Hyundai i30 Review, For Sale, Colours, Models, Interior & News

Hyundai i30 Q&As

Check out real-world situations relating to the Hyundai i30 here, particularly what our experts have to say about them.

• What is causing my 2013 Hyundai i30's rough cold start?

  Any smoke from the exhaust of a car suggests there’s something wrong with the fuel system or that there’s wear inside the engine. I’m leaning towards the fuel system in this case, though, as a cold-start is when the fuelling system is under the greatest stress.

  To make a cold engine run properly, the engine’s fuel-air ratio has to be altered (more fuel and less air than when the engine is up to temperature). To know how much extra fuel, the engine has a range of sensors that measure the temperature of the air going into the engine, the temperature of the engine itself, the flow of air, as well as sensors that sniff what’s coming out of the tailpipe to make sure the mixture is just right. If any of these sensors begin to send false information to the engine’s computer, the mixture can be incorrect and the rough running, poor idling and visible smoke can be the results.

  Even something as simple as the stepper-motor, which controls the idle speed of the car, can be the cause of rough idling, but that’s less likely to contribute to gales of smoke from the exhaust. The best advice is to have the car scanned and see if the computer has logged any faults. Smoke from the engine might also warrant a compression test of the engine’s cylinders, too. From there, you can make a more informed diagnosis and replace only the faulty parts.

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• Why is it hard to star my Hyundai i30?

  The hard starting and loss of power sound to me like a problem with the fuel pick-up or the fuel pump. In your Hyundai, the fuel filter is part of the pump assembly and lives in the actual fuel tank. Replacing the filter involves removing the pump from the tank, changing the filter and then replacing the whole assembly into the tank. If a hose has been crimped or an air leak introduced into this system, the pump may not be able to supply the engine with all the fuel it needs. A cold start-up is when an engine will suffer from this leak, while tight turns on a roundabout could be enough to starve the engine of fuel if the pick-up (the hose that dips into the petrol in the tank) isn’t in the right position inside the tank. The fact that these problems started when the car received a new fuel filter is a pretty good clue that something was not quite right when the car was put back together. I’d be going back to the workshop that fitted the filter, explaining the problem and giving the shop the opportunity to put things right.

  The noise in your steering system is almost certainly due to a well known problem with these cars. The electrically-assisted steering system in your car uses a rubber coupling which can deteriorate over time. When this happens, a click or clunk can be heard. The solution is to have the rubber coupling replaced. Because the problem didn’t cause steering failure, Hyundai didn’t issue a recall for this, but a batch of earlier i30s (some cars built in 2007 and 2008) did have a steering coupling that could fail completely, leading to a loss of steering., These were recalled by Hyundai as part of a safety recall back in 2014.

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• Hyundai i35 - Did this model ever exist?

  The answer is no, but Hyundai's naming policy was very confusing during the 2010s.

  The original i30 of 2007 introduced the alphanumerical naming policy and signified a different approach to vehicle engineering, with a European focus with higher-quality engineering rather than a low price to take on class leaders like on the Volkswagen Golf.

  Thus 'i' something became a sort of premium nomenclature, and of course is still used to denote this on models like the i30 and Europe's i10 and i20 small cars There was also the German-engineered i40 midsized sedan and wagon until 2018.

  But here's where Hyundai muddied its own waters.

  In 2010 the larger, American-market Sonata was rebadged i45 for Australia and New Zealand – even though an 'x' and a '5' rather than a '0' meant crossover or SUV, as illustrated by the very popular second-generation Tucson being renamed ix35 in Australia and some other markets from 2009 to 2015 – though this naming policy was abandoned for the third-generation Tucson from 2015. While strikingly styled, there was nothing European about the i45, and it too returned to being badged Sonata from 2015.

  So... i10, 120, i30, i40 and i45 for Australia, but no i35.

  Thank you.

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• Should I buy a 2013 Hyundai i30?

  That’s actually not a lot of kilometres for a modern car, even a small hatchback like a Hyundai i30. Modern cars are actually a lot more durable in the long term than older ones, so I wouldn’t be worried about the distance travelled. Given that the average car in Australia travels about 15,000km a year, 108,000 is actually about right for a car that’s now eight years old.

  That said, the car’s chances of being reliable for the next few years will pivot on how it has been maintained by its previous owners. Make sure the car you buy has a full service history with no gaps in that document suggesting it has missed any scheduled preventative maintenance. Unfortunately, many people who purchase budget cars like the Hyundai tend to maintain them in a similar way and that often means corners are cut. But if the service history is intact and complete, there’s no reason to suspect the car won’t offer years of reliable service. The price you’ve been quoted seems about right for the car in question.

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