ok so within the past week three of the 4 cars my family owns had some sort of trouble that made them unable to drive. radiator on dads tiburon went out. moms car died while driving each and every time. and my jeeps brakes went out. so far 2 of the three are driveable except my moms 2004 hyundai Sonata. all in all they charged us 800 to diagnose and change out a few sensors and now theyre saying we need a new catalytic converter and o2 sensors. now thats all fine and dandy but they're saying this car has no luck with aftermarket catalytic converters and we have to go with OEM. well OEM costs 900 and they're only charging 100 for labor which is good but 1k for a CC? thats rediculous! any hyundai experts out there that know if its true that this car doesnt do good with aftermarket CCs??? I need a fast responce if possible, my dads about to have them order it tomorrow . id much rather him buy a magnaflow or something along those lines for 300.

After market is fine. Buy this guy here

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Magnaflow-91...item1c1a39d2ed

Spend less than 100 on it.

Have a local exhaust guy weld it on for like 25-50 and there you go.

Cat on for less than 150.

I paid 300 for a header cat and full exhaust on a previous car.

I own a 2011 Sonota btw

I smell BS dude... The car should be fine with an aftermerket cat. Id go with a magnaflow cat also. There shouldnt be a reason you cant use the aftermarket cat unless theres a sensor that goes in it. Some dealers are retarded. I had the jeep dealer try to tell me not to put aftermarket wheels on my jeep because it wouldnt work. They said the aftermarket wheels are lugcentric and the factory ones are hubcentric. They might be right that the wheels are different, but if you use to correct lugnuts its perfectly fine.

Total BS- first off YOU should NEVER pay money at a dealer before getting a proper diagnosis- whenever I have to take any vehicles into an actual dealer I make it explicit that they are not to do $1 worth of actual work on the vehicle- just diagnose it and tell me what the problem is- then i'll decide what I want to do... I would try and get some money back from the dealer then take it to a local reputable exhaust shop- an aftermarket cat will be fine- just tell them you want a quiet one close to factory.

well the thing that I left out was the local exhaust shop said the same thing as well. i am in shock at how much my parents payed/ paying.

Magnaflow makes cats for pretty much any vehicle for a decent price.

Hyundai has the cat mounted right on the outlet of the exhaust manifold on their 4 cylinder engines, there may not be any aftermarket catalytic converters out there for it. What sensors did the dealer replace other than the O2 sensors? I had a 99 Sonata that died randomly, I found that the crank sensor was at fault, but I had to remove the timing belt just to get to it. It was a PITA to do, really time consuming. That is probaly why the bill for your mom's car is so high.

yea one of them was the crank sensor. but even after they "fixed" the problem it continued to happen. needless to say I had a few words with the dealership and they lent us a car to use while they were fixing ours.
and there are aftermarket converters for it that are less than $500 that look exactly like the original that will work but they insist on the OEM

that's what you get for buying a bunch of crappy hyundai's

Try rockauto too, for around 250ish and do it yourself. Anyway what complaint do you have with the car? Most of the time the convertors get damaged due to excessive misfires or running really rich for awhile. If so, most of the time a customer could save the convertor if they fix the running problem quickly. Not saying that is your case, just an observation.

This is not a specific problem with hyundai or the dealer folks. Maybe if anybody blame hyundai or whoever actually makes the convertor assy for the price. I have seen OEM convertors up around $2000 for just the part and I am sure there are some out there higher than that. A lot of OEM apps have convertors built into manifolds or they are simply crammed into a spot that universals will not fit.

i could understand them demanding oem parts if it was a new car but thats crap that they want them on a 8 year old car.
our local exhaust shop [big franchise] would say the same, find out a exhaust fabricator, we have a few indipendants in the uk who will make whatever you want, and i dare say its the same in the us.
look it up on the net.

on another note, have you already had all the work done and you are trying to find out if its a rip off?? or thinking of having the work done?

Hyundai has come a long way in just the last ten years, they build a quality vehicle with a killer warranty. They used to be junk when they first hit our shores back in 86, but they have stepped it up and have become one of the most reliable brands on the road now. My 99 was a good car and I had no problems with it other than the crank sensor. My mother-in-law has a 2011 Sonata and I love driving it. The problem is that at a dealership Hyundai is the second level brand on the lot, so the service department does not really have the training needed to repair them correctly.

there be a bunch-o-vehicles with "manifold cats"--n-nobody makes-em aftmkt yet--(that im aware of)-n-boy they are purty expensive

THE

yea I agree ^. if it was up to me then I would fix their car but they want it done "right". hell I havent taken my Jeep to a mechanic the entire time I have owned it and i've put over 100k on it in 6 years. and Have fixed every mechanical problem (with the help of people on this forum) and saved thousands of dollars. but they still wont let me work on their POS cars. OWELL. lol