hunttom
Registered Member
Hi everyone, thought I'd share the result of an ongoing problem that I have been having with my car and how I think I finally have some resolution. I'm posting this so that anyone else that might be searching for an answer here and searches on P0025 or P0024 might consider this experience and save themselves a bunch of hassle and aggravation (and maybe even some $) by trying this earlier than I did.
First some basic facts: I have a 2011 Genesis Sedan with about 125,000 miles on it. I bought it as a certified used from a dealer when it had about 27,000 miles on it. Love the car, still do. When I bought it my intention was to take really good care of it and keep it on the road for as many miles as I can. I think the car has a sort of timeless look and feel. It has aged well and aside from this I have never had a lick of trouble from it. My goal is to try to get 300,000 miles out of it.
I live in the suburbs of Atlanta where it never really gets below the high teens in winter, stays in the 90's most of the summer and always have a few days where it gets above 100.
I have always, with every oil change used Royal Purple or Mobile 1 100% synthetic oil, 5w20 just like it says on the cap. I do the oil changes myself at about every 6500 miles. I get my oil filters from the parts counter at the dealership or online but they are factory filters. I have always used Royal Purple 5w20 like it says on the cap.
About two years ago while on a bit or a road trip and while driving in a some really heavy rain, I got a CEL. I didn't really notice anything in terms of the performance of the car. It might have "sputtered" for a split-second but that could have been a bit of hydroplaning as well. I honestly thought maybe with the downpour that maybe some water got where it should not have been and that caused a sensor to get weird. The car otherwise drove fine. When I go to my destination I went to an autozone and ran the scanner: P0025 ("Camshaft Position B, Exhaust - Timing Over-Retarded (Bank 2)". The guy at the autozone was clueless and so was I but I started researching on the web. I was traveling and the car seemed to be doing fine so I kept going with the idea that I'd take it in when I got back home.
The CEL light went out on its own before I got back home. I took it into the dealership when I got back and had them do some other things as well as check the light. They could not find any issues and could not tell what tripped the CEL light and they cleared it .
6-9 months goes by before it comes up again. Same code. This time it was not raining but again on the highway. Again, I notice no performance issue. Acceleration is good, idle is smooth, gas mileage is good. Nothing obviously wrong with the car except the CEL light comes on but again goes out on its own before I get back. When I get back home I clear it again. Seems like the common factor is both times it comes on, I'm driving for about 5 hours on the interstate.
I started reading up on this and it seems like maybe I have a bad sensor or a bad solenoid or oil control valve and the weird thing is that this is apparently caused by neglect with oil changes or not using synthetic oil. But that is not me. I take care of the car. At this point it has about 90,000 miles on it. I take it in for trans fluid service and coolant flush and have them check again still nothing. They can't tell me why.
Between 100,000 and 120,000 miles it starts to come on with more frequency but still goes off by itself . I decide to change the Bank 2 exhaust cam position sensor. My thinking is that the car is actually fine, its just a bad sensor. I do that myself and the light stays off for about a week but then comes back on. This by now is becoming a routine. every few weeks, about every thousand miles. So I decide to change the oil control valve which was not an easy thing to get to. You have to take the valve cover off and replace that gasket and be careful about torque specs and all that. But I researched it, got the right parts and did this myself as well. Within 125 miles the same CEL light comes on again. This is crazy making.
So I spend about 3 hours googing this error code and various combinations of P0025, Hyundai, 3.8 V6, Lambda, etc. And I come across a random post in a Genesis Coupe form from someone with a 2011 Genesis Coupe with the 3.8 that says he had a problem with the same code and switched from 5w20 to 10w20 and the problem went way and hasn't come back since.
This made me curious. I opened up the manual and it actually has three different oil viscosity recommendations. 5w20 and 5w30 is recommended for the entire temperature range (from -30 F to 120 F). 10w30 for 0 F to 120 F. Again, 5w20 is what is on the oil fill cap. I remember reading this back when I got the car and thinking that it seemed odd that they had three different possible recommendations that were all in the 0-120 range. The manual also says that 5w20 helps achieve better gas mileage. That, plus that is what the caps says would have been why I went with 5w20.
The manual does not specifically call this out but reading it again along with the post from the Coupe forum got me thinking that I should try 10w30. It never gets below 0 here. The CEL problem that I had was always worse in the summer and would disappear in winter.
