[travellite]

Originally Posted by mohan41

I am highly concerned to read this as I own a 2007 Santro AT. How can one see early warning signs of transmission failure?

Ajay: Did this issue happen all of a sudden, were there any signs of problem with transmission e.g., transmission slip or high temperature on the guage during normal running?

I came across this article about auto transmission fluid. How often should the automatic transmission fluid... — Yahoo! Autos. After reading this I wonder if our city conditions (very frequent gear changes) cause the transmission fluid to heat up quickly and hence require frequent replacements? This article also says that transmission overhaul can go upwards of $1500 which is about INR 70k.

Mohan : The car was performing absolutely fine, when i read through the user manual doc that Hyundai provide, they dont even want you to touch it until about 100,000 KMS. Its not a frequently changed lubricant and also through this experience learnt that this requires significant care.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by travellite

Total Kilometres done on date : 24,600

This took about a week or more, and finally we were informed that the gear box of the vehicle has been physically damaged, and needs a total replacement.

I was informed that the cause of the damage has been owing to the bad quality of transmission oil

Here's a question : The Santro AT requires a tranny oil change every 45K kms. Thus, do you have documentary evidence that it was changed? If not, it's running the factory oil.

If you have ever changed the oil, considering the car has only 25K kms on it, is it safe to presume that it has been serviced & maintained only at authorised workshops? If so, who is responsible for the bad quality of transmission oil! Yup, no one other than the Hyundai workshop. Is this an angle that you have explored?

[Samurai]

When I sold my Santro AT after 7.5 years and 34K kms, I hadn't changed the ATF even once. Every time I was told it was not yet time to replace it.

Therefore, who changed your AT fluid and why?

[4x4addict]

When I took my Santro AT for 50K Service the service advisor at Hyundai Motor Plaza in Chennai (This place is owned by Hyundai) I was told that tranny service is required only at 100K but my shifts where getting bit rough and I pressed them for a Tranny oil change. The official change is only at 100K or so, but given that my santro is a 2002 model, I went ahead since I feared that oil will deteriorate to some extend with age as well.

@travellite:

The problem when buying a used car especially from a dealer is that you never know
1) What the true mileage is
2) What the service history is.

If it was serviced at a private garage, they may have put regular gear oil instead of Tranny Fluid. There are many ATs on the forum and I don't think it an issue with the Hyundai Transmission per se.

[mohan41]

@travellite, any update? Did you find a good independent service center for Auto transmissions in Bangalore?

[getanilkhanna]

Originally Posted by travellite

Hello,


I am writing to you with regards to a major issue with the following vehicle.
Car Model : SANTRO eRLX, AT
Purchase / Reg date : 22-05-2006
Total Kilometres done on date : 24,600

I purchased this from second source around Feb 2010, and the car had done about 20,000 kilometres. The car was fairly well maintained and going by the prevailing market prices, I paid about Rs.3 lacs INR for the car.

The car is driven by my wife, and she works with HP, and the car was purchased with the sole intention of a hassle free commute to office, which is about 16 KMS from home and for the first two months, she used it regularly for home to work commute and was very happy with the vehicle performance and ease of driving in Bangalore traffic.


Subsequently, she took a break from work and the car was used very less, about 5 kilometres a day at best and mostly short distances. Around Oct 2010, the car developed a snag in that, the auto gear would not engage at all. It would just de-couple from transmission and stall. The ignition, cranking and start were fine, but no motion if engaged into Drive D, or 1 / 2 / L / R -. This happened during a short drive from my home and I was close to the Advaith Hyundai service station at Banashankari 2nd Stage and hence requested to leave the vehicle during non-working hours since it was a Sunday. I reported this to Advaith (Banashankari ) Bangalore, and they refused since this is an AT and asked us to take it their main service centre on Mission road. Advaith, Mission Road told me AT vehicles need more time to analyse and took about three days and then mentioned one of the Inhibitor switches was cleaned and then car seemed fine.

In a span of three months, Dec 2010 - the car developed the same issue and had to be towed to the same service centre, and this time, they promised to analyse the details and come back to us. This took about a week or more, and finally we were informed that the gear box of the vehicle has been physically damaged, and needs a total replacement. Also, I was informed that the cause of the damage has been owing to the bad quality of transmission oil, which came to me as a total shock and surprise. The vehicle was analysed just a couple of months ago and this problem / advice should have been informed. The estimated cost of the replacement seems to be a mind boggling Rs.1,80,000 INR, which is now close to the value of the vehicle itself.

Having come to this juncture, I feel totally helpless and also quite disappointed at the level of confidence in Hyundai's product. You will agree that it makes no sense to spend this sum of money on the car – or alternately no other option either. I believe that the product quality has been compromised to see such a failure at hardly 25,000 kilometres of running.



Currently we are being advised to replace the auto trans, which costs close to 1.8 Lacs / Or switch to manual which costs about 1 Lac. This almost seems like a devil or deep blue sea option.



Could someone please advice what is a practical solution here.



Thanks
Ajay

Ajay, The ATF was old and accumulated sludge which hampers the functioning of the solenoids on the valve body, There is a solution to overhaul the AT, it costs approximately 50 K and takes a few days , had got mine done too, well the Unfortunate part is that this guy is in Delhi and Mumbai only

In case you need assistance please do let me know !

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by 4x4addict

When I took my Santro AT for 50K Service the service advisor at Hyundai Motor Plaza in Chennai (This place is owned by Hyundai) I was told that tranny service is required only at 100K but my shifts where getting bit rough and I pressed them for a Tranny oil change. The official change is only at 100K or so, but given that my santro is a 2002 model, I went ahead since I feared that oil will deteriorate to some extend with age as well

Curious to know if the oil change helped with the rough shifting?

[manavdotcom]

Is this a problem with Santro ? Or with all AT cars.How to avoid this ?

Originally Posted by getanilkhanna

Ajay, The ATF was old and accumulated sludge which hampers the functioning of the solenoids on the valve body, There is a solution to overhaul the AT, it costs approximately 50 K and takes a few days , had got mine done too, well the Unfortunate part is that this guy is in Delhi and Mumbai only

In case you need assistance please do let me know !