OT: Maintaining a Hyundai (long)

[timjmcconnell at gmail.com (Timbo)]

I have a few cars under my umbrella of terror (I maintain them)

A 2004 Acura RSX
A 2000 Subaru Forrester (headgaskets lol)
My wife's 2001 Hyundai Santa Fe GLS V6 4WD (whew!)

The Hyundai has 73,000 miles on it.

Coil packs. We all know how evil coil packs can be. Well -these are
more evil than average. They develop weird holes that like to spark to
anything metal rather than just go through a spark plug. How much do
they cost? $108 each times three. dang! I figured if I'm gonna be out
more than $300 - I might as well try something. JBweld. I'm gonna be
famous for using JBweld on everything. JB weld worked perfectly!! I
couldn't believe it. So when the other two coil packs started sparking
- I just took all three out and gave them a coat of JB weld. Happy
Hyundai!!

Oil change. The car's oil itself is easy to change. BUT - if you wanna
change the filter - then you have to take about 10 million bolts that
hold a GIANT skid plate from hell off. It's HUGE! - it's the size of
some car's hoods. I should just leave it off.

Spark plugs. Three of em are easy. Just under the engine cover. This
is a transverse mounted V6 with the intake manifold mounted so that it
is just millimeters above the rear bank of plugs. So - to do the plugs
- you have to take off the upper intake manifold, which consists of
like 10 or 12 bolts, three of which can only be reached by tiny Korean
hands. Then you have to route the wires in a crazy mind boggling way
so that they don't cross fire. Geez!!

The nice thing is - there's an online Hyundai site - hmaservice.com -
it's like an online Bentley with updates, recalls, service bulletins,
and OBD codes.

And the wiring on that car kicks ass. So much better than my German
wiring on the rocco. Everything on it electrically makes sense!! The
headlights are already relayed - right next to the battery - and it
uses H4 bulbs!!

I swear - jobs that take me minutes on the Scirocco take hours on the Hyundai.

-- 
Timbo!
Location: Glenside, PA!
www.vintagewatercooleds.com/tech