2023 Hyundai Kona N

The knock sensor on the engine fails when exposed to any amount of water. The car is designed in a way that lets on too much. It’s something that is VERY common amongst owners of these vehicles. It’s a safety flaw that needs to be fixed because it puts the car in “limp” mode. That makes the car instantly halt acceleration. Please hold Hyundai accountable

After washing my '23 Kona N in a hand car wash, I experienced a sudden, complete loss of power as I was pulling into traffic immediately afterwards, nearly resulting in a rear-end collision. There was a flashing check engine light (CEL or MIL) on the dash, and I had to have the vehicle towed to a dealership. The stored OBD-II code is P132600 (knock sensor). The car has only 16k miles on it. This is a KNOWN ISSUE, and there are complaints about it all over Reddit, Facebook, and other Internet sites, and it also affects the same generation Elantra N. This issue can occur ANY TIME THE VEHICLE GETS WET. It is unacceptable that simply washing my car or driving my vehicle in the rain can cause me to lose all power and create an unsafe driving condition. PLEASE compel Hyundai to address this safety issue with a recall.

I took my vehicle through a touch free car wash. After the wash the vehicle sat for about 10 to 20 minutes while I dried off the exterior and cleaned out my interior. After leaving the car wash the car made it less than a mile down the road and illuminated a flashing check engine light with a P132600 code implying a connection rod failure detected by the knock sensor. As of time of reporting the vehicle is still waiting to be serviced by the dealership as it is still under warranty. Safety can be impacted as the vehicle will immediately go into limp mode, throttling performance.