Locate an Auto Repair Shop in Horn Lake, Mississippi

Mr. Shiftright, I have 1998 740IL and I've had all of the problems above, plus the radio and horn went out. The steering wheel is telescoping while driving and the interior lights come on and off while driving. I understand it's the General Control Unit. There's supposed to be a recall, but I don't know where to find that infomation.

Over the last 60 days I have documented some thoughts on my new Elantra. I strongly believe that some of these items can be easily addressed o rimplemented and would stregthen the product quality. Do not construe this list to mean that I hate my Elantra. I dont, but would like to see many of these items addressed. Computer - There are a number of car behaviors that should be directly programmable by the consumer without having to involve the dealer. These include: Door unlock on park, door lock on drive, TPMS swing/trigger point, rear defogger ON time. This ability is either being blocked by default settings or has been left out of the system. All Hyundai cars should work the same as the Sonata and allow the driver to make changes. We should not have to pay the dealer for these changes and believe me dealers are charging - TPMS monitoring could be better. I’d like to be able to see the condition of each tire. This should not be costly to do as the engine computer is already polling the devices. You can display the condition as part of the trip computer options - The owner should be able to set the minimum TPMS PSI for tires - The owner should be able to change the auto door locking settings - The owner should be able to change the rear defroster timer setting Interior - The Window lock, door lock, side mirror buttons are not lit. All of the other buttons are lit - The Trunk is not adequately lit and it is impossible to see the back of the trunk at night - The glove box is not lit and it’s difficult to access it a night - The voice and phone buttons on the steering wheel are too dim. The red call end button almost impossible to see at night - The sunroof button’s up and down action feels cheap and flimsy like it will break very rapidly. Usage requires a delicate and light touch. A higher quality button (or multiple buttons) would be better - The Steering wheel gets super cold in winter and is hard to hold until the car has warmed. Core material must not be designed for cold conditions as it retains the cold very well. I suggest you add the wheel heater that you offer on the Kia Optima - Take a look at some of the dashboard plastic. The plastic around the steering wheel attracts skin oils (fingerprints) and when cleaned shows cleaning residue. It also easily scratches - The plastic on some of the steering wheel parts (lower part of horn) have sharp edges and are irritating when brushed against. Any surface that is regularly touched should have no sharp edges - Carpet under passenger seat is cut open so that a serial number is viewable. Problem is that now there is an entry point for dirt to collect under the carpet. Also the carpet may curl over time at this cut point exposing the frame below. I have never seen a car delivered with such a quality issue   Exterior - How is it that the door jams can get so dirty from rain and snow when the doors are closed? This is an indicator that water is not being channeled away but is instead being washed over these areas. It also indicates that road spray is finding its way into these areas and should not be. This is a major rust/finish risk to the body from water that stands in these areas - Supply covers for the door strikers for a cleaner look. These can’t cost more than a penny each and you already have a part number for them (81353-3M000) - When doors are opened while raining water falls down into car, on jam and seats. Snow as well. Water does not appear to be channeled around the door very well. I don’t like having water fall inside the car when it can be prevented - Door edge guard pieces should run the length of the door (top to bottom) and not in small segments where Hyundai thinks most impacts will occur. It’s a choppy look that detracts from the style. How much more could 20 inches of the material really cost at the factory level - After 20 minutes the rear defroster could not remove a lightly iced window. It needs to be more powerful - It is nearly impossible to find a high quality 14” wiper for the front windshield as this size wiper is generally for rear window wipers where the clearing quality does not have to be as good. Hyundai should have used a single wiper approach. There is also a cleaning gap between the 28” drive wiper and the 14” passenger wiper. A 15” blade would solve the problem but over extends the window by about ¼ inch on the left. I suggest that you shift the driver wiper to the right so it can accept a smaller blade allowing the passenger blade to at least 16 inches (the minimal size for a front wiper) - The quick turn signal feature only flashes the light 3 times. This is too short for most typical situations. Five flashes would be better and safer. - The stock blades on the new car is not very good and smears better than they clean Rear Camera - Use a better CCD as the picture quality that is graining/blurry at night. Suspect it uses a CCD that is not for nighttime viewing - Publish the distances (feet) for each color range (red,yellow,green) on the rear camera in the owners manual   Stereo - The volume on the Navigation system can only be set as high as 35 on a scale of 100. Needs to go higher - XM signal gets lost more often than a similar Sirius equipped car. Suggest switching USA/Canada production lines to Sirius radio for better coverage - On the non-navigation cars, the "Up/Down" button does not work with XM and when I press it, automatically changes the channel to the "XM Preview" channel Navigation - $200 map updates? Are you kidding me? After spending $2K on the tech package. - Owner should be able to turn off the GPS warning screen permanently - Owner should have a separate screen on/off button where the navigation screen remains off regardless of the other buttons being pressed - Navigation screen brightness should have an option to be tied to the dash board dimming system - Traffic needs to overlay on the navigation screen without that big blue box of details. I just want to be able to see the map and have all traffic issues overlaid. A voice warning would be ideal as I approach an area with a traffic issue Phone - System does not fully implement the Bluetooth/Control features of the iPhone and the newest model the 4S. This is one of the most popular phones in the world. - Calling by name should be as smooth as the iPhone through the navigation system. There should be no need to say “Call Name”. I should be able to say “Call John Smith at Home” and have it work. Every voice dial phone on the planet functions this way. The Hyundai voice dial through the navigation system does not work that way. - System should have an immediate pass-through mode so that I can use the features of the phone directly while the audio passes through the sound system I want to be able to talk directly to Apple’s new SIRI control without having to touch the phone

