Transmission Overheating

4267 Views 15 Replies 6 Participants Last post by spierson, Apr 6, 2022

spierson

Discussion Starter · Jan 10, 2022

Hello all,

New to the forum and my first post. I have a 2022 Tuscan N-line that I took ownership of on Nov 19th.

Well I'm posting because yesterday I was already stuck on the side of the road. I live in Colorado and was driving back to Denver from a day of skiing. As anyone in this area knows, I-70 is always gridlocked with ski traffic in the mornings and evenings and yesterday was no different.
The problem started only about an hour into my trek home. The engine shut off without warning in the middle of bumper to bumper traffic with no shoulders on the highway (again in the mountains). Now the drive at this point is mostly if not 100% up hill. The grade is normal mountain highway level, nothing extreme. Average speeds of 0 to 12 mph.
I was able to restart the car, only to have it shut down seconds later. Then restart and able to travel for a few minutes before it did it again. Needless to say, this happened about 8-10 times before the Tuscan shut down and wouldn't restart and I was stranded in the middle of the road. Called bluelink and they sent a tow truck with an eta of 177 minutes. Was there for about 25 minutes before CDOT safety showed up and offered to tow me to the emergency pull off. Well I tried to turn on the power for the car, and behold it restarted. I drove to the emergency pull off and the CDOT person told me it was likely a transmission overheating. I waited an additional 30 minutes and tempted fate and drove the remaining 50 miles home, at this point almost 100% down hill and I kept it mostly in neutral.

My local hyundai dealer, Planet Hyundai, isn't available to schedule service until early Feb at this point. Luckily (or unlikely) I am/was having issues with the entertainment/apple carplay and have an appointment for Jan 19th. They told me to just drive it until then.

Thoughts? Anyone experience anything similar? I'm pretty pissed off, I buy a car to be able to enjoy the mountains and the first time out there it leaves me stuck for over an hour.

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Gofastgo

· #2 · Jan 10, 2022

spierson said:
Hello all,

New to the forum and my first post. I have a 2022 Tuscan N-line that I took ownership of on Nov 19th.

Well I'm posting because yesterday I was already stuck on the side of the road. I live in Colorado and was driving back to Denver from a day of skiing. As anyone in this area knows, I-70 is always gridlocked with ski traffic in the mornings and evenings and yesterday was no different.
The problem started only about an hour into my trek home. The engine shut off without warning in the middle of bumper to bumper traffic with no shoulders on the highway (again in the mountains). Now the drive at this point is mostly if not 100% up hill. The grade is normal mountain highway level, nothing extreme. Average speeds of 0 to 12 mph.
I was able to restart the car, only to have it shut down seconds later. Then restart and able to travel for a few minutes before it did it again. Needless to say, this happened about 8-10 times before the Tuscan shut down and wouldn't restart and I was stranded in the middle of the road. Called bluelink and they sent a tow truck with an eta of 177 minutes. Was there for about 25 minutes before CDOT safety showed up and offered to tow me to the emergency pull off. Well I tried to turn on the power for the car, and behold it restarted. I drove to the emergency pull off and the CDOT person told me it was likely a transmission overheating. I waited an additional 30 minutes and tempted fate and drove the remaining 50 miles home, at this point almost 100% down hill and I kept it mostly in neutral.

My local hyundai dealer, Planet Hyundai, isn't available to schedule service until early Feb at this point. Luckily (or unlikely) I am/was having issues with the entertainment/apple carplay and have an appointment for Jan 19th. They told me to just drive it until then.

Thoughts? Anyone experience anything similar? I'm pretty pissed off, I buy a car to be able to enjoy the mountains and the first time out there it leaves me stuck for over an hour.

First, this is a problem that shouldn't have happened, no doubt, but, I would not take a truck driver for CDOT opinion on this. A notice should have appeared on your screen telling you why it was shutting down. Were you driving in other than normal or snow conditions on the transmission? Did you put the transmission in 3rd or even 2nd gear for a length of time? If not, Hyundai mechanics will figure it out. I live in Colorado also, but don't play in the ski traffic up the hill, and haven't had mine for very long at that. I'm certain that this is a isolated problem and will be fixed and told why it happened by experts.

spierson

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jan 10, 2022

Gofastgo said:
First, this is a problem that shouldn't have happened, no doubt, but, I would not take a truck driver for CDOT opinion on this. A notice should have appeared on your screen telling you why it was shutting down. Were you driving in other than normal or snow conditions on the transmission? Did you put the transmission in 3rd or even 2nd gear for a length of time? If not, Hyundai mechanics will figure it out. I live in Colorado also, but don't play in the ski traffic up the hill, and haven't had mine for very long at that. I'm certain that this is a isolated problem and will be fixed and told why it happened by experts.

