Repair issues and fixes

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Reads like a word salad, technically correct but unnecessarily generalised. No one has gone wrong by simply referring to the owner's manual.

An ATF is a perfectly suitable alternate lubricant because it has a similar viscosity and the same GL rating as the OEM Hyundai 70W GL4 DCT. I know of one owner who is using that. Some 70W-75 gears oils have the similar viscosity as 70W oils.

The vast majority of other EVs specify an ATF rather than a 70W GL4 and part of that is likely because it's on the shelf at their dealers. Hyundai/Kia 70W DCT is on the shelf because their DCT (direct shift) gearboxes use that. However all newer H/K EVs specify their ATF instead.

I've been experimenting with a 75W-80 GL-4 but fortunately I know how lubrication requirements are determined. I also know what conditions my car is subject to that allows more flexibility of choice than is available to owners in general. Plus I know what signs to monitor that might indicate that it's not appropriate, including efficiency.

So far it's been brilliant but I'm refraining from accepting it fully until it's been in place for one year, ending May 2025, so I can check the magnetic plugs. I certainly haven't seen "reduced gearbox efficiency, poor cooling, or component damage".
 
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KiwiME said:
Just one note about out-of-warranty failures, a 2018 Kona owner here with nearly 150,000 km just had the charge port actuator fail and had to pay all costs, just over NZ$2100. We all know that this is a not an uncommon failure and almost certainly due to a design defect yet Hyundai accepted no responsibility. One owner in the UK said this issue was considered a recall item by his dealer.

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I have this part new in the box from a Hyundai dealer somewhere, It was a couple hundred. Fixed the issue with a needle file some wd-40 and some patience.
 
Keith Smith said:
I have this part new in the box from a Hyundai dealer somewhere, It was a couple hundred. Fixed the issue with a needle file some wd-40 and some patience.
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Keith you lost me :(
I am looking at the picture of the 'charge port actuator' KiweMe attached to his note above. I understand that you purchased a unit form the dealer and did not need not use it. Am I correct? Where (what part) did you filed the needle nose?
 
Lars said:
Keith you lost me :(
I am looking at the picture of the 'charge port actuator' KiweMe attached to his note above. I understand that you purchased a unit form the dealer and did not need not use it. Am I correct? Where (what part) did you filed the needle nose?
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I was referring to the charging port assembly shown. Both the door and the port have been problematic for some, including me. I bought the charging port assembly shown in the picture somewhere back in the thread, and it was only $300ish for the part, he said he paid NZ$2100 to replace it. Must be labor. I never actually put it in, I worked on the latch to keep it from sticking, I think that is what was burning up some of them, and used needle files to correct the charging port issues I kept having, the control contacts in the port were apparently not making good connection with the J1772 handle, so I cleaned them inside the connector with a needle file and some WD-40.
 
Thanks Keith for your response. Good description of the problem and your simple solution.
So far I had no problem with the charge port. The need to have the doors open before one can pop the port door open makes good sense, but it frustrates some - they should read the manual!
 
Hey guys,
I’m considering buying a 2019 Hyundai Kona EV with 84,000 miles on it. After factoring in rebates, the total cost comes down to $6,200, which seems like a great deal for a fully electric vehicle. I test drove the car and didn’t notice any unusual sounds—no clicking or whining. But I’ve read multiple posts here about the “wheel of fortune” noise issue that some Kona EVs develop over time, and it’s making me second-guess things.

A few questions for those more experienced:

  • How common is the wheel of fortune noise issue in these 2019 models?
  • What happens if I just ignore the noise and continue driving?
  • If this noise issue happens out of warranty, what exactly fails and what does it cost to fix?
Thanks!
 
From what I read here and on the Kona EV list, it is a fairly common problem, the reduction gear being faulty and all..
.
I have been driving the car with the noise for at least a year. in that time it got worse, it got better, but nothing cathastrophic happened. As to what may happen over time, I am not sure, and have not read anything definite on any of the lists either.
I have just put my 2019 Kona EV into the dealer for this problem, and originally they were not going to cover it. A couple days later, they decided that they would cover it in full after all. The car has a 10 year 100k mile power train warranty, and originally they said the motor mounts would not be covered. It is not clear to me what HMC -s decision making process was, whether they decided the repair was power train after all, or if they covered under "goodwill".

