Genesis sedan 3.8 buh bye engine

[Ian Fredricks]

Long-time lurker first time poster. Almost 2 years ago I made the move and bought a gently used 2012 sedan with tech package. 34k miles. Previous owner changed the oul every 3k and did the 30k at the dealer before i got it.

An ase cert mechanic at a local busy shop in PDX. Ive done almost all my own maintenance unless hyundai semt me coupons in the mail.

Ive used the car for uber and pleasure and commute. Almost 18 months I'm at 72490. Full syn every 3 to 5k the last 3 changes 3500k. Went shorter because oil has been really dirty im assuming from idling.

For the last 15k I've been getting chain rattle on cold start up only. Wasnt too worried about it. Also lots of idling

Last week was cruising to my favorite view point drove speed limit most of the way .

Got onto it for 1mile going down. Them backed off. Ive done way worse. Way worse.

I started hearomg what sounded like an exhaust leak. Decided to just check cause i just redid it at work the previous weekend with trans service as well ask check the oil 3500 in to a 4k oil change.

I start to pull over and it shuts down on me. Its done this a few times while regular driving could never figure it out. Anyways i try to restart before stopping. Nothing could hear the starter start and it acted like a dead batt. No warnimg lights or anything while it was running.

Coast to a stop try again same thing. Go into nav screen and into engeneeing mode check batt volts at 13.2. So now im like wtf.

Check oil none on dipstick. I checked the week before at 3k didnt have to add any.

Look undet the car and nothing.

Owner of the shop shows up with his truck amd enclosed trailer and load her up and drop her at the shop.

Next day put jump pack on starts up. Clattering like crazy. Rev it up a vit coming from top of left v/c then all of a sudden you vould hear metal twist and pop. Fully seized.

Pull the pan found piston and rings and bearings.

Have warranty. Its currently sitting here waiting for an inspector. Price tag preliminary so far is 8200. Could go up.

Wondering if anyone else has had this happen? Waiting for warranty will update.

 

[1FstYota]

Man that is one heck of an ordeal, I would like to hear the rest of the story once is fully tore down and diagnosed. Can't imagine the engine just letting go like that. I had a 2012 3.8 base and I drove it like I stole it. BTW the 2012 drifts on all 4 tires pretty well really balanced once it starts sliding.

 

[homeofstone]

Were only OEM oil filters used?

 

[1FstYota]

Wondering if you dropped a valve and then boom.

 

[dougmcp]

The biggest mystery here is where the oil went. I can't fathom how it could lose 4-5 quarts in a week without some visual appearance.
Obviously without lubrication anything hydraulically controlled like chain tensioners will collapse and bearings will seize hense the parts in the pan.

 

[Hargarbl]

The cold start rattle could have been an indicator that the the vvt had some serious issues. The cam gears are what will control the cam timing and use hydraulic pressure to do so. When they start dying you will get a loud rattle on cold starts, not a noise to ignore, and if ignored will cause exactly what happened here. Eventually they fail completely and bye bye engine. This was an extremely common issue on my previous car (mazdaspeed 6).

Now this is just an idea of what could have happened and that's what it sounds like to me, but obviously we wont know for sure without a tear down.

 

[Fgpalmer71]

I also had this happen to my mazda6. Oil just vanished in about a 6 day period with no visual evidence as to where it had gone. Engine failed.

I've been reading many stories on this forum about loud noises at start up. None of that for me so far, but I'm on the look out. I'll be following this thread.

 

[PhorenReign]

Finally put my car in the shop for the cold start clattering sound. Base repair cost is already at 5k.. Waiting on inspector..did they resolve this for you ?

 

[Ian Fredricks]

Man I totally forgot about this post.

Warning long read ahead.

Almost 3 years later at 123k and she's running strong.

I've been having some cold start clatters since I replaced and assembled the engine. To combat it I've switched from 5w30 full syn to 10w30 full syn. The clatter has gone.

My avg in town gas mileage has slowly increased in the time since it was replaced. I went from 17mpg before the engine went to 21mpg avg currently.

So to the part about the engine destruction.

Get it torn apart at the bottom end and removed the intake plenum for the warranty company. Found metal bits all the way up to the throttle body. They never even showed up. They just approved the new engine.