Normal road conditions. No snow. Extremely slow traffic, so in auto I'm sure I was mostly in 1st, maybe touching second sometimes. I'm very interested in what the service department will say when they look at it. I'm not going to accept an answer like transmission fluid drains and replaced or some other BS.
It made it home without incident and since last night I haven't driven it. But it seemed completely normal after getting out of traffic up hill. Will be interesting to see what happens between now and the 19th.

Tucson_John

· #4 · Jan 11, 2022

spierson said:
Normal road conditions. No snow. Extremely slow traffic, so in auto I'm sure I was mostly in 1st, maybe touching second sometimes. I'm very interested in what the service department will say when they look at it. I'm not going to accept an answer like transmission fluid drains and replaced or some other BS.
It made it home without incident and since last night I haven't driven it. But it seemed completely normal after getting out of traffic up hill. Will be interesting to see what happens between now and the 19th.

Please keep us updated as you get more information. This may be very helpful to someone else.

Gofastgo

· #5 · Jan 11, 2022

Tucson_John said:
Please keep us updated as you get more information. This may be very helpful to someone else.

Another thought. 'transmission cooler'. The Tucson is equipped with one, perhaps that is the culprit...just a thought.

spierson

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jan 21, 2022

So my dealer called with an update:
Apparently there is a software recall for the 2022 Tucson and that was needed to be performed first. During that update, there was a problem with the TCM (transmission control module) and that needs to be ordered and replace. This part won't be available until 2/7.
Hopefully once this is replace and the update is done, this will fix the issue, but would still need to do a full check at that point.

Reactions: 1

Gofastgo

· #7 · Jan 21, 2022

Hopefully that will do it for you!

Gr8ful

· #8 · Jan 22, 2022

Did the dealer give you something to drive while you wait?

spierson

Discussion Starter · #9 · Jan 27, 2022

Gr8ful said:
Did the dealer give you something to drive while you wait?

They didn't want to, but I made that happen thankfully.

Gr8ful

· #10 · Jan 27, 2022

I'm glad you have a vehicle to drive but sad that you had to make them do it. When you have a new car fail it should be mandatory they provide a loaner.
Seems only right.

spierson

Discussion Starter · #11 · Feb 25, 2022

Update on this. The TCM is still on backorder. The part was originally supposed to ship 2/7 but now isn't expected to ship until early March, but not holding my breath. Currently sitting at 38 days of having my Tucson in the shop out of the 100 days I've owned it so far.

My worry is that this TCM problem was only noticed becaused when they tried to install the latest recall update to the software it gave them an error on install for the TCM and it couldn't be completed. There hasn't been any additional testing on the transmission or anything to see if there are additional problems. So hopefully whenever this does get repaired it's the only issue. 🤞

spierson

Discussion Starter · #12 · Mar 22, 2022

After the updated ship date of 3/13 came and went and now I'm only being told that the new ship date is "unknown", I am working with a lawyer for a lemon law case.

Flashbang

· #13 · Mar 23, 2022

I feel your pain. So sad this left you without your car.

In my state lemon law only applies if, in good faith, the same part fails three times and replaced three times they may entertain it and not without a fight.

I hope all works out for you.

spierson

Discussion Starter · #14 · Apr 5, 2022 (Edited)

2

Update: I got my Tucson back on Friday 4/1. It almost seemed like a April fools joke because they didn't even notify me that the part had shipped after all of those previous date came and went. I haven't driven it much, but hopefully it is fixed permanently and without further issues.
My biggest concern is that in their write up (internal documents that I took photos of), the TCM only failed when trying to do the recall software update.Even in their own documents, they said they could not reproduce the shutting off while driving and "may have been overheating due to stop and go traffic".

Still waiting to see if there is anything on the lemon law side of things, but don't expect an update on that for a few more weeks.

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Jay

· #15 · Apr 6, 2022

Why does your VIN have a South Korean KM8 country code? I thought all the 2.5L Tucsons came out of Alabama.

spierson

Discussion Starter · #16 · Apr 6, 2022

Jay said:
Why does your VIN have a South Korean KM8 country code? I thought all the 2.5L Tucsons came out of Alabama.

No idea. Can only tell you I purchased it at my local Colorado dealer mid November.

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