Yesterday morning I started my car, car turned on and so did every warning light on the dash. Lights seemed dim, but I wasnt sure if I was just seeing things. AC seemed to blow warm air (I had noticed it took some time for my AC to get cold in the last week, but I figured I needed it charged).
I put it into Drive and the car started bucking when giving it gas. I pulled over and shut off the car, waited a couple of minutes, then turned it back on. Car would not go into gear and the gear LED on the dash went blank along with the smart details in between the RPM and MPH.
I shut the car back off for a couple of minutes and restarted, same thing. Tried again, shut it off then turned it on, and was able to get it into gear and drive it back home. Turned it off then back on, and all the lights went off except for the Check Engine Light and the Tire Pressure lights. Drove it successfully around the block without any bucking - and while driving, the tire pressure gauge turned off.
Later in the afternoon, I was able to start the car without issue.
I’d check the battery and the connections to the battery first. Specially if this is the original 5-6 year old battery.
To check the connections, you need to remove the heavy connections to the battery, clean the inside of the connectors. Repeat for both ends and both cables. Be careful not to short anything.
Get one of those $10 voltmeters you can plug into your cig lighter socket, from Amazon. That will tell you a lot about the health of your battery and alternator.
When you turn the ignition on, before you try to start the car, the voltage should be close to 12.6 volts. After the car is started, the voltage will be about 15 volts, perhaps a bit higher, and slowly decline to about 14.5 volts, as the alternator charges the battery back up.
We experienced the same issue with our 2014 Sonata. What did your resolution end up being? Our mechanic can’t get us in for a few days, and if we can resolve ourselves, we’d like to. Thanks!
This just happened to me also. What was the resolution please?? I’m stuck at the dealership cuz I had to drive here with all the problems happening but they don’t open for 3 hours. I’m curious what you did to get your car back to normal.
ah, the internet. google issue. cartalk item pops up. is 1yr old. or 5yrs old. thread has no answer. so thread is bumped. than the next person comes along who has same issue with similar car. or a completely different car.
Here’s an update for a 2015 Elantra. I had the problem where the RPM and speed gauge would go to zero, the shift lock would engage, the ac would not blow cold, and all dashboard lights came on. It seemed to mostly happen when it was hot outside. Took the mechanic a while to track down the problem. He had to go through most of the car wiring.
Eventually he found some cracked solders in the MD EMS BLOCK 91951-3X100 fuse module in the fuses area under the hood in the very right middle. He resoldered the cracked ones and that mostly fixed the problem. Once or twice the problem happened again so I ended up buying a new MD EMS BLOCK and replacing it. So far so good.
Don’t know if that will be the solution for everyone with this problem, but good luck!