Side note there had been blue smoke occasionally coming out of the exhaust since I bout the vehicle. It had been in and out of the dealership over 10 times and they could never duplicate it. I even brought it in smoking one day.

The valve train was intact.

Suspicion was that I had a bad ring that led to beating failure on the rod. When I tore the engine down to return the short block core I found about 1/3rd of the piston still connected to the rod and the rod bearing gone but the rod was still connected to the crankshaft.

Removed engine the next day. What a process.

I got what I thought was everything stripped down to drop the subframe onto jack stands and was lifting the vehicle off and up and realized I didnt disconnect the starter wires. And the only way to do that is when the engine is in the vehicle and to remove the motor mount to access it. Obviously I didnt put the engine back in so I cut the the cable wire and would deal with it later.

Get the engine removed and then reinstalled the subframe and pushed it out to the back lot.

Next comes a few months of waiting unfortunately. Very upset at the local dealer for this.

Order engine asm from hyundai dealer long block $7k. Wait 3 weeks and no engine. Call dealer and they inform us that they no longer can source long block asm. And would have to order block and parts individually.

Here comes the headache.

Spent almost 2 hours on the phone ordering parts and looking at diagrams. Get parts ordered ended up being $9500 in parts.

It then took 9 weeks for us to receive all of the parts.

Cams, short block, timing chain set, intake plenum, throttle body asm, cam gears, heads (unassembled), valves, valve stems, seals, water pump, gasket sets, new hoses etc.

Took about a week to assemble everything. Sent heads out to head shop to be set up. Also sent them the intake runner asm to be polished. Assembled the engine after hours at the shop.

While installing the cam gears on the cams I accidentally let one of the gears rotate a little while using an my electric 1/4 n impact and the guide pin was pressed in to the cam gear. That was a $140 mistake. Ordered it luckily they had one at a hyundai distribution center.

Took my sweet ass time to make it was perfect. Double checked timing etc. Then double checked it all again. Sealed up lower and upper oil pans on the engine stand and let it dry for 3 days.

Took 2 days to get the eninge back in to the vehicle. I figured out how to reattach the starter cable wire. I used a copper tube to connect batt cables. First I soldered the two wires together. It took a shit ton of solder. Then I crushed the copper tube around it.

While setting the vehicle back on the subframe the high pressure fuel pump connector apparently gets really close to the unibody side rail and I broke the connector off of the pump.

That was a $450 mistake that I had to pay for.

Ugh what a journey.

So I finally get it in.

Prime the oil up.

Start her up. Sounds great.

One thing that is still a mystery is for about a week of driving it the car would hit rev limiter at 5700 rpm. Took it to dealer and they couldn't explain it. they called tech assist and they couldn't figure it out either.

While waiting for a field engineer to be I the area a week later it stopped doing it. So we never figured out what happend.

One of the biggest challenges was putting everything back together when it sat for 3 months taken apart. All of the connector brackets that had to be removed and thrown into boxes etc. It took forever to remember orientation of brackets and where they went. There was like 40 of the funkers.

It's been good since then. Gas mileage is up.

I was trolling the forum looking at the gen coupe Bremen swap and saw this post I made and thought I'd update it.

Recently I replaced the front control arm bushings and installed coilovers from Megan. I was just going to do new shocks and struts but being dealer only they wanted 1200 just for parts and the coilovers were 750 shipped.

Rides great.

My electronic parking brake has failed. It got stuck on. I've been putting it off because the part is 1200 and it looks like you need to remove the rear subframe to replace the actuator/spider cable asm.

 

[Ian Fredricks]

Were only OEM oil filters used?

Yes since I've owned the vehicle only oem filter from dealer.

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[Ian Fredricks]

Wondering if you dropped a valve and then boom.

Valve train was intact upon disassembly

 

[Ian Fredricks]

Finally put my car in the shop for the cold start clattering sound. Base repair cost is already at 5k.. Waiting on inspector..did they resolve this for you ?

I was not able to resolve with a new engine. I just upped the viscosity of the oil to 10w30 which is acceptable per the owners manual.

 

[princelybug]

Wow...what an ordeal, Ian! You're very resilient and must love the car!

 

[Ian Fredricks]

Wow...what an ordeal, Ian! You're very resilient and must love the car!

That's what all my friends keep saying lol