repair) under warranty, which sounds like the recall

I'm going to give Hyundai Aus a chance to come to the party first before I engage FTQ, but would be interested to hear from the others that are having a similar issue, as that might make the FTQ advocacy more effective.

Will report back once I've spoken with Hyundai

[Dazzler]

Excellent. You appear to be heading in the right direction. I'll alert Trevor a very helpful long term Caloundra based member to this latest post in case he has any contacts up that way. @Surferdude

[Surferdude]

Excellent. You appear to be heading in the right direction. I'll alert Trevor a very helpful long term Caloundra based member to this latest post in case he has any contacts up that way. @Surferdude

I don't dazz.

Only Fulcrum in Brisbane.

[Dazzler]

Thanks Trev, I thought it might be worth a try. Maybe I should try the son-in-law, although he's no longer with Autobarn...

[beerman]

Whilst I note your car is outside the law mentioned, it is important to note that the ACL applies to both the dealer and Hyundai equally and at your choice.

I hope you have success. If not remember there is always small claims court (and the threat thereof).

[TBerry]

Quick update:
Not much progress, but Customer service rep is doing their research of the situation with the Service Dept and will "get back to me within 48 hours".

No offers or rejections yet, so I haven't made any arguments, but I expect the return call will be when the real fun begins

[Dazzler]

Quick update:
Not much progress, but Customer service rep is doing their research of the situation with the Service Dept and will "get back to me within 48 hours".

No offers or rejections yet, so I haven't made any arguments, but I expect the return call will be when the real fun begins

That is a positive start anyway. Thanks for the update.

[nzenigma]

Might hold you to this.
I seem to be developing an issue, unrelated to the steering bush already replaced. I'll start a new thread in due course. Still trying a few things.

 
First, check those dodgy front tyres; never know what someone has palmed off on you. 

You have a local Hyundai wrecker down in Browyn St. Gus is ok to deal with, esp if he knows you are in the trade.

[TBerry]

Hi all

Sorry for the long delay again..

So, I received some great news last week. Even though the girl at Hyundai didn't call back within 48 hours as promised, she did call back a few days later to apologise for that fact and to say that she'd call me the following day once they had "finalised a few things."

She called back the next day to say that Hyundai would like to offer to cover the complete cost of repairs as a gesture of good will.

The dealer is currently waiting for the part to arrive (due later this week) and they'll have it ready to pick up (assuming no delays), by Tuesday next week.

In the end, the only thing I had to do was call Hyundai Aus, relay the situation (what happened, quoted cost of repair, where the car was now) and they did their own investigations with the service centre. (It seems) they made a judgement based on prior service history, kms, nature of failure etc that it was worth their while to cover the cost of replacement. I guess you can make your own judgement on that?

Unfortunately for everyone here, I don't know exactly what pushed their buttons, as I didn't get a chance to try on all the great justifications/arguments discussed here, but all I can say to others is to stick with it and plead your case to Hy Aus. I didn't get a chance to team up with anyone that had the same problem, but if you have no luck yourselves, that'd be a good tactic.

Thanks for all your help!

[Surferdude]

Absolutely great news TBerry. 
Don't be a stranger.
Keep in touch.

[Dazzler]

Absolutely great news TBerry. 
Don't be a stranger.
Keep in touch.

I know we bash them from time to time, but they certainly come to the party with some coercion more readily that Ford, VW or Chrysler/jeep (and a few others) from all accounts. 

[eye30]

Ok once fixed please report back to say................all is as it should be......


We can then say    RESULT...

[Dazzler]

Well this is all sounding jolly good.. to coin an old phrase..

[Just Rick]

Been late reading many things on here,all I can say is your veh8icle did fall within the models which did have a well known steering failure fault,hyundai should and as they are doing should fix the issue,as said before Result