Dear Scooterox, I've owned a 2002 Cabrio GLX for the last 4 years and I've became best friends with my mechanic. Yesterday I got similar issues that you've described: 1) When I left my car in the garage overnight I noticed all the windows were open. 2) The courtesy light on the drivers door wasn't working. 3) When I was driving, the alarm horn would sound 3 times. 4) The vanity lights were not working. 5) The factory radio kept going into SAFE mode each time I shut off the engine. 6) When I opened the driver side door the windows would go down. 7) A 20 Amp fuse towards the far right of the of the fuse box was blown. So today I took it to a trusted mechanic as I haven't had much luck with the local VW Dealer. The mechanic replace the 20Amp fuse and as soon as the vanity light was turned on, it blew again. So he took the drivers side door panel off and found that wires coming from the door lock had been rubbing against bare metal of the door and had burnt out the insulation and were making contact. He rewired that section, 6 wires in total and put the door panel back on and everything is working as it should. Total cost of repair was $200. I would suggest you ask you VW dealer to check the wiring in the drivers side door first and also refuse to pay for all the components that they've changed ($2K bill) as they haven't fixed you issues. Write to corporate if they refuse. Hopefully your problem with be fixed and your daughter can enjoy the car. Its a great car when its working.

I just recently got this 97 Jetta and theres some problems: 1st: the horn doesnt work 2nd: you have to hold the brights on for the headlights to work. 3rd: the check engine light is on but it runs fine? any ideas?

What year is the car--it's a 92 - 1999 based on your post. Did you do diagnosis? Were you getting power to the motor connection? Were you getting power to the resistor pack. Are you getting power to the resistor pack? I'm concerned that you are hanging parts without the proper diagnosis. I'm seldom heard of Buick control panels having problems. A few Bonnevilles did with the blower switch. Does the blower work on HIGH? You really need to know if you are getting power. I say that because there are two relays in the relay center under the hood. One makes contact and powers up the blower switch. Then the other is a double throw single pole switch that switches from the low 3 speeds to the one HIGH speed by giving a direct 30 amp fused circuit to the battery. the lower 3 speeds all come through the other relay and through the switch contacts and through the resistor pack. If you get NO speeds at all I would consider the single pole relay under the hood. It will be the same part number as other relays in the center like the horn, AC compressor, so they can be switched for trouble shooting. http://s86.photobucket.com/albums/k110/imidazol97/?action=view¤t=1993heate- - r.jpg http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k110/imidazol97/buickblowerrelay502chj8.jpg The single pole blower relay will have 4 contacts; the double throw relay for HIGH speed will have 5 contacts. The relays have a spring bar that rides up over a prong on the relay center when pushed inward. Use a blade to lift that spring bar to pull the relay forward to inspect. The relays can burn and not make contact after a lot of cycles. That's why I now would suspect the blower speed relay. At least you can remove it and test it by switching it with the horn relay, e.g., if they have the same part number! Good luck