Faulty injectors cause juddering in my Alcazar: Resolved by Hyundai

For every hour of drive, the juddering occurs once or twice and lasts for less than 5 seconds or so. There is no check engine light or any errors on the console.

BHPian Naetik recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Folks, today I noticed the worst juddering of my Alcazar diesel AT. So, quick status update - completed 9000kms in the 4 months since I got the car.

I was on the NICE road in BLR and was trying to drive above 60kmph so I can clear out the DPF load. With maintaining 60kmph as the primary goal, I was driving pretty slow for the highway. I moved to 60kmph and was very slowly moving towards 70kmph. Exactly when it hit 70kmph, the transmission started juddering pretty badly. This was on for a few seconds that it got me worries, but once I moved past 70kmph, looks like the transmission found its gear and was smooth again.

So I tried to recreate the problem and could do so couple of times. Please try this on your Alcazar (or Creta?) and let me know if this a common problem:

Maintain 60kmph for a couple of minutes and slowly move to 70kmph.

You should be on a fairly level road (so the engine is around 1500rpm). On inclines the engine rpm would be higher (>1700rpm) and I could not notice the issue. But on level roads without incline, with rpm at 1500rpm and speed moving towards 70kmph, the juddering is pretty bad.

Till now, on highways I quickly move above 100kmph and never noticed a problem.

So, 1st of September I completed 4 months of ownership and the 10000 km service was coming up. I was also worried about the juddering from the transmission I experienced a couple of times in the last week of August. So took the car in for the service to Lakshmi Hyundai service at Whitefield. I had informed Mr. Chetan (marketing) about the juddering issue a day back.

Was received by Mr. Johnson (service manager). He had already got an update from Mr. Chetan and I should say the support from Mr. Johnson was exemplary. I am extremely impressed with the level of attention to detail at this place. I stay in Bannerghatta road and it is not easy to come down here for the service. But if the support and service remains the same, I will not mind making the trip for service to this place.

I explained the juddering to be the main issue I am there to fix. Also, told them not to do the dry wash. He already knew from Mr. Chetan that I wanted the car spotless and clean. Took him out on a longish test drive to show the juddering. Our thought was it could be the air filter or fuel injectors, etc. They needed the car for a couple of days to root cause. No error codes on the OBD meant, it wouldn't be easy to diagnose.

From the Hyundai app, I could monitor that he was taking the car out for test drives a few times onto a highway. He also kept me posted on the same. Because everytime the car leaves the service station I wanted to know why and what for.

Two days later they handed over the car. Went for a test drive for 30+ kms and no juddering. The only change was the air filter + regular service.

Within 24 hours of my last post mentioning, that no juddering was observed, it came right back. No happy at all.

On Sep 8 morning as I was driving into office, the juddering restarted again. This was at about 65kmph/1800 rpm on the inner ring road. This time the juddering was bad and it went away after I braked and accelerated again.

Again in the evening and next day morning, I observed the juddering for few seconds. The problem is, it is not consistently reproducible yet. But for every hour of drive it occurs once or twice and lasts for less than 5 seconds or so. There is no check engine light or any errors on the console.

My doubts were strongly on:

• Fuel injectors
• Clutch
• Transmission.
• TCM and related sensors.
• Engine mounts (less probability)

I called up Mr. Johnson from Lakshmi Hyundai yesterday and updated him about it. He was supportive as usual. So that is a good thing. I asked him to inform Hyundai and get a list of items they are willing to check. I will have to leave the car with them for a couple of days. Told him will only leave it when I know they have a clear plan on what all to check.

My car was taken back by Lakshmi Hyundai service manager Mr. Chetan on Sep 13. This time they took it back to their main service centre in Hebbal, Bangalore instead of the whitefield SC. Had a couple of calls with their technician to explain the problem and I could also notice from the Bluelink app, they did multiple road tests to recreate it. Finally after 2 days, Mr. Chetan called back to confirm the issue is due to fuel injectors. He took it up with Hyundai and next day got confirmation that the fuel injectors would be replaced under warranty.

But they had to order the injectors for replacement and they returned the car and informed that they will take the car back once the injectors are available. In the meantime, I had a vacation followed by the Puja holidays. Last weekend I was informed that the injectors had arrived. And today I sent the car back to Lakshmi Hyundai Hebbal branch for the fuel injectors replacement.

A round of appreciation for Mr. Chetan. One of the best I have dealt with in the past 13 years of being a customer with Hyundai. The lengths he had to go through to keep me updated and ensure that the root cause is identified and rectified is highly appreciable.

Mr. Chetan got the car after replacing the fuel injectors today. Went for a longish test drive and tried out driving at multiple rpm and speed ranges. Finally - no juddering was observed. Looks like the issue is behind me now.

Very happy with the way Lakshmi Hyundai and Mr. Chetan handled the issue. Kudos. Can only hope the service experience stays the same in the future as well.

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