Many, many pages in a thread on this forum regarding this problem which I had hoped was wiped out, but here we are 5 years into production and we still see this issue popping up now and then. It happened to me a few times, with the car losing all power and shutting down in the middle of the road. I got the last episode on video but it actually let me continue driving for a while. I have not had the problem for years now, but I always worry about taking a long ride these days with the now and then problems I see here.
Here are my videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzjZKoBoV8Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hniy1D6VjJ4
Best of luck with getting it repaired.

 

Thanks for the links! I just e-mailed them to myself so I can show the dealer tomorrow. I tried to take a few pics of what was going on but I was beyond stressed. I was in the middle of the hood with a school getting out and crazy amounts of traffic plus no place to pull over because of 3' piles of snow. The car would barely move in traffic then it died and got stuck in gear.

I was trying to figure out what was going on. The radio screen went out at one point, wipers started moving slow and then nothing. If it was a regular car, I would say the alternator stopped working and then the battery finally died.

 

It is worth noting that this is a 2014, rather than the 2011-2012 powertrain. Although I haven't been here that long, I can't remember many complaints (even reviewing threads) of this issue occurring on a 2013-14 model -- they largely seem to have been from 2011s.

Out of curiosity, did you notice the charge level of the 270V battery; was it drained or does it mostly appear to be the 12V battery that died (from what I know, the radio is powered by the 12V, not sure about the wipers)?

If the 270V battery maintained a charge, then perhaps it is something as stupid as an "alternator"; the system that ensures the 12V battery remains charged. I also have to wonder if the cold/snow might have contributed to the issue, particularly with stop and go traffic.

Good luck getting it fixed, let us know what happens.

 

I glanced at the hybrid battery's charge while everything was going on. It seemed normal for the circumstances. I had been sitting in traffic for about 5 minutes before this happened. All was normal then took a quick left to avoid the first line that I was sitting in then all **** broke lose. I was hoping the hybrid battery would power the car until I could pull over. It was just under half when I looked at it.

 

I don't want to hijack your thread but this link may help you when explaining and documenting your problem with the dealership:
http://www.hyundai-forums.com/sonata-yf-hybrid/129573-check-charging-system-11.html
I found it is smart to go in armed with whatever information you can that helps explain your experience to them and how dangerous this type of event is. I can only but wonder if there has been any serious injuries/fatalities due to this problem and the victim has not been able to explain to investigating officers what exactly they experienced right before the accident occurred. I had the actual shut-down event happen 3 separate times to me before I was able to get video of it and only that time was I able to actually continue driving with the alarm chime and warning lights going. I often though to myself- "what if that happened to me in heavy traffic on the interstate or expressway with trucks behind me and the wife and kids in the car and I am in the left or middle lane?" It took a long while after it was repaired to actually trust putting my family in that car again.
Anyway, I hope it is something simple and they get you back on the road but if you can get video of it that would help.
Best of luck.

 

I won't be going back into Providence with this car until I'm totally confident that it won't have any problems. I'm a car guy and know any car can break down but this wasn't a good situation. It would have been worst if my kids were with me. And once I got on the interstate, I was doing about 80 most of the way home. I figured that would give me enough speed to merge over if it happened again. But even then, there isn't much of a breakdown lane with all the snow on the road.

I haven't read all 35 pages of that thread yet. Who is Car Tech Dude? Does he work for Hyundai. He seemed to try to be very helpful in the few pages that I've read so far.

 

From what was stated on the Starting Sequence thread, he is an Engineer that works/ed for Hyundai Corporate. It sounds as if, when the HSH first came out, he helped several people to get their cars fixed, when the 2011s where having these types of issues.

 

Yes, he is an engineer that was instrumental in helping a bunch of us get our cars fixed, but he faded off the forum and hasn't returned. I have sent him a bunch of private messages and he always used to get back to me relatively fast, but the last couple I sent him went unanswered.
Good advice for now is stay in the lane next to a road shoulder or break down lane just in case of another event. I know the snow is a pain but always try to give yourself an out.

 

I'm sitting at the dealer now. Looked at the breakdown lanes while driving up here. That would be scary. About 1/4 of those lanes are occupied by a few feet of solid snow/ice so there isn't much room to safely park a car there. My other concern is the car being damaged if it gets stuck blocking a road but can get into park. I've heard of police pushing it off the road to open it up for traffic. I'll feel better if they find a problem.

 

I am glad to hear you got off the road safely in the end, but after all this time to hear this problem is happening to a 2014 HSH makes me worry.


I hate hearing stories like this with the same model year as me lol.


Please post what they do or don't find.

