Okay, so my Accent is only 16 months old, and besides the goofy, slow reacting tranny, it has never given me any problems.
So, Thurs. morn (my Monday) I get to work, and then take off for my first run. Turn the key.... the motor turns like 1/4 turn, then nothing ! WTF !?!? :-(

I can't imagine it's the battery, seeing as its barely more than a year old.

But anyway, I call the 1-800 Hyundai road service number. The lady told me they could dispatch somebody to either give me a jump, or a tow (I was only about 1 mile from the dealer). I told her I had a friend on the way already, and I had jumper cables. So then she tells me, "Well, your battery is still under warranty, so if you take it to the dealer, they will give you a new one, free of charge".

I'm thinking, "That's great..... but I could also go to Wal-Mart and get one for $40 and be back on the road > making money". So, if the dealership want's to set up some kind of appt, and take 6 hours, to swap out my battery, forget it.
I call the dealership, and explain my situation. (kind of funny that the dealer who sold me my Accent, is now the service manager :-) So, he tells me, don't worry about it... Bring it straight in, and we will hook you up fast.

So, my co-worker shows up 5 minutes later. A quick jump, and it fires right up. I drive it to the dealership. Do the little bit of paperwork, while they are swapping the battery. Talk to a couple of the other guys about my car (these guys are always pumping me up with > Yours is the best looking Accent in this town, yada, yada... But that's nice though)
And Bam ! My car is ready to go in less than 1 hour !
Excellent service !

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
But now here's where it gets interesting; All of the sudden, the car feels like a little race car ? And I swear (hoping it's not just in my head) but it really feels like it is shifting much better / quicker !?!?

Is their any possibility that my battery has been screwed up from the start ? ....and maybe only putting out "borderline voltage".... like just enough to turn it over..... but not neccessarily enough for sensitive electronics and / or the onboard PC to work properly ?

All I can say is, I never felt a slow, or improper shift for the rest of the day. And the power felt increased too.
Just coiincidence ?

Hmmmm,
Guess we'll see,
Fish

You are going to have the whole board running out to get new batteries. LOL
I wonder if they might have put a higher voltage battery in your car this time,
or had a too low one in before?

...so is that possible???

all you did was reset your ecu. it may have learned bad habits. i noticed the same thing when i had battery issues last month. when i got it going again it ran alot better but has leaned itself back down to how it was running before. isnt running bad at all, just a noticeable difference. I too may be crazy tho so :460:

not even gonna touch the stronger battery theory...

No, there's no way the car would leave the factory with the incorrect battery in it.

I'm the sure old battery was just borderline. Some cars sit on the lot for a while before they get sold and the batteries go bad in them. A weak battery or charging system can have strange effects on a lot of the car's systems.

Sometimes I think my transmission is retarded, maybe I should have one of the techs check my battery... :blink:

A different battery is not going to have a higher "voltage". All cars have 12 volt systems regardless of battery size. Cranking amps is what makes the difference, hence the term "stronger battery". When running, every car's charging system should only be putting out about 14 volts, no matter how big the battery is.

This post has been edited by LilBean: Jul 19 2008, 11:18 AM

I doubt that low-battery output had anything to do with it. Resetting the ECU sounds more likely IMO.

Has anyone hacked the ECU? Maybe the algorithm that it uses to "learn" needs some tweaking. It would be neat to get into the ECU an come up with an economy and sport-mode switch. Or even better: how about a voice-activated mode switch? :grin: Anything is possible..

-G

Hyundai protects their ECUs with a seed/key algorithm. It will not allow you into the ECU for anything other than diagnostics and software updates via Hyundai's GDS.

Some of the RD Tiburon guys have been trying for years to crack the algorithm in order to have plug and play tuning. So far, no luck.

w00t, you're #3 here that had their battery die. Your transaction sounds like it went much smoother than mine, the dealer charged me fourty bucks to tell me there was nothing wrong with my battery despite it not being able to start the engine if you left the radio on for two minutes. :wacko: I had to escalate my concerns to the manager to get anything done.

The new battery is good though, Interstate brand with a big Hyundai label slapped on top. Mine's actually smaller than stock - 500 cca vs the 540 it came with. But it's been holding up fine, cranks over quick every time. I didn't really notice anything different behavior-wise with the engine or transmission shifting after the replacement though. But still, computers are stupid, and electronics get confused so removing the power for a little while can help clear up odd little glitches I guess.

Yeah did the old ecu reset trick after installing a new intake, it make the car feel faster.

ECU reset sounds right, if it happens again, i would get the alternator tested... think i might reset my ECU before i take a 30 mile trip to my friends place to paint today.... :grin:

ECU reset :D. Nice avatar troy.

Hey guys, yes, later the same day after I made the original post, I started thinking about, and leaning a lot more towards the ECU theory as well.

Especially, since I kind of babied my car for the first few weeks (not that I recommend this to anyone else) and then started driving it a lot harder after that.

Funny, I was doing the same thing with my brand new F150 truck, and one of the guys on the F150 forum said, "Dude, what your doing, is teaching your truck that you are an old grandmother" ! :-) LOL I felt kind of stupid, but the fact is, that guy is probably right !
So, the same day, I asked my mechanic to reset my ECU, so I can teach it, that I'm about 30 years younger than it thought... and I'm a male :-)

But anyway, about the car; The added get-up-and-go is nice, but in a couple more days of driving it, the tranny still hasn't coughed..... Hoping the ECU is telling the tranny, "Okay, grandma apparently sold this car to a young, aggressive, pizza delivery driver..... this tranny needs to shift "right now" ! :-) LOL

These new cars with all the computerzed stuff, are sure a trip....

Peace,
Fish

PS, Hey Torbo, they did check the alternator, and said it was fine. I probably won't have to worry about alternators, until I put the 1400wt amplifier in my F150 ;-)

This post has been edited by Fish Chris: Jul 21 2008, 01:05 PM

:thumbsup: good deal dude!