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Who is having transmission problems with their Kona ?

  • No Issues! All is well !

    Votes: 63 39%

  • DCT issue, In the shop

    Votes: 13 8.1%

  • DCT issue resolved via software

    Votes: 2 1.2%

  • DCT replaced , All is well

    Votes: 10 6.2%

  • DCT fixed more than once and still not Happy !

    Votes: 1 1%

  • No DCT for me!!! Glad I drive a conventional automatic transmission

    Votes: 35 22%

  • Not running right, Need to have it looked at.

    Votes: 37 23%
  • Total voters
    161

Kona transmission Issues ? - Poll

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66K views 70 replies 39 participants last post by  shaned9338  
#1 ·
Thought we might get a better idea of how many people are experiencing issues with their Kona transmission.
A few threads on the subject, this will give us an idea from our community.
 
#43 ·
Well-- at 20k miles, I now have to change my vote.

In the past week-or-so, my 2020 1.6t DCT is now acting weird. It seems to slip in even numbered gears...well, at least I can confirm it slipping in 6th gear.

The only way i can describe it is that it is like the clutch is going out/needs to be replaced, if you compare it to a standard foot-operated clutch, or like you are riding the clutch.

The RPMs will go up about 200-300 then come back down. I don't really notice it except for it adds torque steer (acts as if you are giving it more power and the wheels will "track" different when it is "slipping").

The funny thing is that I can't make it do the same thing on-command or repeatable.

I first noticed it when I had cruise control on around 70MPH-or-so on the Interstate. I was going up a hill, that it always downshifts on its own, and it revved twice during the incline. It is only for like 1 second of a "rev" and it never loses power. It just has more torque from the slippage.

It did the same thing but different hills, cruise control on and it does it again sometimes when it is in 6th gear. Turning A/C on-and-off doesn't affect this condition and it may only happen with certain weather (temp, humidity, etc.). Of course, I can't make it do this all the time.

I haven't tried to "reset" the transmission by disconnecting it. I will have to check into that procedure on this board as I don't wanna lose my radio presets !! :)

Again, it doesn't rev to the moon, just about 200-or-so RPM's higher for a spit second.

If I manually shift it into 7th for these hill/downshift combo, it doesn't slip like this. Now, the engine doesn't like it because the RPM's in 7th gear are really too low for the power needed to maintain speed. Again....(sigh) it doesn't slip every time if I let the transmission do its own shifting.

No other performance aspects I can see from it. The only reason I say it is the even gears is that the last time I was out playing and using a lot of throttle, I did notice a little "hiccup" in 4th gear. I dunno. It could have been some engine mapping or changing ignition timing as I was full throttle. I wasn't looking at the gauge so it was just more of a seat of the pants feel for 4th gear.

I will see about resetting the Adaptive Learning thingy and let y'all know.


Cheers
 
#44 ·
Your reset will be pulling the battery for 15 mins. As far as what you are seeing may be a clutch, as I see the exact same thing. But mine is full throttle kick down 2 gears on the hwy. It has been acting up like this for 3 months now and resets do nothing. Do you have a piggyback or tune? The hiccup and weird stuff is the HORRID DCT tune from Hyundai. There should be a DCT tune out by someone next summer as the Russians have hacked the DCT password recently and there is an encrypted part on the later (our Kona's) coding that needs to be dealt with. That should fix the weird HORRID coding from Hyundai on their 7 speed DCT.
 
#45 ·
No Tune. Heck....I have a hard time determining what freakin' octane rating to put in the thing !! :)

It is just weird. It's not under full throttle when it does this. It is when trying to maintain 70MPH going up a 3-4% grade. Not a lot going on-- as the turbo kicks in some great part throttle torque and conquers the hill with little fuss. I can't imagine this engine producing enough torque at 2600RPM at something like 1/5th throttle to spin out the clutch and not have it red line once it loses "grip" in the clutch.

Because of the fact that it "catches up" and the RPM's go back to "normal" after a few secs, it makes me think that I just need to reset it. BTW... Do you know if I remove the battery cable if it will reset the radio (Sirius XM, presets, etc.).


Thanks.
 
#47 ·
any updates for you guys who have had issues the last serveral months? I keep reading about these issues and honestly not sure to even pursue getting one of the 1.6's. Will go for a test drive to see for myself and ask the question to the stealership, for which I know what the answer will be of course.
 
#48 ·
If you are looking for a Kona and your choice is a 1.6T with a 7 speed DCT or a 2.0with a 6 speed ATF pumper, I would pick the 7 speed DCT. If you are using the 7speed DCT as a street race or semi-track car that is where you see it's issues. If you drive it normally it is fine. Tork Motorsport has a DCT tune for it ,but he is guarded about it as if he puts it on the market the coding will be stolen by other tuners. Some of the tuners have software guys write encryption firewalls around their coding so other tuners wont steal their code. Right now with Covid this code writing has tripled and it is not affordable to the tuners to get their code encrypted right now. So the tuners will only write milder tunes ot in the case of NEW not on the market Hyundai DCT tunes they just wont release them now.
 
#50 · (Edited)
Yes, sort of. You will always see a slight delay sometimes when starting out, but you get use to it. I am anal it it is not a deal breaker for me. You will get the DCT (at least my 2018 in Minnesota ) when starting out on ice and the rpm ramp up too fast they then disconnect the transmission ( stupid REAL stupid ) till the rpms come down. You just learn not to get on a hyw with an icy turn on without allowing room from on coming cars. But the 2.0 liter ATF common ATF trans could be programed to do this too, I don't know??Go test drive a Kona DCT if they have any these days and drive it around a bit. I myself could not live with the anemic non-turbo 2.0 under any circumstance.
 
