Restoration of my Hyundai Sonata V6: Sourcing spare parts is not easy

After waiting for weeks, I finally got a call asking me to come and pick up the parts but to my surprise one of my orders was still missing and many parts from my other orders were received in part quantities.

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Boodmo auto-cancelled the pending parts and refunded me the money without any action from my side.

Long story short, they don't really know what's in stock, they'll take your money without saying anything and simply refund it after 60 days - never mind that someone would actually be waiting to receive parts instead of a refund! (The cancelled parts are still listed BTW, anyone can still technically place an order on Boodmo for the same parts).

I'm glad I placed the order directly from Korea. 2 months saved.

The biggest challenge now is to wait for the spares. Mobis India is unhelpful in this regard. The local dealer has no idea when the ordered spares will arrive. They've received less than half of the spares I ordered (all were in confirmed stock at the time of placing the order). Also, the way I've ordered parts, it works only if I get both Korean imports and Mobis India spares together. For example, the water pump was not available here so it's coming from Korea, but the water pump gasket is available with Mobis India so I've ordered it from here. I can't do anything unless I have both with me.

Monday I filled out a form on the Mobis India website and I promptly got a call from the local exec asking what happened. I explained that I needed the parts ASAP and he said he would try his best (it's not really in his hands either).

Then I dug out the e-mail addresses of the top brass at Mobis India and e-mailed them. The first mail didn't do anything. The follow-up on Friday again prompted a call from the local dealer asking why I was repeatedly sending mails to the management because it was putting pressure on him. I asked him if he had any control over the spares dispatch and he said no! So I then asked him to not worry since I had no beef with him, but I needed the spares ASAP. He said he'll reply saying likewise. I'm not convinced, frankly.

Even the Korean order isn't going as planned, no new spares have arrived from there in the past 2 weeks, and they're still waiting for the 8-9 pending parts.

Oh well. I'll wait. But there's going to be no compromise whatsoever. I will use OE spares only.

If any member here has connections at Hyundai Mobis, I would really appreciate your help.

I'd mailed the Deputy Manager of Mobis India (just one level below the Korean management), and this paid dividends, finally. All but 2 of the ordered spares have been dispatched and should be here shortly. What a relief!

The Korean spares order will be dispatched tomorrow. There are 8-9 small parts pending (mostly beading/weather strips) which will be shipped separately. The old beadings are usable so I'll make do with those for now.

The car is now on jack stands and the wheels are separated from the tyres. I'm getting the wheels painted black.

By the looks of it, the car should be ready a month from now.

Parts, parts, parts!

I finally took up Avto-Korea's offer and had them ship whatever parts had already arrived. The parts were shipped on 21st Mar '24. Ms Janna Kim from Avto-Korea is the most professional and helpful dealer I've come across - not only did she offer heavy discounts to begin with, but eventually she even waived the USD 100 handling charge we had agreed to, at the time of placing the order!

Again the wait began, as I dreaded the worst from the Foreign Post Office (FPO Ahmedabad). Thankfully everything went well and I got a call on 8th Apr '24 from my local post office asking me to pick up the box as it was 15kgs heavy. I could've pushed for home delivery but I didn't want them to handle it if they didn't want to. Finally, the parts are home. This shipment contained some really important goods such as the water pump, the engine mounts, many beadings, fuel filter, air filters (they don't stock them in India so I ordered 5), and a lot of other stuff. Truly I felt like I hit the jackpot that day!

Some pictures

Mannol India goofs up

The goods from Mannol arrived: 10L of AG11 blue coolant, 1L of DOT3 brake fluid, and 9L of SP-III Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF). That last bit as I discovered after opening the box was actually 9L of SP-IV grade ATF! I was dumbstruck as to how an MNC could make such a mistake and immediately called them up.

Soorya from Mannol was very apologetic and said there was no "incentive to switch" as SP-IV is pricier than SP-III and said he would revert. He later said that the switch was a mistake, but they were out of SP-III (had only 3-4L in stock). He first tried to sell me the idea of multigrade ATF (rejected by me because a Motul distributor lives right down the street from me and I already didn't buy multigrade from them), then he tried to sell me the idea that SP-IV was compatible (it's not, they are different, SP-IV is used more for DCTs) and finally he offered me a refund (again not an option because the only alternative - OE Hyundai ATF - costs 3x, at ₹2,400/L). Finally, he said the new shipment of oil had just reached the port and customs clearance could take anywhere between 10-30 days. Of course, I've opted to wait.

"Control, Uday..."

The Mobis India saga continues

Exactly 1 month after the follow-up with the Mobis management, and after a lot of back-and-forth between me and the local dealer (I even wrote an e-mail to the management threatening to file a consumer court case for inadequate service) I finally got a call on 10th Apr '24 asking me to come and pick up the parts, and that all parts from all 3 orders were ready bar 3 parts that would take another 2 weeks to arrive. I was relieved and said I'd come on 13th Apr '24 to pick them up.

I went, and to my surprise, order #3, the last one, was still missing - no parts had arrived. He checked and said they were in the local warehouse and would reach them in 2-3 days. A bigger surprise was when many parts of which I'd ordered multiple quantities - 2pcs AT oil filter, 6pcs of some suspension bushes, etc - had only part quantities received by them. After asking they said that this happens only when Hyundai doesn't have stock (they only know that a part is "available", not qtys) and that this part would now be on backorder with them.

Given that none of these parts are made in India, I surmised that I would probably get the parts when my children graduate from college (I have none). I was about to blow my lid but then the guy offered help and said he could check with some dealers in Delhi - OE, but not from the Mobis network. I'm not holding my breath, but I'll let him get back to me and see where this goes. Worst case I'll have to order those items (there are 4 part numbers with part qty) from Korea again - not so bad since I'm now confident.

That said, it's a relief to have 95+% of the parts with me... The build can now continue!

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