D.C. of Sykesville, MD, writes:

They had my car for one day and determined that the radio had a short in it and it needed to be replaced. They did not have the part in-house so they ordered it and I was told that they would contact me when they received the part.

During the following week to two weeks, I noticed that the clutch was making a strange noise. When I finally received a phone call that my replacement radio was in, I scheduled an appointment-again I was told I would not be supplied with a loaner car. When I dropped my car off I told them to look at the clutch and a latch on the hatch that was not functioning properly. At the end of the day a working radio was put into my car and I was informed that my latch and a part on the clutch called the "Slave Cylinder". So about 1-2 weeks later, I received another phone call, again was not provided with a loaner car and at the end of the day, while the latch was repaired, the clutch part was replaced but the sound that I initially heard was still happening.

Being that all of these days without my new car were very inconvenient, I left the clutch alone assuming that they had fixed the problem.

Then on December 25, 1999 (Christmas), something did not feel right with my clutch. It was functioning properly but felt slack. At the end of the day when I got into the car to drive to Christmas dinner, I got approx. one mile away and lost all clutch functionality. I used my roadside assistance number and the car was towed to the nearest Hyundai Dealer-Bob Bell Hyundai in Glen Burnie, MD. I contacted them a day or two later and I told them that I needed a rental car on the following Monday, in order to get to and from work.

They were very willing to help me -- even if that meant them reimbursing me for a rental car from an independent company such as Enterprise. However, with it being a holiday weekend, there were no cars available. On Monday, when I needed a car, I had to borrow a friend's. At the end of the day Monday, I received a call from Bob Bell's service department and was informed that there was air in the lines and that is why my clutch would not work, and it was working fine.

I picked up the car that evening. To my dismay, while the clutch did function, the noise still continued-and it was louder than when I originally noticed it. It had been getting more frequent since the first time I noticed it anyway.

Now it is March 1999 and for the past few months, my radio has been also making a strange noise. I really have no confidence in the model radio which has now broken down on me twice, so I requested that they either upgrade my radio (it was later determined that my radio was the top of the line model) or pay to have an aftermarket radio put in-in place of a Hyundai radio. I contacted the dealership and they told me that because this was a recurrent problem, they would loan me a car while mine was being repaired.

I called the dealership to tell them that my radio was broken and that my clutch was making a lot of noise. This time it took them two days to determine that the radio was broken and they offered to replace it with another of the same model-and they said that by lubing the joint between the "Slave Cylinder" and another part, they fixed the clutch noise.

I called Hyundai in the meantime to tell them of my problems with both the clutch and radio and that I wanted an aftermarket radio instead of another dud. I was told that Hyundai would only replace with the same radio by both the dealer and Hyundai themself. The regional service manager was involved in the is final decision and a new radio was ordered. Now it is approx. two weeks later and I have made an appointment to have the radio put in, AND I have informed them that they still have not fixed the clutch noise.

In fact, I did not get out of their parking lot (when I picked up my car after the radio inspecion two weeks ago) before the noise started up all over again. Now I am desperate and I hope that with your advice/action I can be sure that they will take care of my clutch problem before I get stranded again.

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