2013 Hyundai Veloster Engine Problems

As my [XXX] son was driving, his car, out of nowhere, stopped working and the steering wheel became incredibly hard to turn. It put him and other vehicles around him at risk as he was doing 50mph and his car suddenly stalled. No warning. No dash lights. It was hard for him to pull over to safety. We replaced the battery and tried to restart the car, then the engine started smoking. We immediately called for a tow. Our local shop said his engine seized. We then towed it to Hyundai and they confirmed the same thing, "it definitely locked right up." The car has been well taken care of, no warning signs prior to engine failure, no warning lights, etc. His car is also under 100k miles. There is literally no reason for an engine failure. In 2019 there was a NHTSA Recall 19V204, Hyundai Recall #182 ECU Software update; this was supposed to fix the issue but here we are... the engine STILL BLEW. Hyundai is refusing to help. They won't do anything. There's known issues with Hyundai's 1.6 GDI turbo engine. They should be held responsible. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

The contact owns a 2013 Hyundai Veloster. The contact stated that while driving at 70 MPH, the vehicle stopped and failed to accelerate. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was towed to the local dealer, where it was diagnosed and determined that the engine needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The dealer informed the contact that there was no special warranty coverage on the vehicle for the repair. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 100,000.

My 2013 Hyundai Veloster (VIN: [XXX] ) has the known P1326 fault related to the Theta II engine defect. Despite a rod bearing test that passed, the engine now requires replacement, confirmed by the dealer, who quoted me $8,494. Hyundai refuses to assist, even though I am under the 150,000-mile extended warranty. This is a safety risk and fits the class-action defect criteria. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Vehicle Info: 2013 Hyundai Veloster VIN: [XXX] Odometer: 75,000 miles Problem Description: My check engine light began flashing and the vehicle entered limp mode. Diagnostic codes showed P1326 and U1103, which are linked to a known Theta II engine defect involving rod bearing failure. Hyundai issued a 15-year / 150,000-mile warranty extension and settled a class-action lawsuit to cover these failures. However, my request for coverage was denied due to “time in service” despite being well below the mileage limit (only 75k miles). This is a serious safety concern that may result in sudden engine failure. I am requesting that NHTSA investigate Hyundai's denial and handling of such cases INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

While driving under normal conditions at approximately 65 mph, the engine emitted a sudden “bang” and severe knock. Over the following week, the vehicle stalled several times. Inspection revealed one piston crown was chipped, which then scored the cylinder wall and caused an oil leak. No other pistons or bearings showed wear. This failure pattern is consistent with low‐speed pre-ignition events documented in numerous online owner reports—many describing identical piston or rod breakage in 2013–2015 Veloster Turbos under Recall 19V204000, which addresses exactly this defect. The vehicle was partially disassembled for inspection, and Hyundai dealers have refused to perform the federally mandated Recall 19V204000 remedy. Instead, they deceptively insist on treating this as a warranty work request—despite me having told them more than five times (on multiple recorded calls), in two portal updates, and via certified letters, that this is a safety recall issue, not a warranty claim. Their refusal has forced me to incur several thousand dollars worth of expenses and spend dozens of hours pursuing a remedy. Hyundai representatives have repeatedly argued that this engine malfunction may stem from previous accident damage. However, the vehicle’s only collisions occurred in June 2014, when it sustained moderate to severe front-end damage at approximately 1,000 miles and was subsequently repaired at a certified dealer, and in 2019, when it incurred rear-end damage under 30,000 miles. The piston-crown failure I experienced in 2024—at 90,000–95,000 miles—cannot be attributed to either of those incidents. Its nature and timing are fully consistent with low-speed pre-ignition, the exact defect addressed by Recall 19V204000. An 11-page CARFAX report and full call‐recordings are available upon request.

I was driving my vehicle and it began severely misfiring and stalled on me. I took it to the dealer and found there was damage to cylinder number 2 engine balance. After research I found there are many claims and complaints due to this type of issue. The likely cause is preignition caused by what Hyundai calls bad software. I recently purchase the vehicle and they say it was updated in July of 2024 and will not repair my vehicle as they say because of its age and mileage. That being said I’m at 120k mileage and work in the auto industry…. They is nothing that could cause valve burn outside of the known ignition issue with these cars. I have no problem paying for repairs due to my cause issues or normal wear and tear but a melted valve is caused by the know issues on these cars. I am looking for help working with Hyundai to get this issue fixed.

