Hi all Sifus,

I am planning to get a Hyundai Sonata 2011 from a local car dealer. After spending a day viewing all those cars, I found something in common.

Air Conditioning problem.

It only blows up hot air and no cold air at all. All dealers are telling me that the car hasn't been driven for the past 1 month and probably the air cond gas needs some refilling.

NONE of these Sonata is giving out cold air (I probably viewed about 6 units today).

I am wondering is there some kind of technical reasons behind this or is it so "suay" that all 6 units are facing a faulty air conditioning system?

Besides that, is there any well known problem for these Sonatas? I searched google but mostly are minor wear and tear issue. Of course, I would hope to get to know more about these cars =)

Thanks a lot Sifus =)

,😂😂😂why buying old sonata ,how much the price now?
Kimchi made heater core exchange, u need to remove the coolant hose bypass the heater .Salesman know nothing
U need to find bangla to do this thing

Ohhhh ok ok ~~
This Kimchi car second hand year 2011 is actually quite affordable. Price around 65k +/- ~~ Price drop for second hand car is sharp haha~~

I think I will have to send the car to the workshop and ask them to do it haha

Sonata YF well known for AC compressor problem. Be prepared to spend a couple of thousands to fix it. Nothing to do with the hose connection. If you bypass the hot water you will lose the ability to control the AC temperature using the thermostat control.

I was the ex owner of sonata yf 2011. Decided to trade off last yr nov.

The aircon not blowing cold air is normal due to cbu from korea wth heater & the sunroof absorbed too much heat. U need atleast 10-15min in order to cool down the temp esp if the car parked under the sun or even in super warm days. Nothing really wrong unless after 20-15min still hot.

I resolved this by adding 2nd layer of tinted glass on top of ori tinted! The car cooled after 5 min thereafter.

Not much problem wth this car actually except irritating sound from the sunroof mechanical parts & also the doors' covers sound.

Cabin take longer time to cool down is OK but if you can't feel any cold air at all the compressor is probably konk, agree?

How much did you trade in your 2011 Sonata?


This post has been edited by kluseng: Feb 29 2016, 11:37 AM

That's why I said hv to wait till 10min to confirm. It's like that ever since I got the car in 2011. Only after i double tinted, I managed to reduce to 5 min

Rm58k to trade off. Reason: getting huge discount on year end sales for camry hybrid. And my current far away work place incurred too much of $$ on fuel.

This post has been edited by stimix: Feb 29 2016, 11:41 AM

The second hand value is quite poor, like Conti car. A 2.0L 2011 Camry can get at least rm10K higher and new price was the same.

This post has been edited by Ginny88: Feb 29 2016, 08:38 PM

Somehow expected dy.. That's also one of the reasons I disposed last year rather than wait

bro if all 6 unit u test got same issues than is big sign to avoid buying it... or be prepare to post next thread asking help on aircond sonata...

Well, well...

My boss bought 2 YF 2012 for me and my uncle. I noticed that the aircond was severely lacking in mine when compared to my uncle. I wrote a very sad email to Hyundai Korea and voila, they arrange an aircond compressor exchange for me. After that, no more hot air when stationary at traffic light/jam.

However like stimix said, Sonata main heat absorber was the sunroof. On top of that, if you car color was dark, it will only get worse. My uncle white unit fared slightly better than mine under the sun. To make it a worse defeat for me, I had tinted both sunroof windows, front windscreeen. Both cars came with side windows tinting.

Personally Im quite happy with the car except rattling from sunroof and bad fc. I also hate the leather seat which gets really hot when baked under the sun. There is another thing to watch out which is the soft suspension. Remember to test drive it over the highest bumps you can find with few people. Always hit the bottom, even when driving up the ramp on some parking. I partially fixed it by changing to Michelin PS3 which had harder sidewall than the stock Hankook.

I would say it has serve me well over these 4 years+. The rear passenger seat is really spacious, which is a plus whenever you need to seat more than 3. I love how it will automatically switch off the cabin lights if you forget to turn it off.

Been driving Japanese all these years. I can only say the Sonata feel more solid over Camry (office had a camry hybrid, and a 2.0). Perhaps that would also mean its heavier as well. Im not really sure if I got used to it compared to Camry which I drove only a few times, but I do think the driving dynamics is better on the Sonata.

I thought Sonata was at least 20K cheaper than Camry.

If I remember correctly the Sonata YF was priced about the same price as Camry 2.0. Sales was bad. Most of the YF on the road were sold at steep discount to Sime Darby staff. Then they had rm20K discount which made it cheaper than Camry and sales improved.

However you buy cheaper also sell cheaper. In the end no gain and no loss compared to a Jap car.

But the present Sonata LF is a hard sell as it is priced the same as Camry 2.0. Unless you really want this car you will get whacked when you resell.

Sonata outlook still good. However as u agreed, the peryy sound from the sunroof, seats & even door panels and lastly also suspension sound pissed me off.

On the soft suspension, I cannot connent bcos I switched to 18" rim & feel too hard pulak haha. Anyway, my new camry hybrid, the suspension just nice. Not hard & too soft. Just ngam-ngam. Handling also surpringlt good comparing to sonata without 18". Look probably not as good as sonata but the ride is superply quiet since it's a hybrid. Infact the most quiet car I ever ride so far + no vibration at all vs sonata or even my older honda civic fd.

This post has been edited by stimix: Mar 1 2016, 03:32 PM

New car ma...

Since we had two Sonata, I can say mine rattles badly compared to my uncle's. His sunroof had no rattling...

If CBU car also got so much rattling what can we say about CBU and CKD? Don't judge a car by its origin.

Since replying in sonata thread, it reminded me to recheck my sun roof. I was surprised to find this. I really wonder how it broke off just like that. Probably already broke at the hand of an angry korean man in the assembly line. At first thought it's rubber lining. Now check properly, it's actually plastic that somehow broke in half, resulting in rattling. Rattling sound reduced a bit with some diy but planning to find a piece of plastic that would fit the gap and glued it down.


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Just use black silicon.

After a week + battling with the Sonata AC, here are my findings.
I changed the Compressor (recon)
Changed the Condensor (new)
Flushed the AC system
Changed the Valve

Aircond now works perfectly.. sometimes with flaws:
Reduced "coldness" when stuck in major traffic jam
Sometimes could hear either "refrigerant" or "pulley" sound when AC is on (dunno where the exact sound comes from but no leaking of refrigerant)
ONCE. the AC completely shut down and blows hot air. I shut down my car, turn it back on and the AC returns to normal (like how you boot the computer and things go back to normal)

I dont know what else to do. I am lost lol ~ Bring it to workshop to check, cant check anything coz AC is perfectly fine. Hiccups a lot. But overall, I am still loving my YF haha

Hi Ruidon, may i know which bank & how much the interest rate you get, i'm planing to get 1 sonata too