I have a 1993 Hyundai Sonata II which, although not the prettiest thing to look at, does run well enough usually. I am the last in a long line of owners so I’m not privy to the user’s manual, sadly. Just yesterday, the dashboard display decided to show me a new thing: HOLD. I’ve never seen that on a car before and haven’t the faintest what it could mean. I did check the oil level and the car was a couple of liters low so I added oil to the engine. I tried a net search for information but couldn’t find anything.
Anyone have any idea what HOLD on the dashboard display means?
Thanks. I’m not in the US so the first one does’t apply. The second link got a LOT closer to what I’m looking for than my method. Guess I’ll just take it to the repair shop across the street and have them check.
ETA: The hold light’s not flashing yet–guess that’s a good thing so far.
Well, I drove it over to the repair shop. Try not to laugh too hard at the following. It turns out that there’s a switch just in front of the shift lever (it’s an automatic transmission but with an “on the floor” lever). It’s a toggle switch. On the left side is the letter P and on the right is the letter H. Pressing the P side down, the letters PWR appear on the left side of the dashboard instrument panel. Pressing the H side donw, the letters HOLD appear on the right side of the instrument panel. Evidently, those are important enough options to include in the design of the vehicle. If I can track down an owner’s manual, I’ll update you with the purpose of those options.
They’re intended to change the shifting behavior of an automatic transmission. Power keeps you in lower gears longer, at the expense of fuel economy. Hold generally tells your transmission to favor higher gears (if you’re in Drive), and will start the transmission in second gear instead of first.
You might have luck here. It’s the best source for getting my Hyundai auto questions answered that I’ve found so far. There should be links and instruction on how to access the online service manuals too.
I managed to find an owner’s manual (Suzuki Forenza) that has Hold Mode. This might be similar to the Hyundai, but it gives a general idea:
“You can select this mode to drive with some characteristics of a manual transmission. With the HOLD mode turned on, the automatic transmission will stay in a specific range.”
Skipping over how to activate (i.e push button).
"When the hold mode is activated, the transmission operates as follow:
It goes on to describe how to use the HOLD mode for winter drive in the D, 3rd and 2nd position to overcome slippery roads and to shift into 3rd to avoid busy shifting, if fuzzy logic (Somehow I think that would be over most people’s heads)) is insufficient. Also, how the HOLD mode allows you to use the automatic transmission as a 4-speed manual transmission.