Sonata NF (2006-10) :: Recurring Leaking Head Gasket
Jul 21, 2011
A year ago (to the day), my car (2006 Hyundai Sonata) died on me while I was driving it. My boyfriend came and gave me a jump. The car got home fine. The next morning, we went out to the car, and the battery had died, so we jumped the car again, and got to the battery place and bought a new battery. I was worried there was another issue with the car- but my boyfriend was all like "You are feeble woman who knows nothing about cars" (kidding, kidding) so I listened to him and drove the car off that afternoon. On my way home, car died again. So, this time, we got the car towed to a dealership to get checked out. Well, turns out the head gasket was leaking and there was oil in the alternator. SOOOO. The dealer replaced the head gasket for free because the car had a warranty on the engine, but we were SOL with the alternator. So, we bought an alternator from a friend, and had another friend install it for us.
Yesterday, I got out of work, and car wouldn't start. When my DF came to jump the car, he and I could clearly see the head gasket is leaking again and there is oil in the alternator. I have a couple questions that I need answered...
1.) What causes a leaky head gasket? My boyfriend said that either the engine block was warped or that the replacement they put in last year was faulty. Are there other ways?
2.) How the beep do you replace the alternator in the 2006 Hyundai? It is in an odd location and we don't have access to the person who did it for us last time, so I need to see if this is a job my boyfriend can do. He does work on his car all the time (an 87 BMW), but he's never done anything on this car besides change oil, etc.
A little bit about this car: We bought the car from a Hyundai dealer in June 2010. It belonged to one of the dealer investors, so it was in great condition. However, we think the car was in a front-end accident. When my boyfriend waxed the car awhile back, it was pretty obvious that the front bumper was replaced as well. The dealer refuses to give us any mechanical records about the car (will only give us verbal summary) ...
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