Any '04 Sonata owners notice this?

I posted this earlier, and since posting, have been to the Hyundai
dealer about the problem, only to tell me there is no problem.

If you have an '04 Sonata GLS, could you try this and let me know your
results?

1. When I start the engine cold, the tach shows about 1600 RPM for
about 30 seconds, then drops to about 1000 for another minute or so.
Was told this is normal to quickly warn the catalytic converter

2. In shiftronic mode (only so you can actually see what gear it is
in), Come to a stop or near stop and see if it bypasses downshifting
from 3rd to 2nd and goes right into 1st, skipping second altogether

This is getting to be a real pain, especially if I slow down to a few
MPH and need to accelerated and I am still in 3rd gear, when it
clearly should be in 2nd. Again, I was told this was normal. The
ex-McDonalds worker/Hyundai tech said this is normal. I asked if I
took one of the 04's from the lot and drove it if it would also do
that, to which he replied "they are all different, so that car might
shift fine"

 

2003 Tiburon GT, but read on.

Warn it about what? The same thing happens on my Tiburon. I think
the fast idle on cold start is more for the engine than the cat, since
it takes a few minutes for the exhaust gases to warm up the cat no
matter what. I know that when it's below freezing and I cold-start my
car, the engine will lug (and maybe stall) unless I let it fast-idle for
~30 seconds. This won't harm anything; as long as you wait until the
engine's at normal operating temperature to rev it up high, you'll be
OK.

"Need to accelerated"? Other people have complained about this in the
past. Try http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search , this
newsfroup, keyword "downshift" or possibly "2nd". I've never seen this
happen, but a Tiburon auto transmission is probably programmed
differently from Sonata/Elantra auto transmissions.

First rule of tech support: If it'd take a lot of time and aggravation
to fix, say "it's normal". Like I said, other people have complained
about this problem or a similar one. There may have been a TSB out that
clears or greatly reduces this problem by flashing the transmission's
ROM. Or maybe that was for the XG350; I can't remember. groups.google
knows all though. HTH,

 

**Do you mean warm it? I don't own a Sonata but to compare it to other
vehicles: My ex-Santa Fe idled high when cold and dropped after a
minute or so. My Jetta idles at 1100-1200 and then, on warm days, the
primary air pump (?) shuts off and it drops to 900. On very cold days,
the primary shuts off and it drops to 1000 then a secondary eventually
shuts off and it slowly drops to 900. I don't think it's out of the
ordinary that your Sonata does this.

**What? All different? Is someone inhaling leather upholstery fumes?
Tell that boob that if that other car might shift "fine" that means
that your car is shifting WRONG. Ha! Anyway, the amount of posts here
asking about shifting problems with Hyundai transmissions is enormous.
As Dances with Crows/Matt explains, google is your friend. Check for
TSBs (technical service bulletins) at alldata.com, the problem might
be solved by flashing your ECM with new transmission program.

If you have the shiftronic, can't you just downshift it yourself? I'm
not saying that you should get stuck driving it that way, only if you
really needed to get out of the way or something.

kaboomie

 

Sorry, I meant to say "warm" I need to proof read these better before
posting

And here, should have been "need to accelerate"

I checked the google search, but didn't find any posts about a TSB
addressing this problem

 

There is a list of TSBs on the Hyundai web site. Also, the gov't
carries a list on the National Highway Transportation website. I
think AllData carries some, too.

S25

 

I found 2 TSB's that look like they affect shifting, but not
downshifting. One is 04-40-006-1, 2002-2003 Sonata 2.7L 2-3 Shift
Flare Improvement and the other is04-36-015, 2003-2005 Sonata(EF) 2.7L
ECM Reprogramming for Intermittent Hesitation

Looks like I'm going to have to wait for them to realize that the
downshift flaw is a problem before there is a TSB out on it