Dear Car Talk: Ihave a 2016 Hyundai Sonata Limited with a 2.4L engine. It has about 96,000 miles on it.
The dealer is telling me that I need a $250 GDI service every 15,000 miles. When I look at the Hyundai service requirements online, it does not recommend this service for either normal or severe usage.
Is this really necessary? It does not help my trust level that they also said I needed new iridium spark plugs that I just replaced 2,000 miles ago.
Thanks. -- Pam Is there a large boat parked behind this dealership, Pam? Sounds like there’s a payment due.
If we take the kindest interpretation of their attempt to sell you more spark plugs, it’s possible that they saw your mileage reading and didn’t check the plugs themselves to see that they look brand new (or check their own service records if you had them replaced there).
A hundred thousand miles is about the right time for spark plugs these days, so you were right to have them replaced.
But you shouldn’t need them again for another 100,000 miles. So cross that off your list.
The GDI (Gasoline Direct Injection) service is a fuel injection cleaning. And it’s unlikely you need that either, Pam.
We have a very expensive machine at the shop called the Motor Vac. Our customers used to call it the Wallet Vac. Back in the day, when fuel system cleaning was necessary, that machine got a lot of use -- and legitimately so.
There were varnishes and deposits that built up in the fuel system over the years and those would eventually reduce the performance of the fuel injectors.
But the Wallet Vac has been gathering dust in the corner of the garage for the last 15 years. In fact, the Smithsonian keeps calling to ask about it. What’s happened in the last 15 years? Fuels have gotten markedly cleaner, and they all use detergents that effectively prevent varnishes and deposits from ever building up. As a result, we almost never have to clean fuel injectors anymore.
So, unless you’re having a performance issue that the dealer specifically attributes to dirty injectors, you should pass on the GDI service as well.
If you’ve lost faith in these guys, you can try another, better-rated dealer if there’s one nearby. Or go to www.mechanicsfiles.com, and search by zip code for a highly recommended, independent mechanic who works on Hyundais.