A connecting rod bearing failed in the engine leading to catastrophic engine failure with the connecting rod breaking through the wall of the engine block causing a hole and undriveable vehicle. According to my research, this issue has been recalled in adjacent model years (2015-2016) but not in my model year (2013) that has the same engine. This issue has already been confirmed in these engines, but Hyundai states my car is not included in the recall. This was a safety risk because the engine failure breached the engine wall which could have ignited engine oil and caused a fire. The engine may have also failed at a critical driving moment when acceleration was needed and stranded the car in an unsafe position. Yes, the problem was reproduced at the dealer's service center because the failure occurred while they were test driving my vehicle. Since the service center tech was the one driving the car when the incident occured, I do not know if there was a fire or not and the speed they were traveling, etc. The vehicle has been inspected by the dealer service center and confirmed that this is the issue that caused the problem. The dealer even suspected this was going to happen as they had foreknowledge of the issue occurring on other vehicles that had already been recalled for this issue. The only prior warning of this issue is that I had some misfires on the engine a few days before which is what prompted me to bring it in for service. The misfires temporarily illuminated the "check engine" light but then the light went back out again. I had no idea this minor issue would result in such a severe, catastrophic failure.

Car hit 100k miles engine is knocking and mechanic says engine is blown. Researched the issue and found many other people having same issue. Hyundai issued a recall for this year's veloster but is saying my car does not fall under the category even though it is one of the issued problems with vehicle

One night I was driving on the highway and my check engine light came on. At first I thought it was weird because I had just gotten the car from a dealership three weeks prior. I pulled into a gas station and checked my oil which was low so I added some oil that I had bought. As I was driving home the car suddenly developed a tick and started to lose power. The turbo stopped working. I was pretty concerned about this so the next morning I decided to top off the oil and I decided to take the car into a shop. The first shop heard the engine knock and told me that my crankshaft might be going bad but I wanted a second opinion so I took it to a trusted shop who heard the engine knock and told me the engine would need to be replaced. I called the warranty company and they inspected it at the shop and said the engine would need to be torn down for diagnosis. I had to agree to pay for the shop to tear down the engine if it would not be covered. The shop found metal shavings in the oil pan. Once the engine was apart, they said that the rod bearing was bad. The car and engine are available for inspection.

Purchased the vehicle and a few weeks late received a recall letter (23V651000) about their ABS issue. They never did send us the recall letter regarding the known engine issue. Months later the engine completely seized up. We took it to a mechanic who told us to call Hyudai since the engine was well beyond repair. We called the Hyudai dealership in town and they explicitly told us their were NO ACTIVE RECALLS for this car. After finding out a replacement engine would cost over $10k we had no other option but to salvage the vehicle. Fast forward about a month and we received recall letter (service campaign 966) about a recall active since MARCH 2021 regarding engine sensor malfunction that could result in total engine loss if not addressed. Hyundai is refusing to take responsibility for not informing us about this recall during few months we owned the car. They also are not taking responsibility at the dealership level for telling us there were no active recalls (there are TWO active recalls that were present when we called.) Is there anything that NHTSA will or can help with regarding this issue. Hyundai very clearly dropped the ball on this issue and are refusing to be helpful or take responsibility. This could have been a VERY dangerous situation if the car was driving at speed - luckily the engine broke down when pulling out of the driveway...

Hi

I was on my way to school when my car started making some weird noises. Suddenly my car made a large explosion noise, my engine light turned on, then off, and then on again. my heads up display light started flickering sort of and then oil and battery light came on. my car then SHUT OFF while driving on the FREEWAY. power steering stopped leaving me able to turn the wheel but it being very difficult. my gas pedal not doing anything. I had to coast to an exit and pull over. I had it towed to a place my grandpa really trusts. this was 3 days ago. today I got a call saying that the engine had a 3 inch hole in the block facing the radiator. and was quoted a repair price of more than I had paid for the car. and to make matters worse the accident happened the day before I was going to meet with a buyer and sell it.

1. 2013 Veloster 1.6 turbo motor fire. Motor blew and fire burned everything.Inspection is time framed as I was sent lein and storage fees. In was asset and not one as far as insurance or Gap giving me the run around. my family ,myself and those near grocery store potentially could of gotten hurt. Had no warning at all on dashboard. I loved my car sad to honestly say scared to drive a Hyundai ever again. Only a adjuster came out actually can't even say she did . Wanted picture and Vin from me said she was hired as third party and never heard from her again . Fire dept . Just put fire out. Police said since I was legally parked no need if report. Which I thaught was wierd .

While driving on the highway at roughly 50 MPH there was a violent shake and sudden loss of engine power. Driver had to immediately pull off of the roadway. The oil light came on. Car was unable to drive and was towed to local mechanic. Catastrophic engine damage due to a connecting rod failure was reported as the cause. This occurred at a mileage of 148,306.

