Guess what's wrong with my car contest.

Blew the welds on the intake manifold?

damn I was going to say torque converter clutch stuck.

Low tire pressure..

(everyone else already gott the good ones.. )

Wife was miffed when you left dirty socks on the floor near the bed the night before. Poor running is due to prolonged angry driving at or near redline, probably while doing donuts in the supermarket parking lot.

What did I win?

I like that angle - howabout socks in the gas tank?

lady i work with had someone at their apt complex put sugar in their gas tank for no apparent reason.

got any enemies?

My vote is for a bad catalytic convertor...

recent oil change at local quicky-oil-change joint? if yes, i'm going with torn intake boot downstream of MAF (assuming MAF is in airbox lid).

GrantMLS wrote: I like that angle - howabout socks in the gas tank?

Meh. It's called a filter.

Mis-fire due to bad plug.... Do I win?

Crank sensor is a seriously known problem on the Kia/Hyundai 2.7l, the ones that have it under the timing belt get the wires eaten by the belt, the ones under the exhaust manifold get the insulation cooked off by the exhaust heat.

GET A GENUINE DEALER PART. BTDT with several of these cars.

I was thinking crank sensor. Darn, too late.

nickel_dime wrote: The muffler bearing is shot.

Bull, its the tire pressures. or... Have you cleared the ash tray recently?

On my SAAB 900 if the oil filler cap was not on tightly or clipped on only one clip, not two; it ran like that.

Love them easy fixes!

If it was the cat, it wouldn't be "okay" above 10 to 15 mph. My RX8 had a bad cat and it would barely accelerate. (I know, its a rotary and they don't accerate anyway)

I am thinking intake air leak.

Got the call late last night, and the answer is...(drumroll)...

Bad Ignition Coil!

Lot's of close guesses, but no winner this time. Thanks for playing, and thanks to the Hyundai Warranty I will not be out of pocket on this one.

Alfa Driver said, "failing coil" Failing is close to bad.

My apologies, I must have read right over that. Well then, Alfa Driver is the winner, and is officially declared "Message Board Master Mechanic". Alfa Driver shall henceforth be considered the expert on all things automotive related and we shall all bow to his/her message board mechanic awesomeness!

I think an appropriate prize would be a copy of the Ultimate Alfa Spotter's Guide Video (co-produced by me a billion years ago). As soon as I can VHS-MPEG the thing, I will send along.

pretty much exactly what was happening with my old 90 cavalier...it would run fine on the freeway, but when I got onto surface streets, it was like it was running on 3 cylinders ...which it was. Bad Ignition module (running the coil). Hopefully with Kia a new coil is cheaper than a 90s era ignition module.

I swear it was not completely random.

Blinking light = misfire.

And the exact same sequence has happened on my Miata.

Even though Hyundai's don't have an apparent coil problem, it seemed like a likely problem.

And I suggest that you have the dealer take a good look at the computer for catalyst codes. Better to have them replace that instead of you, too. I have a Masters degree... in mechanics.