 

You know what happens when you bring a car in for service, there isn't a problem for the tech to see. He found a bunch of low voltage codes along with one for power steering and other things that probably through a code when this happened but there isn't anything that he can see to help figure this out now. Ideally, it would happen with a tech driving the car with diagnostic equipment looked up. The tech and advisor too a lot of time to explain the car to me. I didn't realize that it doesn't have an alternator. I'm going to bring it back on Monday so a tech can drive it for a few days. Maybe it will happen when he has it. Or, it will never happen again. In the meantime, he's going to contact someone higher up in the tech department at Hyundai to see if they know anything about this.

 

There is no need for an alternator in the hybrid, as that would merely duplicate what is already done by the electric motor (while acting as a generator) and the ICE starter/generator. Instead, there is a module somewhere around the 270V battery (I believe an inverter) which is used to step the voltage down from 270 to 12 and then charge the 12V battery. I just wish I understood more about how this works.

I believe one thing I read is that the 12V is directly charged from the 270V battery -- though I don't believe that is true. Instead, I believe the electricity generated from the motor is sent to the inverter and then used to charge both the 12V and 270V batteries.

Regardless, from what you've described, it sounds as if the 12V battery lost its charge. One thing I keep wondering about is if there is nothing actually wrong with your HSH, it was just the unique conditions with the cold and slow traffic that caused the problem -- that not enough electric power was being generated to keep the 12V battery charged. Though, if this is true, I wonder if the Sonata needs better controls to ensure the 12V battery remains charged.

I'd be interested if someone here knows more about how the two batteries are charged.

 

It was about 32 degrees when this happened so it wasn't extreme cold. I've been trying to figure all of this out in my head. Low battery and then no battery power (couldn't even use the flashers) then the car sits for about 5 minutes, starts and is fine. I don't get it.

There are a bunch of threads about this happening in the 2011-'12 models. I've seen that some people had connectors replaced and others had new ground screws installed that didn't have paint on them. They Hyundai ever determine what was actually causing the problem in those cars?

 

Well that is always the way cars work lol.


I wouldn't blame the cold for the problem + traffic, mainly cause I hit traffic badly every day and it was - 27 ( -16 for you guys and YES it's frigging COLD LOL ) when I woke up this morning.


Keep us posted for the next follow up. Hopefully it was just a weird glitch that caused it 1 time.

 

Do you think it will be worth taking the car in Monday if it doesn't happen again? I've driven about 65 miles today and 15 miles yesterday after it restarted. Everything is normal. Unless the problem is persistent, I doubt their tech will see the issue when he has the car.

 

Mine ran fine at the dealer too the first 3 times it happened to me, and they even had a regional manager drive it back and forth to work for a while and gave me a loaner and of course nothing ever happened. But sure enough not long after they gave it back to me I got the video of the event, even though it let me drive for a while and wasn't exactly what had happened to me the previous 3 times. I sent it to the general manager, the service manager, my original salesman, and the hybrid tech who has been working on my car each time. They said that video really helped. They were going to put in a new HPCU at first but they decided to have an engineer rebuild the software and then install the high voltage connectors. Earlier on they had tried a new 12 volt battery, which did nothing. I say keep pressing on because it WILL happen to you again when you are driving one day from my experience with this. I don't want to alarm or scare you but I can only relay what I have personally experienced on to you.

 

The service manager asked if I was thinking about trying to get out of car. Especially with it only having just over 5k miles on it. I like the car. The look and options. It's a lot of car for the money. Especially with the discounts that I got when I bought it. I rather keep it and have everything be ok.

I don't think they are going to know what direction to look until it happens again and they can witness it. The tech suggested that I have it towed in and not try to get it working again the next time it happens. Two things about that - 1 - it would probably run fine by the time it gets to the dealer and 2 - Hyundai would want to tow it to the closest dealer instead of the one that is trying to diagnose the problem. I doubt that will really matter. It can be worked on anywhere.

Did you find that your car would work fine after letting it sit for 5-10 minutes or did you have to do something to it?

