As someone who's been following this issue pretty closely, I'm very skeptical about what they could fix.
This is a fundamental engine design issue in their popular Theta II engine that results in premature and excessive wear on cylinder wall, leading to excessive noise, vibration, stalling, and ceased operation.
In a quest to save weight and increase power, they made connecting rod too thin and height of the bearings too narrow to hold unwanted movement of pistons in check. Instead of piston moving just up and down, there was sideway play often resulting in severely scratched cylinder wall after 15k mile of driving. There are many reports of connecting rods grenading altogether.
Hyundai found out about this pretty quickly, and de-tuned engine output in later iterations to increase reliability. Yet, they have consistently denied this design defect as a problem for many years.
There already has been multiple massive class action lawsuits and recalls on this in the U.s. since 2015. Many Korean customers were angry that Hyundai was not issuing the same recall in their home country, where they often pay higher price than identical exports.
Hyundai found out about this pretty quickly, and de-tuned engine output in later iterations to increase reliability.
Coincidentally, I was recently reading about early American cars and their heavily overbuilt construction is a huge contrast to this "value engineering" of modern engines; whereas those old engines could be tuned to make far more than stock power with little effect on reliability, it seems today the aim is to make the margin as narrow as possible --- just enough to get past the warranty period, with the associated effect that, due to how the statistics work, quite a few of them will fail before too. Samsung's "exploding" washing machines are a recent, non-automotive, example of this.
Today's cars may be more efficient and less polluting, but if they last a fraction of the time as the old ones and have to be replaced many times more often, are they really that much better environmentally overall?
Wow. I have a Hyundai Sonata 2009 with 2.0L engine and I somehow totally missed any news about this recall. Crazy. Reading Wiki I can't determine which Theta engine I have - I or II. Apparently it's 163hp so most likely Theta II, but it is definitely non-turbo so I'm lost here.
> But in March, South Korea’s Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission ruled that he should get his job back. Mr. Kim returned to Hyundai last month, but the carmaker had been challenging the commission’s decision with an administrative court. On Tuesday, the two sides appeared to reach a deal, with Mr. Kim resigning from Hyundai and the company withdrawing both the lawsuits and the complaint to the police, a Hyundai spokeswoman said.
Even if the courts required a company to restore my employment, I would find it impossible to walk into the office of the company that I had whistleblew.
Vindicated whistleblowers should get a raise and a promotion. Instead they are the subject of prolonged acts of revenge.
Engineers speaking out about safety issues that then get swept under the carpet must be amongst the most frustrated people in the world. First you go to school for many years to learn how to do the very best job you can and then some pencil pusher annuls all that by refusing your input because it affects the bottom line in a negative way.
Kudos to this man, I'd hire him in a heartbeat if I was in a position to do so. He's even more courageous than it might seem at first glance because in the society he's from this is an absolute taboo to the point where airplanes have crashed because people did not dare to disagree with someone senior in rank.
For this matter, if I had to sue an employer to make them give me my job back, I wouldn't feel comfortable working with them anymore. Everyone would hate my guts, especially those with the power to make my work life miserable.
It's a weird Catch-22. You don't sue for your job back, you don't work there again. You do sue for your job back, you won't want to work there again.
Best thing in the case of wrongful termination would be to sue for enough money you can spend a year or two not working after your lawyer and the IRS take their cut and then take your sweet time looking for another job.
It's not pleasant, for sure, but it beats penury. Plus it seems here that it gave him some leverage:
> On Tuesday, the two sides appeared to reach a deal, with Mr. Kim resigning from Hyundai and the company withdrawing both the lawsuits and the complaint to the police, a Hyundai spokeswoman said.
>> “Engineers are like that,” Mr. Kim said. “We don’t lie.”
Hmm. That's pretty general, but he may be right. The engineers willing to lie tend to get promoted to management to do the necessary lying on behalf of the engineers that aren't.
I have a 'pet theory' (ie random thought that crossed my mind a few times), that to become a good engineer or software developer you need to have, or make yourself a perspective of the world, and your place in it, where you don't need to - even subconsciously - lie to yourself in order to feel all right.
It almost appears as if the brain almost doesn't allow us to see what we need to see, and think what we need to think to be good at those task, if doing so will interfere with our self image and/or worldview in a similar vein as our more physical self-preservation instincts make it very hard to consciously do things that will cause pain or harm.
I don't think it is about having to be altogether rational or truthful, but rather that you and the perception of whatever world you experience will not be significantly challenged by the observations you do each day, the thoughts you experience, and the decisions you make.
Not disclosing automotive defects should be punished to the full extent of the law. Until examples are set there will always be known internal defects that are never disclosed and only addressed when discovered by external sources.
Exactly. I never understand why courts spend so much time prosecuting individuals who kill one or two people by drunk driving, when there are these despicable individuals whose completely sober decisions result in the deaths of thousands.
