First off, this is a great forum! I have found lots of useful information already.

I bought a 1999 Elantra with 140,000 miles on it. The people I bought it from said it died, so they had it towed to their house, and they tried to jump it but nothing happened, and it sat there for about 3 months. I wanted it because it drove excellent before that, and they were asking $500 which was a pretty good deal. The 100 amp alternator fuse was blown and keeping the car from starting. I replaced that, and it drove fine so I bought it.
I am curious what might have caused that fuse to blow. I heard that if someone tried to jump it and crossed the cables, that would cause it. Anyway, I havn't had any problems with that in the 2000 miles I have driven it since then.


I do have a couple issues though. First off, it doesn't go into overdrive/4th gear. once in a while, it will work but not at all consistently. When it does, it works fine but most of the time it refuses. Since the gear does occasionally, I am thinking its a switch issue or something like that. Any ideas?

The master window switches on the driver door need to be replaced, and one of the rear window motors as well. Is there anyone who has taken those doors off that has any tips for that?

Also, just recently it started making kind of a clicking noise. It makes the
noise in park, so it has nothing to do with the transmission or anything. It clicks much slower than the engine, but the noise does speed up as I accelerate. Any ideas what that might be? If its something serious I need to get it taken care of.

Other than that, I'm pretty happy with this car. I'm getting 34 highway which is pretty good for an automatic, and I have 142,000 miles with no major problems in the car's history.

 

With that many miles I'd suggest a new tranny filter and fluid. Who knows whether it was ever done and it can't hurt to do it. That might help clear up the problem.

As for the ticking noise there are quite a few posibilities. I would try to pin point where it is coming from.

Check your belts and the timing belt. Has the timing belt ever been done? Hyundai recommends every 60k miles. Is it coming from one of the pulleys?

I would suggest checking the EVAP valve but since it speeds up with rpm it pretty much rules that out.

Due to the mileage more likely it could be a noisy hydrualic lifter. Since the engine is DOHC it uses hydraulic valve tappets. As they get older and worn out they may not be "pumping up" enough with oil which throws off the tolerance with the cam lobes. The cam lobe slaps against the tappet and creates a tick. Unfortunately, since there are 16 of them it can be difficult to pinpoint who the culprit is. Low oil pressure can also cause the "weakest" tappet to make noise while the others aren't as audible.