Hyundai Recalls Over 430,000 Elantra Over Faulty ABS

Attention all Hyundai Elantra owners. If you have a 2006-2011 Elantra sedan and wagon or a 2007 to 20011 Elantra Touring wagon parked in your garage, then it might be one of the nearly 430,000 units that needs to be recalled by the company.

Hyundai has already issued the recall due to the tendency of the anti-lock brake (ABS) module to collect moisture. This can result to an electric short, which can lead to engine fires. So far, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported only a few isolated fire reports to Hyundai. There were also no reported injuries caused by this issue--for now.

According to their recall notice, the module can short whether the engine is on or off. The company has already created a fix for the recall, which is a new relay that will turn off the ABS module when the vehicle is turned off.

"When the vehicle is on, short circuits are preceded by other noticeable symptoms such as noise [or> ABS warning lights," a Hyundai spokesperson told C/D. "So with the vehicle on, the driver is present and will detect preceding symptoms if a short circuit were to occur. In this situation, the foundation brakes continue to be operational."

Despite this, Hyundia hasn't yet solved the root cause of the problem: What's causing all those moisture to enter the module? The truth is, if Hyundai fails to fix this, then the problem will keep coming back.

On a similar vein, NHTSA has already begun an investigation of the issue since April last year. Following more than 3,000 reports of fires that began without a crash, it investigated three million Hyundai and Kia vehicles with potentially malfunctioning engines that are at risk of catching a fire.

Hyundai Elantra, or Hyundai Avante, is a compact car made by South Korean automotive giant Hyundai. Introduced in 1990, it was first marketed as the Lantra in Australia and some European markets, but was changed to the more popular "Elantra" in 2001.

Many of the recalls belong in the fourth generation Elantra. That time, it was redesigned using a more "coke bottle style" structure, with an engine lineup that included a 1.6 Gamma and 2.0-liter Beta II gasoline inline four engines and a 1.6 liter turbodiesel inline four.

Interestingly, the fourth generation Elantra was rated by Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) as "Good" for its overall score in the frontal crash test and a Marginal overall score in the side impact test.

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