This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
The car is a 2007 Hyundai Elantra sedan. While driving the air bag light came on so an appointment was made with the dealer (hamilton Hyundai, chambersbrug, pa to have it checked. The dealer said that moisture from the center mounted cup holder got into a electrical connection directly below and caused the wiring harness to get hot, melt together and the wiring harness on the passenger side under the dash, also melted. No fuses or circuit breakers activated. The air bags at this point were inoperable and the service manager said that the car could possibly catch fire while operating. The car was also there for the recall on the brake switch that could cause a crash since the brake lights could or couldn't illuminate. The parts and labor to replace the wiring harness are quite expensive and all due to a poorly engineered design. The fact that we were warned that the car could catch fire is disturbing and Hyundai said that there was nothing they could do to help. There is another 2007 Hyundai Elantra at the dealer that has the same harness melted down.
The incident is liquid that dripped into the emergency brake causing wires to melt for the airbag system. The cup holders are located directly beside the emergency brake. The emergency brake housing, contains the wiring harness for the vehicle. There is no sort of protective device to keep liquids from getting on the wiring. What happened in my instance is that liquid must have dripped off of a cup in the cupholder, not sure how condensation off of a cup, could cause insulated wires to melt, but it dripped into the console area and melted the air bag wiring harness. It requires a complete replacement of the harness. Warranty not covered because it is not a part defect. Safety hazard because it can cause a fire if not fixed. Should have a protective cover in the event of something like this occurring.
Air bag sensor light consistently on in 2007 Hyundai Elantra. Taken to dealership and they reported that the wiring had been shorted out by soft drink spilling into the console from the cup holders and shorting out the wiring harness, disabling the air bags. There are no warning stickers on the console warning of the risk of leakage from the cupholder into the console and no warning to this effect in the owner?S manual. Wiring harness was replaced and owner cautioned by technician and service manager on danger of liquid seeping from cup holder into console and recommended not using console cup holders but ones in back seat instead. Research on the internet resulted in discovery that this exact same problem had resulted in a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recall of the 2001 - 2002 Hyundai Elantras requiring installation of a protective cover to correct the problem. Apparently the problem has not been resolved in the 2007 Elantra and a design flaw still exists such that a minor spill from the cup holder installed on the console can short out the wiring making the airbag inoperable and putting the passengers at risk and resulted in at least one death prior to the earlier recall. (www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/03/nhtsa_hyundai.html).
When driving my 2007 Hyundai Elantra SE in 3rd gear (auto transmission), the 3rd gear indicator light intermittently flickers, causing the transmission to momentarily shift into 4th gear. Took car to dealer 3 times and hma had an engineer look at the car; replaced a gearshift pin switch and instrument cluster and vehicle still has the same problem. Hma claims that there is no problem with the car. Car can abruptly shift between 3rd to 4th and back to 3rd gear as light flickers due to the electrical problem.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Waynesboro, PA, USA