general problems of the 2000 Hyundai Sonata

I am writing in regard to my 2000 Hyundai Sonata and its sub frame corrosion and the frustration I am feeling from this situation. I was driving to work on Friday August 27th around 520 a. M. And had been on the I-10 freeway about 5 miles going around 65 miles an hour, the road soon has a speed limit of 75 mph its a 25 mile stretch of desert and very heavily traveled by 18 wheelers making the haul to California (los angeles). Anyway, I had just passed a semi and was about to pass another (with one behind me) when I felt something like metal on pavement and thought something was terribly wrong with my front right tire. . . I did all I could to get off the freeway (on the left hand side) the semi behind me almost rear ended me along with several other vehicles on their way to work all I heard was horns, tires squealing, and saw people flipping me off all while I was trying to get off the freeway. I was somehow able to get the car off the road (barely over the yellow line). I tried to look at the front right side but the car was so close to the freeway I would have gotten hit. I didn't know whether to stay in the car or stand outside (if the car would have been hit either way would have been deadly). A police man came by about 10 minutes later and asked if I was okay and had me try to start the car the car would not move as if the gears were gone he used his patrol car to move the car from the roadway and down into the desert median. It was at this point that we took a look and could see that the right front tire was facing out approximately 45 degrees with wheel housing and fender damage. I called a friend, and a tow truck and went to work. The car was taken to a mechanics house and I was told after his inspection that the lower control arm completely separated/detached from the sub frame, with chunks of the frame still attached to the control arm hardware (noticeable severe rust/corrosion) when the lower control arm detached from the sub frame.

After taking my 2000 Sonata to town fair tires to replace a damaged tire I was told "you have a hole in your frame. . . You should get that looked at" . . . So the following Monday I took it in to my mechanic who told me that townfair tires never should have let me leave the lot. My a-frame had a 6" piece completely rotted and missing, near my front right tire. He said one good pothole and my wheel would have come off. I'm told it will cost $1,000 to fix. And if I decide to do this, I'm out of a car for a week!! and while I wait I'm still out of a car anyway! I'm hearing more and more stories of other Sonata owners having this very same problem. I'm lucky that I wasn't on the highway doing 60mph and had my wheel fall off.

The contact owns a 2000 Hyundai Sonata. While making a turn at approximately 5 mph, the vehicle jerked to the right and then completely shut off. The contact exited the vehicle and discovered that the front passenger side tire was shredded and the subframe failed. The vehicle would start, but it did not move. The VIN is not included in the recall. The recall number was unknown. The current and failure mileages were 140,000.

I took my car to my personal mechanic on 3/19/2008 because the car was making a squeaking noise on an irregular basis and it was not steering properly. He took it for a drive w/ myself in the car. It made no noise and it did not "pull". He reassured that everything was ok at that time, however, if it became a problem to let him know. The squeaking returned intermittently. A little over a week later on 3/28/2008, I was driving from my home in scranton, PA to my son's dr's appointment in philadelphia, PA. I was on the PA turnpike for a little over an hour, during which time I noted to my mother (driving with me) that the car was going straight, however the steering wheel was turned left. Upon getting onto the schuylkill expressway I heard a squeal on the tight left turn (a very dangerous, high traffic highway) and stayed on that for approx another 10miles. I turned onto another highway. Immediately after getting off the highway I stopped at the first intersection. After stopping I tried to pull out and there was a loud clunking noise, smoke from under the hood and the car would not move at all. While I was stuck in the middle of a dangerous intersection (the cops even drove right on by), I was frantic considering the fact that if had happened seconds sooner, it would no doubt have been tragic accident involving not only myself, my mother and my eight year old son but also others on the highway. The mechanic, who evaluated the car the previous week, stated that the sub-frame was "rotted and rusted out" which resulted in the axle dropping out of the transmission. He couldn't find used parts. The junk yards said all of the '99 and '00 Sonatas have this problem. This lack of knowledge put my family's safety in grave danger. No there was no crash and no there was no property damage. That was only due to the fortunate timing of this incident. Please contact Hyundai to recall this part no one should be put in this life threatening situation.