I swapped the 5w20 out with a new filter for 5.5 qts of 10w30 synthetic and 3,000 miles later not one CEL.
That may have done the trick. Hope I didn't do too much damage with the 5w20. Time will tell.
First some basic facts: I have a 2011 Genesis Sedan with about 125,000 miles on it. I bought it as a certified used from a dealer when it had about 27,000 miles on it. Love the car, still do. When I bought it my intention was to take really good care of it and keep it on the road for as many miles as I can. I think the car has a sort of timeless look and feel. It has aged well and aside from this I have never had a lick of trouble from it. My goal is to try to get 300,000 miles out of it.
I live in the suburbs of Atlanta where it never really gets below the high teens in winter, stays in the 90's most of the summer and always have a few days where it gets above 100.
I have always, with every oil change used Royal Purple or Mobile 1 100% synthetic oil, 5w20 just like it says on the cap. I do the oil changes myself at about every 6500 miles. I get my oil filters from the parts counter at the dealership or online but they are factory filters. I have always used Royal Purple 5w20 like it says on the cap.
About two years ago while on a bit or a road trip and while driving in a some really heavy rain, I got a CEL. I didn't really notice anything in terms of the performance of the car. It might have "sputtered" for a split-second but that could have been a bit of hydroplaning as well. I honestly thought maybe with the downpour that maybe some water got where it should not have been and that caused a sensor to get weird. The car otherwise drove fine. When I go to my destination I went to an autozone and ran the scanner: P0025 ("Camshaft Position B, Exhaust - Timing Over-Retarded (Bank 2)". The guy at the autozone was clueless and so was I but I started researching on the web. I was traveling and the car seemed to be doing fine so I kept going with the idea that I'd take it in when I got back home.
The CEL light went out on its own before I got back home. I took it into the dealership when I got back and had them do some other things as well as check the light. They could not find any issues and could not tell what tripped the CEL light and they cleared it .
6-9 months goes by before it comes up again. Same code. This time it was not raining but again on the highway. Again, I notice no performance issue. Acceleration is good, idle is smooth, gas mileage is good. Nothing obviously wrong with the car except the CEL light comes on but again goes out on its own before I get back. When I get back home I clear it again. Seems like the common factor is both times it comes on, I'm driving for about 5 hours on the interstate.
I started reading up on this and it seems like maybe I have a bad sensor or a bad solenoid or oil control valve and the weird thing is that this is apparently caused by neglect with oil changes or not using synthetic oil. But that is not me. I take care of the car. At this point it has about 90,000 miles on it. I take it in for trans fluid service and coolant flush and have them check again still nothing. They can't tell me why.
Between 100,000 and 120,000 miles it starts to come on with more frequency but still goes off by itself . I decide to change the Bank 2 exhaust cam position sensor. My thinking is that the car is actually fine, its just a bad sensor. I do that myself and the light stays off for about a week but then comes back on. This by now is becoming a routine. every few weeks, about every thousand miles. So I decide to change the oil control valve which was not an easy thing to get to. You have to take the valve cover off and replace that gasket and be careful about torque specs and all that. But I researched it, got the right parts and did this myself as well. Within 125 miles the same CEL light comes on again. This is crazy making.
So I spend about 3 hours googing this error code and various combinations of P0025, Hyundai, 3.8 V6, Lambda, etc. And I come across a random post in a Genesis Coupe form from someone with a 2011 Genesis Coupe with the 3.8 that says he had a problem with the same code and switched from 5w20 to 10w20 and the problem went way and hasn't come back since.
This made me curious. I opened up the manual and it actually has three different oil viscosity recommendations. 5w20 and 5w30 is recommended for the entire temperature range (from -30 F to 120 F). 10w30 for 0 F to 120 F. Again, 5w20 is what is on the oil fill cap. I remember reading this back when I got the car and thinking that it seemed odd that they had three different possible recommendations that were all in the 0-120 range. The manual also says that 5w20 helps achieve better gas mileage. That, plus that is what the caps says would have been why I went with 5w20.
The manual does not specifically call this out but reading it again along with the post from the Coupe forum got me thinking that I should try 10w30. It never gets below 0 here. The CEL problem that I had was always worse in the summer and would disappear in winter.
I swapped the 5w20 out with a new filter for 5.5 qts of 10w30 synthetic and 3,000 miles later not one CEL.
That may have done the trick. Hope I didn't do too much damage with the 5w20. Time will tell.