>Kim Gwang-ho, an automotive engineer, did something last year that many South Koreans saw as an act of betrayal
Is this really the Korean mentality? It makes me wary of buying anything from that country if it is, let alone something expensive and potentially dangerous like a car.
If you're going to exclude purchasing products from an entire nation based on perceived issues of "mentality", you'd better ditch all of your American goods:
[+] [-] pcurve|8 years ago|reply
This is a fundamental engine design issue in their popular Theta II engine that results in premature and excessive wear on cylinder wall, leading to excessive noise, vibration, stalling, and ceased operation.
In a quest to save weight and increase power, they made connecting rod too thin and height of the bearings too narrow to hold unwanted movement of pistons in check. Instead of piston moving just up and down, there was sideway play often resulting in severely scratched cylinder wall after 15k mile of driving. There are many reports of connecting rods grenading altogether.
For those not familiar with engine parts, here it is. https://image.slidesharecdn.com/sixstrokeengineppt-140826102...
Hyundai found out about this pretty quickly, and de-tuned engine output in later iterations to increase reliability. Yet, they have consistently denied this design defect as a problem for many years.
There already has been multiple massive class action lawsuits and recalls on this in the U.s. since 2015. Many Korean customers were angry that Hyundai was not issuing the same recall in their home country, where they often pay higher price than identical exports.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/hyundai-kia-recall-engin...
The only fix that will 'stick' is complete engine replacement.
I hope Korean customers get the same treatment.
[+] [-] userbinator|8 years ago|reply
Coincidentally, I was recently reading about early American cars and their heavily overbuilt construction is a huge contrast to this "value engineering" of modern engines; whereas those old engines could be tuned to make far more than stock power with little effect on reliability, it seems today the aim is to make the margin as narrow as possible --- just enough to get past the warranty period, with the associated effect that, due to how the statistics work, quite a few of them will fail before too. Samsung's "exploding" washing machines are a recent, non-automotive, example of this.
Today's cars may be more efficient and less polluting, but if they last a fraction of the time as the old ones and have to be replaced many times more often, are they really that much better environmentally overall?
[+] [-] CarMaker|8 years ago|reply
Should my car buying decision take into factor the fact that SKorea, as Nytimes says, punishes whistle blowers?
If so, does this happen in Japan too?
How does one take this kind of stuff into account?
[+] [-] strebler|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Yizahi|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] itsmemattchung|8 years ago|reply
Even if the courts required a company to restore my employment, I would find it impossible to walk into the office of the company that I had whistleblew.
[+] [-] jacquesm|8 years ago|reply
Engineers speaking out about safety issues that then get swept under the carpet must be amongst the most frustrated people in the world. First you go to school for many years to learn how to do the very best job you can and then some pencil pusher annuls all that by refusing your input because it affects the bottom line in a negative way.
Kudos to this man, I'd hire him in a heartbeat if I was in a position to do so. He's even more courageous than it might seem at first glance because in the society he's from this is an absolute taboo to the point where airplanes have crashed because people did not dare to disagree with someone senior in rank.
[+] [-] amyjess|8 years ago|reply
It's a weird Catch-22. You don't sue for your job back, you don't work there again. You do sue for your job back, you won't want to work there again.
Best thing in the case of wrongful termination would be to sue for enough money you can spend a year or two not working after your lawyer and the IRS take their cut and then take your sweet time looking for another job.
[+] [-] emodendroket|8 years ago|reply
> On Tuesday, the two sides appeared to reach a deal, with Mr. Kim resigning from Hyundai and the company withdrawing both the lawsuits and the complaint to the police, a Hyundai spokeswoman said.
[+] [-] vesak|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Orangeair|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cnnsucks|8 years ago|reply
Hmm. That's pretty general, but he may be right. The engineers willing to lie tend to get promoted to management to do the necessary lying on behalf of the engineers that aren't.
[+] [-] mickronome|8 years ago|reply
It almost appears as if the brain almost doesn't allow us to see what we need to see, and think what we need to think to be good at those task, if doing so will interfere with our self image and/or worldview in a similar vein as our more physical self-preservation instincts make it very hard to consciously do things that will cause pain or harm.
I don't think it is about having to be altogether rational or truthful, but rather that you and the perception of whatever world you experience will not be significantly challenged by the observations you do each day, the thoughts you experience, and the decisions you make.
[+] [-] bitmapbrother|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sooheon|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pg_is_a_butt|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] vesak|8 years ago|reply
Is this really the Korean mentality? It makes me wary of buying anything from that country if it is, let alone something expensive and potentially dangerous like a car.
[+] [-] hunterjrj|8 years ago|reply
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-06-18/gm-recall...
[+] [-] staticelf|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] GFischer|8 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Theta_engine
http://www.hyundaiproblems.com/trends/theta-ii-engine/
[+] [-] drderidder|8 years ago|reply
Kudos to Kim Gwang-ho.
[+] [-] known|8 years ago|reply