ok guys......those of you driving hyundais....in specific, early 2000's, and more than likely late 90's sonatas.
had a customer brought his 02 sonata v6 in. his son was driving it, and hit a speed bump. the entire alignment(according to him) went whacko. my first thought was that the kid went blasting across a speed bump doing about 40-50mph, and pummeled the control arm, or spindle.
boy was i wrong. the kid wasn't speeding, or doing anything wrong whatsoever.
the engine cradle was rusted. rusted worse than an old ford. on the passengers side, right where the rear mounting point for the lower control arm is, was nearly totally gone.
the cradle. see those rusted holes? they are where the rear of the control arm was mounted. the weldnuts pulled right through by hand...
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view from the other side....that part sticking up with the bushing on it, is one of the mounts, where it bolts into the car. i'd think that this much rust severely weakened that.....
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close up from the inside....
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close up from the outside...
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closer yet...
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thankfully, nothing bad happened. i can only imagine how bad it could've been, if this had caved in, or allowed the control arm to rip out at highway speeds. this car is a 2002, and only has 99k miles. in talking with other mechanics about this, and a couple scrap yards, i have found out that this is a fairly common problem with these cars. i would suggest any of you driving a hyundai take it in to have it checked.
Nice looking Engine Cradle!! But the uninformed will still say the Japanese/Koreans make a better product. They haven't done so in almost a decade.
I know that in New England Calcium Chloride is put down before the salt and rots Rockers and Cab Corners on pickup trucks, but the engine cradle is unacceptable for being 10 years old.
