Hyundai Hatchback Range

I’ll assume it’s a Hyundai dealership that wants to charge you to assess the car. And I hear what you’re saying about the car’s service history and the fact that some of these engines have been fixed by Hyundai because they were faulty from new. So, the best advice is to forget about the dealership and go straight to Hyundai’s customer service department at head office.

That cuts out the middle man at the dealership and should get you in touch with somebody who knows whether your car was one of the affected ones or whether you’ve just been unlucky in this instance. My experience has been that Hyundai takes this stuff very seriously and has helped other owners in the past. However, your case will still be assessed according to the service history and how many kilometres the car has covered.

It could be a single oil leak that is showing up in more than one place. The first place to check would be the rocker cover gasket which are prone to leaks (not just on Hyundais). If this has failed, oil could be leaking along the edge of the rocker cover and on to the gearbox, while the same leak could appear as though it’s coming from the spark plug socket (as well as a variety of other places).

The best way to find the location of an oil leak, is usually to clean the engine thoroughly, removing all the build-up oil, grease and dirt. Allow the engine to dry and then take the car for a drive. By continually checking the engine over the next few days you might be able to spot the source when the oil leak reappears.

The ABS warning is for a problem with the anti-lock braking system (that's what it stands for) and the image of a serving car is to warn you that there’s also potentially a problem with the car’s stability control. So, no, it’s not the transmission at fault here.

Both the ABS and stability control are crucial safety systems and the car really shouldn’t be driven until these problems have been checked out and rectified. The first thing to do is take the car to a workshop and have it electronically scanned. The onboard computer will have logged the faults as they were detected and will be able to identify the problem areas to give the mechanic a head-start on working out what’s wrong.