Hyundai I30 Problems

This sounds like a problem that should be easily solvable by having your Hyundai dealership electronically scan the car and interpreting the fault codes that result. This can’t be done by the side of the road or in your driveway, so I doesn’t surprise me that your road-service provider hasn’t had much success.

Fundamentally, though, it’s simply not good enough for the dealership to continue to tell you it can’t find a problem. This is a brand-new car and it’s expected to perform faultlessly or, at the very least, to a standard that does not give your partner cause to refuse to drive it. The car is under warranty, so Hyundai is obliged to fix it. If you’re not happy with your dealership’s approach, I’d suggest calling Hyundai’s customer service department. Hyundai guards its reputation very closely in Australia, and isn’t likely to let a case like yours damage that.

Hyundai i30 Bluetooth pairing is achieved by switching your mobile phone’s Bluetooth function to On and the phone to Visible or Discoverable. The vehicle itself must also be stationary; phone pairing can not occur if the vehicle is moving.

Then, press the Phone button on the car’s stereo system or the Call button on the steering wheel. The infotainment screen should then display the devices it can find (including your phone). At the same time, the vehicle’s name should appear on your phone’s screen. Ensure it matches the vehicle and then select it.

On phones that require a passkey, a screen should show up on your phone. Enter 0000 and the connection should be completed. On phones that require confirmation, the info screen should show a six-digit code which will be mirrored on your phone. If the code is mirrored exactly, press Enter or OK and pairing should occur. From there you can transfer phonebook information and call lists per the on-screen prompts.

For more instructions on how to play music through the system, more setup options, and troubleshooting problems, refer to the vehicle’s owner’s manual.

You’ve layed out some challenging requirements here. You’d like a small SUV with a bit of ride comfort and clearly a bit of performance too, given your question about the i30 N.
I think you’ll find the ride harsh on the i30 N, especially since you found the ride on the Kona harsh already. Keep in mind the i30 N is a hot hatch and has the suspension to match.
I find the Subaru XV has very nice ride comfort for the small SUV segment, but I also feel that you will be disappointed with the performance from its 2.0-litre engine. You may also want to consider the new Hybrid Toyota C-HR. The Hybrid drive gives it a smidge of extra kick and it’s a fuel consumption hero, too.
For a better blend of performance and ride, really only the Volkswagen T-Roc and Skoda Karoq are going to excel in the small SUV crowd. In terms of ownership both now have five year warranties, and you can (and should) pre-package five years of servicing on top at a discount.

It sounds like the brake-light switch is at fault. These are usually located somewhere in the pedal assembly under the dashboard and, when you push the brake pedal, this simple on-off switch activates the brake lights. If the switch is jammed or stuck, it could cause the brake lights to remain on and cause your flat battery. I’d go with this theory first since a short, sharp whack on the brake pedal turns the lights off, suggesting that it’s a sticky switch that’s your problem.

You could try to lubricate the switch with a spray lubricant, but in most cases, the permanent fix is to replace the actual switch. It’s not a huge job and shouldn’t cost too much. That said, your car should still be under factory warranty, so it’s the dealer’s job to fix it.

Petrol versions of the Hyundai i30 from this era have a rubber, toothed timing-belt. This is a clean, quiet running arrangement, but it does require replacement at 90,000km intervals. The advice is to change the tensioners, associated pulleys and the engine’s water pump at the same time as all these components wear out and are located in the same general area, making it a smart move to do all this work in one hit, rather than pull the engine apart a second time.

The hard starting and loss of power sound to me like a problem with the fuel pick-up or the fuel pump. In your Hyundai, the fuel filter is part of the pump assembly and lives in the actual fuel tank. Replacing the filter involves removing the pump from the tank, changing the filter and then replacing the whole assembly into the tank. If a hose has been crimped or an air leak introduced into this system, the pump may not be able to supply the engine with all the fuel it needs. A cold start-up is when an engine will suffer from this leak, while tight turns on a roundabout could be enough to starve the engine of fuel if the pick-up (the hose that dips into the petrol in the tank) isn’t in the right position inside the tank. The fact that these problems started when the car received a new fuel filter is a pretty good clue that something was not quite right when the car was put back together. I’d be going back to the workshop that fitted the filter, explaining the problem and giving the shop the opportunity to put things right.

The noise in your steering system is almost certainly due to a well known problem with these cars. The electrically-assisted steering system in your car uses a rubber coupling which can deteriorate over time. When this happens, a click or clunk can be heard. The solution is to have the rubber coupling replaced. Because the problem didn’t cause steering failure, Hyundai didn’t issue a recall for this, but a batch of earlier i30s (some cars built in 2007 and 2008) did have a steering coupling that could fail completely, leading to a loss of steering., These were recalled by Hyundai as part of a safety recall back in 2014.

This one is a little beyond my pay-scale, to be honest. Medical advice from a car website is not something we’re prepared to indulge in. Damaging levels of radiation from a car are not something we've heard of, but to comment either way and potentially put somebody’s health in danger is not our place. The absolute best advice is to make certain the driver in question seeks proper medical treatment.

If you think the car is at fault, you could have it scientifically tested to detect the presence of radiation, but it’s certainly sounds unlikely given the well-documented history of the motor-car. From where did your theory that the car is at fault come?

The engine in your car uses a rubber timing belt which requires replacement every 90,000km. The design of this engine means a broken timing belt will likely destroy the entire engine, so it’s not something to ignore.

That’s actually not a lot of kilometres for a modern car, even a small hatchback like a Hyundai i30. Modern cars are actually a lot more durable in the long term than older ones, so I wouldn’t be worried about the distance travelled. Given that the average car in Australia travels about 15,000km a year, 108,000 is actually about right for a car that’s now eight years old.

That said, the car’s chances of being reliable for the next few years will pivot on how it has been maintained by its previous owners. Make sure the car you buy has a full service history with no gaps in that document suggesting it has missed any scheduled preventative maintenance. Unfortunately, many people who purchase budget cars like the Hyundai tend to maintain them in a similar way and that often means corners are cut. But if the service history is intact and complete, there’s no reason to suspect the car won’t offer years of reliable service. The price you’ve been quoted seems about right for the car in question.

The answer is no, but Hyundai's naming policy was very confusing during the 2010s.

The original i30 of 2007 introduced the alphanumerical naming policy and signified a different approach to vehicle engineering, with a European focus with higher-quality engineering rather than a low price to take on class leaders like on the Volkswagen Golf.

Thus 'i' something became a sort of premium nomenclature, and of course is still used to denote this on models like the i30 and Europe's i10 and i20 small cars There was also the German-engineered i40 midsized sedan and wagon until 2018.

But here's where Hyundai muddied its own waters.

In 2010 the larger, American-market Sonata was rebadged i45 for Australia and New Zealand – even though an 'x' and a '5' rather than a '0' meant crossover or SUV, as illustrated by the very popular second-generation Tucson being renamed ix35 in Australia and some other markets from 2009 to 2015 – though this naming policy was abandoned for the third-generation Tucson from 2015. While strikingly styled, there was nothing European about the i45, and it too returned to being badged Sonata from 2015.

So... i10, 120, i30, i40 and i45 for Australia, but no i35.

Thank you.