Scheduled Maintenance Costs

Ah more of Hyundai's "lets do stuff and not communicate with our customers, they probably won't notice". Call me suspicious by why the possible mid production change to a significantly more expensive coolant with clearly poorer performance requiring much shorter than industry standard change frequency. The only advantage that I can appreciate is fire mitigation from unanticipated electrical shorts.

"There are different coolant requirements for direct liquid cooling systems. In systems where the battery will be directly exposed to the coolant, such as with Fuel Cell Vehicles or direct liquid cooling, the coolant needs to be a low to no conductivity fluid. This is going to be very different from conventional ICE coolants that have a high conductivity. The reason for needing low/no conductivity is due to safety: electrons are flowing throughout the battery, and if they are exposed to a high conductivity fluid, this will lead to failure and explosion. Some examples of ways to keep coolant conductivity low are using deionized water as a medium for the fluid, or to having a non-salt-based fluid medium. These low- and no-conductivity coolants are in the early stages of research and development." https://www.dober.com/electric-vehicle-cooling-systems#future_of_ev_battery_cooling

It would seem Tesla could also benefit from the low conductivity fluid. Seems some of the 2012-2016 model S fires/explosion may be related to coolant leaks

"According to internal emails reviewed by Business Insider,Tesla was concerned because the end fittings on the cooling coils were just not staying together and as such were a source of leakage. One Tesla employee described them as “hanging by a thread” in August 2012, according to internal emails viewed by Business Insider.

Some experts speaking with Business Insider believe that it could be a safety issue. If the coolant was to leak in the battery pack, it could disable it or even cause a fire."https://electrek.co/2020/07/01/tesla-nhtsa-probe-design-flaw-older-model-s-cars/

 

May of 2019 is my build date.

 

Coolant Blue, Build 6/19

 

Looks like you have no reference(at least what I can see in the US owner's manual PDF) to the new coolant in your 2019 manual and your maintenance schedules does not reflect the change to coolant swaps every 40,000 miles or 3 years for this coolant like on the 2020 models. Wondering when they were planning to tell you that you can't just top up low coolant with deionized water like it says in the 2019 manual and to prepare for a ridiculously expensive service in a couple of years?

 

Same with mine. Sounds like I should be happy I still have the green stuff... As long as my batteries never blow up...

 

This is one way to get dealers interested in selling EVs...

 

It may be a matter of conductive coolant leakage triggering that situation, similar to what happened in the few cases where the coolant pump leaked into the connector. It can't hurt to keep an occasional eye on the level in the reservoir.

 

I guess fair enough progress and the new coolant is "safer" but what really bothers me is that Hyundai knows they have you by the short and curlys and quietly makes the change without providing any clue to the end user how much this will ultimately cost them. Honestly if I was told I was going to have to drop several hundred's of dollars every 3 years for coolant changes( and only the dealer can do it) before I bought the car it most certainly would make me pause.

There is no easy way to flush the 3 gallons of coolant through all the coolant circuits without a dealer's GDS diagnostic tool. Sounds like the coolant can be bought for around couple hundred dollars but the rest is shop labor. Hopefully there will be appropriate third party tools with bi directional communication capabilities available at some point in the near future.

 

For the record:
Build Date: Jan/18/2019
Coolant: Green with cap to match

 

My wife's 2021 has the blue coolant.

FWIW, my 2018 TM3 also has the blue coolant and the maintenance schedule does not mention the battery coolant (requiring any routine maintenance).

 

What brand of brake fluid has anyone used? I realize it's dot 4

 

Regarding the brake situation, any vehicle ev or otherwise requires regular brake maintenance. Lube the pins and sliders, inspection of pads and so on. At very least you should toss some lube at the sliders once a year.

Now, is that worth $200? Of course not and you can preform the exact same task yourself for Pennie’s on the dollar if you have the tools, knowledge and a couple hours playing kiss my *** with lug nuts and brake calipers.


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DOT 3 and 4 are considered interchangeable but do have slightly different performance characteristics regarding life. If you can get the DOT 3 that's what I'd use because it's a bit more tolerant of water absorption, from my limited understanding. More importantly get quality stuff. I was buying a house brand here and soon found out it discoloured quickly and became sludgy.

 

Overall Hyundai is probably not any better or worse than other OEMs. I drove Toyotas for 20 years and they had problems and too. Not to mention Mercedes, Volvo and so on. I could tell you stories.

For warranty critical work like battery coolant and reduction gear oil change we are stuck with the dealer. It is best to keep to the recommended schedule. Having said that the recommended 36,000km service is a joke - anyone can do that.

 

What about the dreaded blue coolant replacement cost? I have a 2021 Kona EV that is sneaking up on the 60km deadline. What have you actually paid for your blue coolant replacement? In the Low Conductivity Coolant Change Procedure thread APU thought the blue coolant is significantly cheaper in the US of A so what are our American friends paying? Any other deals out there?

 

My 2021 has blue coolant, just checked it, and I am not too worried about it. Keep your eye on the coolant level. Should it drop you can get it replaced. Otherwise coolant replacement is on the service schedule at 60,000km. That is the time I would change to green coolant.

 

My understanding is that the blue coolant degradation is based on time only; my wife’s Kona will have less than 15k km on it when it is three years old but the coolant itself will have lost its non conductive properties because it gets polluted with the normal wear and tear minutiae that finds its way into any coolant system.