I have a 2003 Hyundai XG 350 L in the shop this week. It belongs to a dear friend from church and needs a water pump. The timing belt runs the pump so it all has to come apart for the repair. His usual mechanic was hesitant to make the repair due to the complexity of the engine. We had spent the day together yesterday and I told him that I wanted to repair his car.
Rock Auto to the rescue, parts will be here before next weekend. The water pump is leaking when parked and not running, it seems to pull outside air into the cooling system at idle. I flushed the cooling system to get clear water through the system, small stream of bubbles had me concerned for a little while. I did verify that there is no exhaust gasses in the cooling system, I had to run to town for more fluid for the tester. It stayed blue so I continued with the car.
Up in the air and the covers are off, it is very similar to my 3.0 in my L. They use this engine in both Kia and Hyundai products, since it is one company. This model is the big car and was very nice when new, still very nice after 185k miles. I took it for a drive to see what I was dealing with and it needs very little to be a great car. I will pull the upper intake and reseal the valve covers and replace the ignition, three wires and three coil boots and plugs. I will replace all of the belt end seals since this is a 60k timing belt it should make 250k. Also needs sway bar bushings to get rid of the clunk in the front end.
Charm.li has great manuals for this car also. Just have to navigate some to find the information.

Big week ahead with a fleet review in my district. Managers and Directors are coming from a couple states. All upper management in my department and the Operations side are new since the last review 5 years ago. I am the only one with in-depth knowledge of what is really happening with my fleet of 150+ units. Oh joy….

 

Sounds like a busy week, Andy. With all of the company personnel coming, I'm pretty sure you'd rather be working on your friends car. So would I in that circumstance.

 

Andy,
I get the impression you are the only one who knows a lot of things, let alone the fine details of how the fleet is managed. Clearly you have a grasp of what needs to be done and when, and I don't doubt for a second your ability to have your staff implement your requests. All vehicles have weak spots, but from previous posts, it seems like you have diagnosed most of those and I also don't doubt you have some creative and cost-saving measures in place dealing with preemptive versus time of failure approaches for dealing with them.

I can't remember, but I believe you stated you were hesitant to take on more of a managerial role at work. With your level of hands on experience, you've seen a lot of things in bulk that nothing other than hands-on experience will reveal.

Keep on keeping on

 

Got the Hyundai torn apart today, a small puzzle since it a first exposure. Looking for hidden bolts etc. Engine is nice and clean inside, valve covers are off for new gaskets. The rear head cams spun to close open valves when I removed the belt. No problems caused but that will mean lining up the marks and checking compression once the water pump and belt is back on. These v-6 engines in most models wrap the intake manifold over three of the plugs and one valve cover. So tune up is always labor intensive. This car gets it all this time. Three coils in front with three wires going to the rear plugs. The wires were original from Korea, dated 2602- 26th week of 2002. I drove this car some to qualify it for the repairs needed and it is worthy of my time. If all the parts arrive this week it should be done Saturday night.
I had a good conversation with my second grandson today about the L200/5. He is still uncomfortable with the stick so I asked if he would drive the wagon and I would drive the sedan again. It is really my favorite car, just need to fix the air. He said he doesn’t care if he drives the wagon even though it is a grandpa car, LOL
So when I get the Hyundai back on the road I will re-license the sedan. I will drive the Diesel truck this week. It is nice to have an extra car.

 

This Hyundai proved to be a challenge. Installed the new water pump, idlers, tensioner and timing belt. The two cams on the front head stayed put, both cams on the rear head spun to unload open valves. Nice! I was going to replace valve cover gaskets due to leaking so after pulling the upper intake resetting the cams was not a problem. I had to rebuild the injector wiring harness that was under the intake manifold due to heat. The plastic wiring connectors crumbled upon trying to release the clips. Got everything back together and I had a coolant leak near the water pump. That was last weekend.
I ordered a new thermostat and all the gaskets necessary to reseal the other end of the V. All the hoses attach to a manifold at the transmission end of the engine with a pipe that runs to the back side of the water pump. O-rings at both end of the pipe.
I have not worked on an Asian car in a long time. My Saturns are GM Europe cars.
This Hyundai is a Korean version of a Mitsubishi
I ordered a factory water pump gasket through Napa’s Altrom line. The gasket that came with the belt, tensioner, idler and water pump kit failed to seal properly.
The OEM gasket is an embossed steel gasket, the gasket that came in the kit was a thick fiber one.
The car is back together tonight and needs a radiator cap and inner fender shields installed.
Wife is doing well, getting ready for another Winter. All the firewood is in and still working on the whole house generator. Waiting on delivery of an 125 gallon propane tank, then I will rent a ditch witch to bury the conduit for the wire.
Always another project…..

 

As I ran the car in the shop the radiator cap was not sealing properly, the local Napa store had one. I finished assembling the inner fender and underbody covers and took it for a drive. This is still a nice car even with 185k on the clock. I put 20 miles on it and delivered it to it’s owner. Upon delivery I noticed a very slight crack in the top plastic radiator tank and it was leaking the smallest stream I have seen from a radiator tank. The owner is having his regular mechanic replace the radiator. His regular mechanic did not feel confident with changing the water pump and timing belt on this car. Back to my L200/5, it needs a thoutough detail and licensing. My #2 grandson will drive the wagon and I will drive my stick shift car. It is time to teach all the grandchildren to drive a stick. Maybe we can work on the truck again this Winter.

 

Do they know how to rebuild a carburetor?

​​​​​​Please teach them so that the art is not lost forever.

 

Derf has made a good point. I rebuilt several in the days of my youth, but don't know if I could do it anymore. It's been 35 years or more since I last rebuilt one.

 

I used to swear by carburetors until I got the Crown Vic. There are times that I wished I had ditched the EFI and went carb'd with that car though.

Ironically, my Aunt's '08 Saturn Vue replaced her '05 Elentra; which she bought new when she was still working corporate jobs. That car lasted all the way until 2018. She probably would still be driving it had I wrenched on it earlier in its life.