Received a letter from Hyundai this morning, thought I would share the safety recall with you in case you haven't got yours yet. Don't know if it applies to all gens, I have a gen 3.5

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m40/ ... -brake.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m40/ ... brake2.jpg

Interesting. I haven't received anything throw the post yet about this (mines is a Gen 3.5 also) but if I read it correctly they want us to pull the handbrake up without pressing in the button?
Alex

I cannot find an authoritive source to back this up but it is my understanding that failure to release the ratchet pawl whilst applying the handbrake can be a potential cause for failure of the driving test. 'Excessive ratchet noise' or some such reasoning. I believe the IAM may even preach the use of the button as part of mechanical consideration for the vehicle.

For what it's worth, there is a BSM document that briefly mentions it - it discusses common faults for which instructors are sometimes missing and, in particular, mentions 'Not using the ratchet button when applying the handbrake' as one such fault.

I'd be inclined to push Hyundai on this - it seems to me like they're trying to mitigate the risk of litigation, as opposed to taking the proper steps of mitigating the risk of the fault occuring (by changing the design and retrofitting existing mechanisms). Of course, the former saves money, the latter costs it so no surprises how they decided.

Given I own a Gen 1, Hyundai would of course tell me where to go if I were to harrass them so I'll leave that to someone else!

If anyone can get hold of an examiner's instruction manual (or just get the DSA to comment) that'd be sufficient (if what I think is true) to force Hyundai's hand to do the right thing.

Mathew

It's ridiculous to expect a user to read and take in a detail like this in a user manual.
How many people actually read the manual except maybe to look up things like tyre pressures ?
And of those people, how many would notice the subtle detail about the button.
And of those, how many would remember sufficiently well to overcome years of habit.

Something that is confusing is that the letter has a 'work completed' certificate, which implies that there is a repair poasible, but there is no mention of this in the text, so I assume this 'repair' only refers to repairing the user manual... However the certificate also says "For dealer use only"....!

I suspect a lot of dealers are going to get enquiries about carrying out this 'repair'.....

and another thought... What happens if it fails the MOT because the tester didn't read the manual...are they expecting you to instruct an MOT tester how to use the handbrake?

Someone should talk to VOSA to see if they think that having to use a special technique to apply the handbrake is acceptable...

I got my letter this morning. I only skim read it at lunchtime but thought I'd pop on here and see what people thought. I agree it's a really confusing letter - it implies a recall or repair, but all it is, is a sticker!
When I read it, i also recalled the chap whose car crashed into his drive after it being parked by his dealer. I thought this letter is in response to that as soon as I opened it.
It does sound like the nature of a ratchet though - the possibility that it doesn't engage properly, but to me that's a design fault!
If anybody does get to speak to Hyundai please let us know the outcome!

Received my letter today. To be honest isn't all handbrakes a thing not be totally relied on, in any car? I was always taught to leave the car in first gear with the wheels pointing in towards the kerb. Of course this is useless if your gonna park half a metre from the kerb but my old man always taught me to point the wheels towards the kerb. I suppose I will stick the sticker in my manual and send the completed form off. What if you don't send the form off?

Why £20, they dont charge at DVLA for change of keeper, I emailed Hyundai to make sure they were aware of the change of ownership, useful for things like this when "faults" occur

The £20 is for a replacement V5.

Got my letter this morning - is someone trying to extract the urine? - I checked my handbook it reads 'pull the lever up with the button depressed' the new instruction reads ' then without pressing the release button in' - does this mean that the original instructions were incorrect, and the fault was known? If so why was I sold an unroadworthy vehicle? If at the time I bought the vehicle (brand new) the fault was not known to Hyundai, but has since been ascertained, what are Hyundai intending to do to rectify the problem?

I will be 'phoning Hyundai on Monday morning on the 08705 329980 number to find out what their answers are to the above questions, and would urge other Gen 3 owners to do likewise.

( I would also agree with previous posters - when I took my driving test I was told to depress the button, and on my police basic and advanced driving courses it was made painfully clear(with a clipboard!) that failing to drpress the button caused wear to the ratchet mechanism -perhaps Hyundai know differently?)

You're missing the point - the reason why people aren't too impressed is that they think it should be a safety recall given that it is apparent that the handbrake can be prone to failure if used in the 'standard' (i.e. taught by instructors, part of the driving test etc) way.

As has been discussed it's seemingly Hyundai's (cheap) way off avoiding having to sort their handbrakes out whilst at the same time attempting to mitigate the risk of litigation should anyone's handbrake fail as discussed.

To sign and return the form agreeing to their advisory is madness - there is nothing to gain by doing so yet on the other hand plenty to potentially lose. Speaking of which, has anyone hear actually returned the form signed off? If so, why?

Mathew

point is you shouldn't have to do that.
1) when being instructed to drive, you always leave the car out of gear.
2) if you were to rench the handbrake up (like they are basically saying) during a driving test, it wouldn't look good.

So are hyundai now teaching us bad driving habits??


Just beat me MJ!

I havn't and won't

I got mine too but haven't done anything with it yet. I was thinking of calling Hyundai and advising them of a handbrake failure. I would expect them to take the car in and replace the mechanism then. Geesmith, have you had any responce from them yet?

Ninos

Yeah, welcome aboard. What an absolute bug*er what's just happened...

If I were you, I'd be building a website at www.hyundaihandbrakefailures.co.uk as a portal for others to log their experiences and details of the acknowledged 'issue'. Seriously. I've done it before and it's very effective - after Northern Rock's appalling customer service and www.24selfishvideo.co.uk after a 24SelfVideo franchise shut up shop and did a runner with its members cash. In both case I received the obligatory threatening letter from their solicitors but they were rather toothless - as always. Needless to say both paid up so I wouldn't hesitate in doing it again!

Mathew