The most likely culprit i the reduction gear, but HMC has
a tech bulletin, that makes them go through a set of replacements. First one is the motor mounts, whether it needs it or not. That requires taking out the engine, they quoted over 1K USD for that, mostly labor, if that was not it, then "we will see" despite me pointing out that it could not be the engine mount, as the noise is speed dependent. They have to go step by step by the bulletin, abd replacing the reduction grear is step 3 or 4. People who had this issue fixed under warranty posted astronomical figures, going through the multi-step process. (the dealer usually lists parts and labor cost, even if HMC picks up the tab under warranty) .
My impression is that if there is any repair needed that is not covered by warranty, dealer repairs can be insanely expensive. As to why, I am guessing the kona ev was such an expensive warranty fiasco for Hyundai, that they desperately try to recoup their losses whatever way they can.

I think owning this car without full warranty coverage is a dicey proposition. There seem to be no standards, or competition to keep the repair costs sane,
and what you will pay for any out of warranty dealer repairs is anybody's guess. You cant just take it to any old mechanic for a repair.

This car had not one, but 2 propulsion battery replacements already, the 1st one took 8+ months. The second one they did in 3 weeks. My take is, electric cars are an immature technology. I would wait until solid state batteries become the norm, to not have to deal with the limited number of charge cycles, the fire prone-ness of the wet lithium batteries, and I would wait until a reputable maker or 2 get into the game. Oh.. if you live in cold winter country, a heat pump is a must, Otherwise you take a 20% range hit when it is cold.
 
Realistically, this problem is highly uncommon when viewed on a per capita basis of worldwide Kona EV sales. So, the answer to mynameis above is that it is unlikely to happen. Never the less awareness of a weakness in the design is a good thing.
 
I purchased my 2020 Kona Ulitimate used in January 2023. It had 17k miles on it at that time. It had originally been sold on January 11, 2020. The reason I purchased it is that it had a silent drivetrain (so many Konas I test drove had either the wheel-of-fortune or a whining/grinding drivetrain noise), the HUD, a larger screen than previous years, was white (safety and cooler in sun), had a rare light interior and of course I loved the regen paddles.

It was my understanding that the manufacturer's 10year/100kmile warranty was cut in half (i.e., 5years/50k miles).

I immediately changed the GRU oil and added a Votex magnetic plug and changed the oil a year later, having added only about 4k miles (I use the i-MiEVs for all our local driving and the old Tesla only for seriously-long trips) - the Kona fits the niche of driving all over the San Francisco Bay Area and back home without having to use public charging which can be iffy nowadays (I have fully amortized solar PV at home so my electricity is 'free').

In November 2024 at around 25Kmiles I first heard the dreaded 'wheel of fortune', went to the dealer and they allowed as there was a three-month backlog, but she saw that my warranty was going to expire in early January 2025 so she scheduled me for December.

The dealer SC acknowledged the sound and said they had to go the motor mounts route first and if that didn't work, the GRU replacement and if that didn't work then the motor replacement, all under warranty. They replaced the GRU within three days, apologized to me for my trouble, and told me that I still had the original 10year/100K drivetrain warranty covering this. All in all a very positive experience.

I just changed the oil on the new GRU for the second time (first at 500miles and now at another 750miles) and am sending the oil sample out for testing tomorrow. The first sample tested quite clean, but this sample looks black and has visible residue after draining and some sludge stuck to the Votex.

@mynameis, my suggestion is to enquire at your local Hyundai dealer whether the car would have a 10year/100Kmile drivetrain warranty if you bought it used. This may be country (or maybe even U.S. state) dependent.
 
Ferenc Jakab said:
Realistically, this problem is highly uncommon when viewed on a per capita basis of worldwide Kona EV sales. So, the answer to mynameis above is that it is unlikely to happen. Never the less awareness of a weakness in the design is a good thing.
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Well, there are a couple of threads on the topic here, and a consensus of users here that this is a design flaw in the reduction gear for the 2019 model year a least. HMC having a service bulletin on the issue is indicative to me that the problem is not uncommon. Classifying this as "highly uncommon" is optimistic, IMO. Although, TBT neither one of us has hard numbers.
 