 

As far as my situation goes, the first 3 times I had the shutdown/check charging system issue, I just pulled over, shut off the car and restarted it immediately and it ran fine. No check engine light, no codes stored; it was just like it never happened. The 4th time, (the one on the video I showed you) I could not restart it and had to let it sit for a while before it allowed me to restart it. (I had just come from my friend's house about 5 minutes away so I was not driving long at all) Then I started driving it and recorded when the lights and chime started acting up again, the only difference being that it actually allowed me to keep driving and didn't cut off power, so I was able to get some decent video of the event.
I know how you feel now getting behind the wheel and being fearful of when the next event will take place; only those of us that experienced it first hand know what it is like.
Keep pressing until it is repaired, they want you to drive it and have it happen again, but the only problem is what if that happens when you are turning in front of an oncoming truck? This event has happened to many people now and Hyundai should have a set protocol in the form of a TSB for all techs to follow when a customer complains of an event such as yours. After 4 model years of production one would think that they have some sort of guideline on how to repair this when someone comes through the door saying that their hybrid just shut down while driving and "check charging system" blinks with chimes and every other light on the dash going off. It shouldn't matter if it happens in California or N.Y., the same way they are mass produced at a factory is the same way they should be repaired across the board at any dealership, and I am disappointed that they don't seem to get it and just send people out to drive again until it happens again.

 

A few things I have learned having owned a pair of 2002 Prius and now a 2015 HSH, hybrids are incredibly complicated and most service people don't even understand them. Also, they sometimes do strange things that the tech manuals don't expect to happen. I know in the Prius if the 12V battery gets low the car does strange things, including getting poor gas mileage. Over the years I got the Prius "Triangle of Death" icon a couple of dozen times. Its sort of a check engine light for the hybrid system. The code it threw was normally something about a random misfire. Anyway, when this was lit the car's performance was very sluggish as it went into some low power mode to protect itself. I bought a scan tool and would reset this thing myself. At times it would reset and that was it, other times it would go out and come back on every few minutes for days before going away. Once gone it would stay off for six months to a year.

Fortunately we don't have to worry about the "Turtle" icon like on the Prius. The Turtle actually meant the car would run about as fast as a turtle cause the traction battery was low. Scared the crap out of me the one time I got it. I was in a steep ice covered driveway and had been rocking the car from drive to reverse to try to get out of a slippery rut. All of a sudden it came on and I totally lost reverse gear. At first I though I blew out the transmission - after the initial panic I started to think logically and recalled that the Prius does not actually have a transmission. What had happened is the that reverse is only powered by the electric motor with no physical connection to the ICE. Thus, when there is no power from the traction battery you have no reverse gear. So, I just let the car sit and idle a while to charge the battery and then reverse came back.

 

If there is anything that makes me feel better about this it's knowing that the car will mostly likely start and run fine after a few minutes. It's just the possibility of losing power at the wrong time. Kind of like the people that experienced the GM ignition problem. I hope this doesn't keep happening and then I have to pursue a lemon law claim.

 

Quick follow-up. I've driven the car for about 250 miles since the Check Charing System incident. Everything has been okay. I'm going to hold off on bringing the car in for them to drive it for awhile. First, because we've had over 3' of snow up here over the last few weeks so I'd rather be the one cleaning the snow off and driving the car instead of someone else. Not saying they would drive it like a rental but I take care of my stuff. And two, I feel that there won't be any problems if they have it for awhile. I might bring it in after the Winter is over. It will definitely be going in if it happens again.

 

I have been thinking that the 270V battery and the 12V battery may be connected, that the 270V battery may be trickle charging the 12V battery when the car is turned off. It would explain why the 12V battery died but then was fine, 5 minutes later.

 

Actually, that would explain why the car was fine after 5 minutes but why did it die? That's the big question.

My best friend is the regional service manager in my part of the country. He asked me to send him all of the details so he can look into it.

 

You may want to get one of these to monitor when I had trouble starting my HSH.

 

Thanks Tom! That will give me a better idea what's going on if I have the problem again.

 

My buddy forwarded my situation to a District Parts and Service Manger for Hyundai. he wrote -

"I have seen this but not on 2014. We had many TSB/ campaigns, software updates and designed changes to the battery cables. I see from blue link it set a couple of chassis codes. Have customer take the vehicle to the dealer. They have very sharp tech there."

The car goes in for Friday. I'll post updates.

I tried to buy that battery tester at Walmart today. That store didn't sell them. I'll try another store or maybe online.

 

Forgot to tell you to get it online.:frown:

 

Looks like I'm the "lucky one".

 

I don't think so:laugh:

Shattered pano shield. So at least wait until the 16's come out before this one gets totaled.:laugh:

http://www.hyundai-forums.com/sonata-yf-hybrid/303753-car-might-totaled.html

 

I'm hoping this car will be around for awhile. I still haven't gone back to the restaurant that I was at when the '11 was totaled.

I should have an update from the dealer in the next few hours.

 

I'll be picking the car up today. They didn't fine any problems. No codes and it didn't die when anyone was driving it. I didn't expect them to fine anything. I guess I'll have to think fast/take video if it happens again.