2009 Hyundai Accent SE - the Korean hot hatch I didn't know existed

Subscriber-unavailabile said:

 Very cool, I like little cheap beaters. I literally just got thru with my daily CL search and found this 

2005 but a GT for $1500...
 

so that's a second gen accent. Same engine/trans as the newer one of the OP, but its a 4wheel macstrut car. Still fun. IIRC it's about 200lbs lighter than the newer gen (07-10). The 2000-2001 had a single cam alpha. Talk about not willing to rev. redline at 5800 but anything past 5k was just wasting everyone's time. And for the love of all that is good and holy do NOT try to take an onramp with the AC on. The 1.6 was a big upgrade for that car. 

 fun note, the offset and bolt pattern is the same for miata/civic wheels, just make sure the hub bores are large enough because Hyundai uses really big bores on their hubs. 

In reply to bobzilla :

Appreciate the info. Not sure if I could cope with loss of power from current DD. But overall would be an improvement..

bobzilla said:

 fun note, the offset and bolt pattern is the same for miata/civic wheels, just make sure the hub bores are large enough because Hyundai uses really big bores on their hubs. 

Also E30. I ran bottlecaps on mine. 

You guys have quickly identified another aspect of these little cars I like - 4x100 bolt pattern. There are SO MANY great wheels available both aftermarket and OEM. Plus there are some great tire options that don't break the bank either. Different wheels and tires have always been part of the plan for this car, which is kind of a shame because the OEM ones are pretty cool... but at least one more set of wheels can't hurt right? 

So, enter the Civic project I shared with you guys. Sold it to a friend like a month after finishing it, lost some money, got burnt out. Glad to be rid of it. But, the only real thing I regretted about selling it was the awesome Ronal Turbo's I sold on it. 

However, as I sold it to a friend of mine, I mentioned to him that I would like the wheels back if he ever got tired of them. Well, the summer is winding down and I get a text saying that he's selling the car and wonders if I want the wheels back before he does. Heck yeah I do! So he goes to the trouble to have them dismounted and meet me half way (he lives probably 80 miles from me) to deliver them. We meet up, I buy him and his son pizza and thank him profusely for taking the trouble to get my wheels back to me, and I take some backroads home. Alan, you're one hell of a good guy! 

Here's a couple snapshots from that adventure 

On the way home I take as many backroads as I can, hoon the car on gravel a bit (it seems more prone to oversteer than I would expect), and have a great time. 

This is fun! 

I think I may have shared this story in the Civic thread but I guess I'm kinda obsessed with these wheels so I'll share it again. 

Probably 6 years ago now I was pretty fed up with my long term 63 Nova wagon project and almost traded it to a friend for a MK2 Jetta GLI on these exact wheels. That deal fell through but the car was owned by a friend who sold it to a friend of his. The new owner actually lived pretty close to me so I still saw the car from time to time, still on the Turbo's in the summer. Well, fast forward a bit, this guy has moved, I no longer see the car, whatever. Well the friend I almost got the car from originally texts me and says the Jetta blew up and the dude is over it, do I want to buy it and fix it/scrap it. I contemplate it and decide to pass; I do however tell a VW nerd friend of mine about it and he decides to buy it and likely part it out. Again, the wheels are still there... So I mention to him I'd be interested in them if he parts the car out. Couple weeks later the car is parted out and I finally buy the wheels. 

So I buy them, buy new OEM center caps off eBay, put them on the Civic, and promply sell it. Brilliant.  

Anyways long story long they are safely back in my possession, have been all winter, and are going to go on the Hyundai this summer with 205/50 Direzzas and they will hopefully be awesome. 

I'm curious to see how those ronals look on the accent.

One last minor update before we're basically all caught up to present day - I removed the badges from the hatch. Some plastic trim removal tools and the fancy 3m magic eraser made short work of this job. 

Exciting stuff. 

w00t, Gunchta is back!

In reply to Run_Away (Wears Clogs) :

Hi!! I've been a little burnt out on cars lately so this installation promises to be much less involved than my other threads.

OR DOES IT!!! DUN DUN DUN

Yes, yes it does.  

Alright so I took a look at the intake silencing Bobzilla described... Wow, there's a lot there! 

So, this is essentially where it pulls air from. The small gap between the headlight and the core support. That black box by the battery with the phillips head screw on it is the end of the air intake tract. 