On 8/2123 my son had left school, once on the major road his car would not accelerate. As he was turning, at a light, to get off the major road his car went limp and could barely move. An on coming car just missed him. I opened a claim with hyundai because they have a open case with their engines. They verified that the car is on the list for the extended warranty of the engine. Towed the car to a dealership and based off their diagnostic they say it's not the rod bearings it could be the camshaft or crankshaft and therefore the car is not qualified for the extended warranty. It is clear that they are covering themselves to not replace my engine. My son almost got into a major accident due to their faulty engine.

Purchased car from Premier Auto in Kansas City, KS in January of 2023. The car had 70,000 miles on it. In July of 2023 I was driving on a 4 lane HWY with a speedlimit of 65. The car suddenly jerked to and slowed to 35 MPH. The car behind me nearly hit me. I had it towed to Midas to have it checked out. They informed me the engine had failed and it was because of a manufacturer recall. I then had it towed to a Hyundai dealership in October 2023. They stated to me that it was engine failure due to a recall but they would not fix it. They stated not under recall. The dealership then sent me a notice saying that I owed them 150 dollars and they would keep the car. I filed a claim with Hyundai corporate and they denied repairs stating not under warranty. I appealed that which was a denied response with the reason as not under warranty. I then filed a claim with BBB warranty department and their response was "we only assist with new car warranty issues. I then filed another claim with Hyundai corporate and the dealership and both denied it because of the warrant expiration. While that was happening I lost my spouse of 23 years. The car has been at the dealership for 2.5 years now and I continue to submit requests that are continuously denied.

Unknown. Yesterday May, 19th we were driving when the check engine light started flashing, the car started runing rough, misfiring, and there was a burning smell. On top of that our car has been burning too much oil and gass. As of right now we have an appt to have it towed to, and have it serviced at our local Hyundai dealership in Racine, Wi for our 2013 Veloster turbo. Our issue is that there is a recall on later models for engine failures, for the very same symptoms, but not ours for some reason.

On 9/27/2022, I wrote a letter to the NHTSA (which was published in a PDF) outlining the reasons why all Veloster's (2011-2014) equipped with 1.6 L GDI engines are having Detonation And Catastrophic Failures. To sum it up, the real reason is the compression ratio is "much higher" than recommended for use with Regular 87 Octane Fuel. The compression ratio in the Base Model is: 11:1 and the Turbo Equipped Model is: 10:1. A compression ratio of 11:1 is "boarder line" for 105 Octane Race Fuel. The 11:1 compression ratio creates a Higher Combustion Chamber Temperature, which ignites the fuel air mixture before the Piston Reaches TDC. This causes excessive pressure on the Pistons and Rods, because the cylinder is firing while the Piston Is In It's Upward Travel. While even though the compression ratio is lower for the Turbo Model, the Turbo Boost creates a higher cylinder pressure. That higher cylinder pressure combined with the detonation issues caused by the Low Octane Fuel, creates excessive pressure on the Pistons And Connecting Rods. This is what is causing these engines to fail! Hyundai has since installed a Dual CVVT Phase Regulator which lowers the Compression (by bleeding off Cylinder pressure) when the Knock Sensor detects Detonation. This is on all replacement GDI Engines. Many of the Hyundai And Kia Models use these same engines. Many of those models have already been recalled, but due to "Under Performing Sales" ours have not. The Veloster did not really "take off" until 2015. That's why the 2015-2016 Models (with the same engine) have Engine Recalls. If you have heard a Continuous Engine Knock your Engine already has Internal Engine Damage, but everyone who owns one of these Veloster's (that is still in running condition) should Immediately switch to Premium Fuel. Premium Fuel will help Prevent Detonation, And Temporarily Prevent Engine Failure. All of these Engines need to be Immediately Recalled, to provide for The Safety Of Our Family And Ourselves!

The engine is burning oil after couple days of change engine oil. The oil engine light will flash after a week or two after changing the oil. Thank you

A recall was issued 2019 for engine management control I own the car my sister-in-law bought the car in 2016 it is a 2013 Hyundai Veloster in 2018 the engine blew with 52,000 miles on it the car still sits in front of my house able to start with a blown engine Hyundai refused to fix the issue the engine blew due to the engine management control the car was sitting at Hyundai for about 6 months and they decided to have me pick it up and didn't want to fix anything they also lost my key fob and had to replace that I would like my engine fixed in my Hyundai free of charge I don't think I should fix an engine that has been blown at 52,000 miles with a recall part that made the engine blow please help me with this issue [XXX] INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).