Coincidentally I placed a poll on Reddit.com/KonaEV a few days ago to answer that question for a potential buyer of an early Kona who's wisely decided to do the research before buying rather than after. Reddit is still fairly active on a day to day basis compared to the slow decline on all the other dedicated sites, presumably because EV enthusiasts have moved on to newer models.

I may have worded the post title poorly but the percent indicating having a problem is through the roof at 20% after three days. It's running one more day.

At the other end of the spectrum, based on New Zealand's fleet of some 4,000 (1st-gen) Kona EVs a high guess would be 1% and that's derived by arbitrarily multiplying the number I've seen reported by four times. Those reports have been seen on the tight-knit Hyundai-Kia EV and general NZ EV owners FB groups. I'll mention though that Kiwis tend not to raise a fuss about problems if they are handled expeditiously by the dealer and importer, and the evidence indicates that they typically are.

The fact that Hyundai-Kia have not addressed the issue makes me think that it's not nearly as common as 20% but certainly at least 1%.

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BTW My dealer replaced the motor mounts, and that, predictably "was not it". So they are now on to the service bulletin's second step, replacing the reduction gear. They indicated that if that does not solve the ticking sound, they are replacing the Electric motor after that, which is USD 6K, and in the USA is currently in short supply. Fortunately for me, all under warranty.
 
Poll closed with a 20% WoF failure rate. But the very low number of votes (35) v.s. number of views (854) means the confidence is very low. No doubt some, or many thought the question only applied if you had the WoF.


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Just got my Kona Ev 2019 back from the dealer, they ended up replacing the motor mount bolts, the reduction gear and the propulsion motor.
Took a bit over a month, and HMC covered the entire bill, and the dealer provided a loaner from their own fleet.
One out of the 3 repair items was not covered under the powertrain warranty, but HMC covered that cost as well as some type of "goodwill" gesture.
I am not sure which, I forgot to ask for the itemized list of what they did.
The service rep said the total repair would have cost me USD ~8000 if I had to pay out of pocket.
The ticking noise went away entirely, so that is good.

Just a data point, after replacing the reduction gear, the ticking was apparently still present,
so it looks like in this case the culprit was the propulsion engine.

I am hoping that the components they now use do not have the same problem that the replaced part(s) had.
Anybody had an issue, after similar repairs per the "Service Bulletin" were completed, i.e. did the problem come back for anyone?
We keep talking about the "service bulletin". The link was posted earlier, I am posting it again:
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2022/MC-10211676-0001.pdf
 
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I had the reduction gearbox replaced first, but the tick tick came up shortly afterwards. Then they replaced the motor and never had the sound again.
 
coder said:
... I am hoping that the components they now use do not have the same problem that the replaced part(s) had...
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The risk of a future GRU failure will be lower if you change the oil at least twice early on, 300 and 900 miles is appropriate. There's been no indication so far that the issue has been fixed but you'll know if the first change has no metal in it.
 
KiwiME said:
The risk of a future GRU failure will be lower if you change the oil at least twice early on, 300 and 900 miles is appropriate. There's been no indication so far that the issue has been fixed but you'll know if the first change has no metal in it.
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Here is something I dont get: I replaced my reduction gear fluid 3x. The fluid was dark and had a metallic shine. For the 2nd time, I had the Votex magnetic plug, and this even had a small amount of metallic powdery sludge deposit on the magnet.

But, when they did the repair, replacing the reduction gear unit did not make the ticking sound go away. What did, was replacing the motor. To me, that did not quite fit the existing theory. So how should we interpret this?
I wonder how many of our users, who had this repair done, were symptom-free after the reduction gear change-out, and how many had to go all the way to replacing the motor?

Makes me wonder, is this really a reduction gear problem, or are we jumping to a conclusion based on the fluid color? Maybe it is really a motor problem, and the redution gear unit fluid condition is a red herring. Does this really cause enough wear to result in the clicking sound?

Kiwi, do you have a theory that fits these observations? In other words, did we just connect 2 observations:
The dark gear fluid, and the ticking noise, when in reality these 2 observations could be unrelated?
 
R P said:
I had the reduction gearbox replaced first, but the tick tick came up shortly afterwards. Then they replaced the motor and never had the sound again.
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So apparently the GRU itself did cause some of the noise?
Did the dealer give any explanation of the possible secondary failure mode? Perhaps there is a connection between 2 failures here:
How does the GRU failure lead to the Motor failure?
 
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