The little rectangle at left was what was pictured behind the headlight, and that series of tubes made its way under the battery and to the bottom of the air box/filter housing. There was a huge silencer in the drivers front fender well, and another TUBE-BRANCH up near the throttle body. In order to extract it, the battery and battery tray were removed, so some cleaning ensued. 

Battery and tray removed. General gunk visible, as is the slithering air intake silencing device (bottom and right of picture, going into the airbox at the pink dot). Removing the 10mm bolt by the battery tray got most of the intake snake out, with another 2 in the fenderwell to take out the silencer box. All in all it was probably 2lbs of stuff removed. 

Cleaned with Simple Green, a brush and water. I took some black paint and brushed it over some of the scabbier bits in an effort to prolong the inevitable rust. 

This is the silencer up near the throttle body. Hyundai Kia calls it the TUBE-BRANCH. 

I removed the TUBE-BRANCH and put it on the shelf for safe keeping. The remaining hole was capped off with a windshield washer fluid bottle lid and hit with some black paint for stealth points.

Then the whole assembly was reinstalled and the battery was put back in. Check out the sweet paint on that hold down! 

That was fun. Total investment: $0. Looks the same under the hood and now makes wicked racecar BWAHHH noises when at WOT. Seems to be a little happier revving, although as described it's not a high-rpm monster. That being said I was taking an on-ramp in 2nd and quickly found the rev limiter around 6500 which was a first for me, so that was fun. 

Basically, this might have all been useless save for liking the cool sound it makes, and that's fine. Butt and Ear dyno approve of it - the intake sound is pretty awesome. Plus, it still takes a stock air filter and the air filter is still pretty well protected from the elements. The bottom of the airbox has a hole in it that gets "fresh" air from the drivers wheel well/behind the headlight. 

It was a great distraction for Saturday, and it makes the car feel a little sportier for $0. I'm happy. 

See? I know what im talking about! They put so many little tubes and resonators in there to make them quiet little pedestrian mobiles. 
 

I never did an exhaust on an alpha. I was afraid it'd be like the beta and resonate like a monster at highway speeds. You should do that. 
 

edit: iirc you can dermal that opening to match the intake tube opening so you lose the final restriction. Or that might have been the 2000. 

In reply to bobzilla :

You sure do sir! 

So, since you mentioned it funny story about the exhaust. 

I jacked the car up. 

I removed the exhaust. This was done for two reasons. One, I have been holding on to a generic turbo muffler from a foxbody mustang for years. I thought this would be a good application to use it in. Two, I was trying to install a trailer hitch that plain and simple would not fit. Frustration set in, motivation went out the door, and the stock muffler was reinstalled. I think it's safe to say that 95% of the cars I've owned have gotten some kind of exhaust treatment, so it's likely I'll reattempt this procedure at a later date. 

A couple years ago I had myself convinced one of these would be a respectable little MK2 VW that was built in modern times.  The power, weight, suspension type, and hatch body style all made sense on paper...  I never got further than that and it was all just an exercise in wasting time on the internet.  I'm glad you found a nice rust free one to play with and keep us updated on what you do with it! 

Personally I never liked hidden turn downs. On the elantra i notched the rear bumper to have an actual tip. Stainless steel of course. I also tried 3 vacations of exhaust in that car and ended up fouling abc to stock with a tip welded on because the drone was just too Much

In reply to Nitroracer :

You're spot-on with the MKII comparison. 

Following for giggles.

Today the car got new tires - 205/50 15 Dunlop Direzzas, the Ronal Turbos, and an alignment. 

I was able to support a local shop my buddy works at and get the tires through them, so that felt good. I haven't even left work to pick up the car yet, but he snapped a picture for me so I figured I'd share it here. I like it! 

I'm excited to see it in person and drive it with a stickier tire. 

In reply to Gunchsta :

That looks great!

Motherofgod I love those wheels. Perfect.

In reply to accordionfolder :

Thank you! 

In reply to Powar (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks! I do too! They're ugly in just the right way. 

I never thought I'd enjoy looking at a Hyundai Accent .

I was wrong! That thing looks great!

It's funny. I've been digging through rare wheel 4x100 threads. And I want one of these. And then you come at me with ronal turbos. I'm not sure but I think I want one on ssr formula meshes. Except their worth more than the car. 

In reply to Steve :

Thank you very much! I'm happy with the look now.