QuestionI just bought a 97 hyundai sonata,and it has a miss,dies out on idling,no miss while driving,on closer inspection I noticed the waterpump has been changed and the timing belt needs to be removed to change waterpump,could the timing marks be wrong or is there another problem? thank you Jean
AnswerTo be honest, I don't think that the timing would be off really if all that was done is a water pump replacement unless whoever did it was very careless in the way that they replaced the belt and jolted it a bit too much. I guess you really can't eliminate that possibility though.
I am not exactly positive as to what could be causing the issue with your Sonata, but one thing that comes to mind is your air flow. When the car is driving, you may not notice a difference in its performance. It is forced to suck air into the engine and even if the air flow is restricted, the car will still drive, just not at its best. If the air flow is restricted, when the car comes to an idle, it will not have enough oxygen to support it, therefore it chokes and dies. Be sure to check the air filter, the intake line itself, and make sure that all of the sensors are secure as well.
Something else could be your throttle setting as well. If you notice the car idling very low, you may need to adjust the throttle settings to once again allow more air flow when the car is idling.
The only other thing that I can recommend is that your ECU could be going faulty and is sending a wrong signal when the car is at idle. This has happened to a car that I had worked on before, and the only way to really find out is to run an engine diagnostics test, which Autozone can do for you as well. This should be able to pinpoint the exact problem if it is something that involves an electrical issue or sensory issue. I would highly recommend this especially if the "check engine light" is on.
If there is anything else I can do for you, please just let me know. I hope that this is able to help you.