#53 ·
Made a grinding noise at actually 20mph whether u were accelerating or decreasing speed, and then a delay like u had it in neutral then it would act normal . But the only detail really is the grinding noise it is brief , but u could tell it was definably gears grinding. Now having a difficult time getting loaner/rental ..I've gotten 3 "we will call u backs" in the last 24 hrs.
 
#55 ·
2021 Trend +-10,000K 1.6T AWD with DCT. So far seems fine except the few times I felt the car was riding the clutch ( had a mazda 6 5-spd manual for 14 years prior) while pulling away from a stop sign turning left or right. Engine revving while almost no apparent torque applied to the wheels. All happened after a cold start either in cold/warm weather then first stop sign from my home driveway. Never noticed this other than in that situation, still monitoring it.
 
J
#56 ·
Just bought a SF Calligraphy with the 2.5T 8-sp DCT, and that thing is awesome. And now I'm considering a Kona N with the same tranny, I believe. Any issues with the N? Also need to find out if premium fuel is required (hope not), but no info on that even in the .pdf owner's manual from Hyundai. Does anybody know? Thx.
 
C
#57 ·
Hello I have an issue with my 2022 Kona N line edition FWD, This car has 17k miles. On Saturday while driving in highway traffic, i needed to accelerate to pass someone and get over in the lane next to me. I was driving 70-75mph and i tried accelerating but it stopped at 77mph and was stuck in the range of 4-5k rpms and acted like it was in neutral, it scared me quite a lot since its not something you want happening on highway traffic, it happened 6 times that day, i took it to the dealership that was closest to me at the time. They said nothing was worng due to zero codes popping up and no errors logged. I was out of town, I am now back i will be taking my car to the dealership i get all of my maint. done at. I would also like to note this has happened 3 times before except at redlights and the car wouldnt accerlate at all despite me pressing the pedal and the rpms showing 2-3k, the stop light issue was corrected by me by turning the car on and off a couple of times. at this point I dont feel safe in my car anymore, i cant sell it or get rid of it due to have 4 years left on my loan.
 
#58 · (Edited)
....would love to interject my 2 cents but not sure if this is the correct location.........my 2021 SEL plus AWD 2.0 w/AT w/8k miles has serious issues with the computer that controls the automatic transmission.
Many times from a total stop or to speed up, the transmission does not know when to down shift or gear to choose....most often a really bad lag - many cups of coffee spilled.......
Been to the dealer twice - they couldn't replicate the problem (i love how the service manager carries an ipad around for diags).....
Found somewhere on the web to disconnect the neg battery terminal for 15+ minutes - I did it over night.
Sad to think this is a known problem and Hyundai chooses not to address. Told the dealer about disconnecting the battery - they were 'impressed' with my knowledge......???

Does anybody have suggestions ?? Also curious if there's some "master" reset for the entire car in addition to disconnecting the battery? I'm all for a total reset.
 
#59 ·
hello everyone. english is not my main language.

anyway, my kona 1.6t just got an issue. it cant go to reverse. dont know what happen. on my way back from work, all of sudden my kona acceleration drop. now cant go reverse at all. agent diagnosis said got problem with the clutch. mileage is 84k.
 
#62 ·
I wanted to post something in addition to my earlier Aug 4 2022 post.
Dealers rely on the 6 different computer's logs to diagnose. I've been to multiple dealers with my transmission complaint. They can't seem to help.

IF THE COMPUTERS fail to log an entry with a problem......the dealers are lost - THEY RELY TOTALLY ON THE COMPUTER'S LOGS.
Even driving with one of the service managers or techs, I can replicate the problem.......they check the logs - nothing is there.

My transmission issue is not logging any problems so, the dealers are clueless.
 
#64 ·
I've travelled to 3 different dealers (2 outside of my city)......they all agreed that if there's nothing logged, they can't help.
I asked to speak with the regional service rep....they told me that was NOT possible.
Hyundai customer service (phone) is useless and a huge waste of time. I found the only response for my concerns came via email - but, still no help.
I sent a letter to their corporate headquarters in Korea - I'll be interested to see if there's a response - I have a feeling my KONA will be gone by then....
 
N
#65 ·
Time to add me to the list of 2018 Kona needing a transmission replacement. They thought a gear actuator replacement would fix it but they just called me today and said that didn't work and would need a transmission replacement. This really sucks. I'm supposed to wait until the dealer gets official approval on warranty repair before I go and get a rental car right?
 
#66 ·
At least your dealer is doing something..........I've been trying to get someone's attention since 17,000 miles ago. got a call yesterday from a woman at Hyundai that I could barely understand. She asked my if my problem was resolved. I told her "NO"
After a little arm-twisting, she said she'd reach out to the regional manager for my dealer and ask him to call me - but, no guarantee.
I tried to get the regional mgr's attention by asking my dealer to make the contact.....they told me that wasn't possible.
I've always owned Toyota's - their quality and service is tough to beat. I'm on my 3rd Tacoma - it's now 18yrs old with only replacing an alternator when it was 8yrs old. I only bought the Kona because it was late 2020 and COVID took care of the dealer's inventory.....Hyundai was my only choice for an AWD vehicle......I'll probably sell the car this year if they don't resolve.
One thing I should add - the bluelink still does not work - the modem keeps losing its configuration and the only way to fix is to disconnect the battery overnight.....within 2-3 days it's gone again.....
 
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