Yes. They are stating that if the defect is present it can lead to catastrophic engine damage, which obviously can lead to serious injury or death. It sounds like they are literally "banking" on having sufficient time from the onset of this blockage caused wear to have vehicles successfully inspected, and once past the apparent initial single dealer "test", to put the onus on owners to successfully monitor for any possible future occurrence, and to then safely bring it in again, and in time. We should all hear at least some loud enough level of "knock", but what is loud enough, and what about the average "romantic" driver (Q: "What kind of car do you have?" A: "A blue one").
Hey, this really could put a dB crimp in some folks cruisin' musical enjoyment.
Unless what ever test they are administering is able to detect which engines are in fact 'meaningfully' impure with an _ extremely low false negative rate, this seems like a grossly negligent plan. I say this in the non-expert belief that the fragments could exist for days, months, or years without causing externally detectable symptoms and pass their single point test, until some future point, or points, when sufficient blockage(s) occurs to start to cause enough damage to then either be detected with a "knock test", or if not corrected in time, seize the mill. I hope this is not the case.
Do external tests have the ability to "hear" that well to be able to reasonably insure the safety and sanity of all? While not a perfect analogy, some arterial-sclerosis exams can yield results that seem manageable until a break away(s) occur(s), travels, blocks, and really, really ruins ones day.
It's clear that, at least so far, many 2011 and 2012's are not seizing, and it's a shame that 'the manufacturing process' went askew for Hyundai, but without further information, this still somehow seems way wrong.