2019 Hyundai Elantra - How does fuel impact maintenance

Hyundai’s suggested maintenance schedule indicates every 3750 mi.severe use/7500 mi. regular use service be accompanied by Hyundai fuel treatment. How important is this if you’re selective where you buy gas or use non-ethanol gas?

Using non - ethanol fuel will only cost you more money with zero benefit . It is quite simple , do what is required until the warranty is expired .

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Don’t skip or eliminate ANY maintenance listed in the owner’s manual for service. Even suggested things… DO them. Don’t think you know better than Hyundai engineers who determined this. Save your receipts because IF you have an engine problem you want proof to show the dealer that you did everything recommenced in the most conservative fashion.

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While you’re under warranty, replace “suggested” with “required” in your first sentence.

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Is that from the carmaker Hyundai, in the owners manual, or is it from a dealer’s literature? And what constitutes “Hyundai fuel treatment”?

To my ear, this sounds like a wallet flush scam, targeted towards the fearful.

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I agree, though I could see it being legitimate if the Elantra is Direct Injection

Hyundai Owners Manual says to use the fuel treatment if you don’t use Top Tier fuel.
According to “Insiders” the Hyundai fuel treatment is identical to Chevron fuel injector cleaner with Techron.
They even come in the same shape bottle.
Chevron is much cheaper and widely available.
I use it at each oil change even though I try to use Top Tier most of the time.
About $9 a year.

Since I consider my driving conditions to be semi-severe, so I change the oil in my Tucson every 5000 miles.
Same as my previous cars the last 25 years or so.

Your 2019 Elantra has a gasoline direct injection engine.

This means the fuel injectors inject fuel directly into the cylinders instead into the intake manifold runners.

Because of this, the back-sides of the intake valves don’t get washed with fuel to prevent carbon from building up on the intake valves.

So Hyundai recommends this service periodically to keep the intake valves clean.

Seafoam also sells a product that does the same thing.

Tester

The Hyundai cleaner goes into the gas tank to clean the fuel injectors.
Direct injectors, being in the combustion chamber, are more prone to getting “dirty”.
Intake valve deposits are a separate issue, not addressed in the Owners Manual.

They use some kind of walnut blasting to clean those but the car needs to be over 80k miles.

Tester

Is this recommendation from you owners manual, or you dealer? Your dealer may recommend many wallet enhancers. Their wallet, not yours.

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Hyundai makes super great cars now. I have a 2002 Accent 1.6 auto with over 300,000 miles, and it runs like a top. Like any car (old or new) you should follow reasonably, the factory recommended maintenance; and appropriate for the miles or newness of the car. I do not buy dealer parts…if car is old or new; but do keep maintenance receipts if car is still under warranty. You do not have to buy dealer anything as replacement, as long as car part is similar compliant. Only one precaution: Use the dealer transaxle fluid for your transaxle. The dealer seems to be correct on this one as the proper trans fluid to use for a smooth running tranny. Some say that Castrol trans fluid or synthetic trans fluid works also with these Hyundai transaxles. But I have never experimented with those. I just find the best price of the Hyundai transaxle fluid at a Hyundai dealer when it comes time for a fluid change. Note also: Do not fall for the Dealer ploy of you needing a full flush and replace transmission fluid service…that they charge from $200 t0 $300 for. You only need to replace the pan fluid…not the fluid capacity for the whole crankcase. My Hyundai takes no more then 4 Qts of trans fluid, and that’s all I use for my 2 year interval fluid change. If I were to buy fluid for the entire trans fluid capacity (which would include the crankcase)…I think it would take 11 Qts.
Never had a problem doing it this way. And save a lot of unnecessarily spent money. Oh, and my Mechanic only charges me $25 for the service change (trans filter not included). Overall costs for trans fluid and filter service change…and having my mechanic do it is under $70. The Hyundai Dealer will not service a trans fluid change, unless you do it their complete service way (as they call it, while they are ripping you off $200 to $300. Final note: Keeping any car is easy, inexpensive, and fun when you arm yourself with all the pertinent info to garner the best deals/prices.

Hyundai and Kia 10 year warranty predated the Theta ll engine by quite a bit. One son, one daughter and two granddaughters have owned Hyundais and son is contemplating his 3rd new one. Good service from all of them.

I almost bought a new Sonata rather than my 2012 Camry but the local Hyundai dealer was being a jerk about getting me one with steel wheels. The Sonata was much cheaper than the Camry and the Sonata was more comfortable also. I could really use an inch more legroom in the Camry. The Sonata was perfect in seating position. I have often had to modify seat tracks to go further back or up. The infuriating thing about he Camry is that the seat goes far enough back and far enough up. It just won’t do both at once It suffers from the same thing gm cars do, a seat track that drops tpp much as it goes back.

+1
My brother owns two Hyundais–a Santa Fe SUV and an Azera sedan–and they have been such reliable vehicles that he will almost surely replace them with Hyundais.

The only warranty-related issue with either vehicle was the replacement of a defective engine temperature sensor on the Azera when it was a couple of months old. Other than that, these two Hyundais have been problem-free for the 8-10 years that he has owned them.