Moderators, I suggest this post be pinned since its important technical information).It all started about two months ago. My check engine light turned on breifly for a few seconds while driving normally (constant speed). The engine lost all power while light was on. Then, it all came back to normal. This happened about once a week till last week which happened two or three times daily.
Quite afraid suspecting some injection or pump failure (those are expensive to repair), I went to the local Hyundai dealer's garage and they plugged in the analyser. Error code #0229 (brake/accelerator switch error). They told me its a common error and very easy to fix. The brake switch has to be replaced, and they did. Also the error code then was cleared from the ECM.
The logics about this error code and behavior is as follows:
1) Braking and accelerating at the same time is NOT a normal driving behavior, so the ECM is programmed to detect such condition as an abnormal situation, then kills power to the engine in an attempt to protect vehicle and passengers from a possible accident.
2) The brake switch that is actuated by the brake pedal, has two sets of contacts. One set signals the brake light and the other set signals the ECM.
3) At some given point, the brake switch may issue a wrong signal (that the brake is being applied) when you are really accelerating (for example). Then, the ECM detects this abnormal condition and kills engine power and also signals there is something wrong, by turning on the check engine light.
4) Possible reasons for the faulty brake switch are: a) The actuator plunger (plastic) wears off enough (its in contact with the brake pedal frame bar) and it may short the contacts that signal the brake light without shorting the contacts that signal the ECM. (IMG:
style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) The inner springs in the switch loose tension producing the condition explained in a), and finally, c) The contacts itself get some kind of contamination (inside the switch) producing the same conditions.
The part is cheap (US$10) and I was not charged for the labor. If fact, is quite easy to do by yourself, but you will still need to clear the error code from the ECM.
IMPORTANT: I was told by them that Hyundai replaced the part (new part number) which means there is an actual difference, probably fixing this error. They also told me this error applies to every crdi diesel vehicle from hyundai/kia, with auto or manual transmissions. Also, that sometimes, the error happens but the check engine light does not turn on.About how old (miles/kms) for this to happen, it all depends on driving conditions, buy they told me they've fixed this in several terracans and starex vans between 80,000 and 100,000 kms).
I've been driving for a full week now and the check engine light has not turned on.
Se attached picture for details.
TERRACAN_BRAKE_SWITCH.jpg ( 210.86K )
Number of downloads: 59Robert B.
This post has been edited by Robert B.: Aug 18 2009, 08:47 AM
The Infamous Brake Switch (terracan And Others), Check engine lights turns on intermittently with loss of power
Aug 18 2009, 08:36 AM
