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These days, the world has moved on to kilowatts and charging ports, but the same truths remain: machines are only as good as the people who maintain them, and sometimes the human drama eclipses the mechanical mystery.
A Hyundai Ioniq 5 owner recently wandered into the digital garage that is Reddit’s r/electricvehicles with a story that feels both painfully modern and timelessly automotive: something doesn’t smell right, and nobody seems to have the answer.
Here’s how the owner, posting under the handle PlaceTiny5866, laid it out:
“No, I’m not having a stroke. This has been a month-long debacle fighting an incompetent service center.
About a month ago, I smelled a burning smell after charging my Ioniq 5 overnight. I wrote it off to the Canadian wildfires; the air quality was awful.
The smell persisted and got worse. It got so bad that my throat would partially close up and make it difficult to breathe. The dealership found that the charge port was bad, although there were no physical signs and no behavior indicating it as the culprit. They wouldn’t say that that would fix the issue, and they refused to even do a warranty request. I’m only at 67k, well within the warranty for the high voltage system. Still fighting them on that.
I was stressed, I gave up, and didn’t do the repair. The burning smell got worse, and then the charge port started acting up to the point where I could only charge in 30-minute increments, and the burning smell continued.
I went and had them replace the charging port. Now the vehicle charges a fine, and there was some residual burning smell, so I ran an ozonator for 40 minutes in the front and trunk (20 and 20 minutes for 40 total). It helped. I then aired out the car overnight and drove it with the windows down for 30 miles yesterday without any issues. Drove it to the car wash that night with the windows down without any issues.
Today, I get in the car and after driving for 20 minutes, I start to feel lightheaded and dizzy, my throat starts to close up, the air conditioning feels extra piercing on my lungs like when you run really hard in the cold.
I’m sitting with my Dyson air filter, trying to see if it detects anything. I’m out of ideas. It the ozone just sticking around longer than I expected? Is there another issue I should consider? Really appreciate the help.”
There it is in black and white: a car that works fine on paper but feels like a chemistry experiment in practice.
The dealership pointed to a faulty charging port yet offered no assurances that the repair would solve the issue, and the owner found himself caught in the classic warranty gray zone.
At 67,000 miles, the Ioniq 5 should be squarely covered under Hyundai’s high-voltage system protection, but what should be a straightforward repair became a month-long battle of attrition.
Hyundai Ioniq 5 Warranty Battles & Real-World Issues
- The 2025 IONIQ 5 lineup starts with the SE Standard Range RWD at $42,600; it delivers a 245‑mile range and a 125 kW (168 hp) motor
- Moving up, the SE/SEL/Limited RWD trims (from $46,650) boost range to 318 mi and power to 225 hp, while the AWD versions offer 320 hp and 290 mi range
- The rugged new XRT AWD ($55,500) has a 259‑mile range, dual motors (320 hp), unique front/rear fascias, all‑terrain tires, and a +23 mm suspension lift with multi‑terrain mode
- An 800‑V battery architecture allows ultra‑fast DC charging, adding up to 178 miles of range in ~15 minutes; Level‑2 home charging can replenish the standard‑range pack in about 5 h 40 m
- Even base trims include dual 12.3‑inch screens (instrument cluster + navigation touch‑screen), Highway Driving Assist 2, wireless device charging, and ultra‑fast charging capability
- Limited trims add features like Highway Driving Assist 2, ventilated seats, and panoramic vision roof. RWD models use a 168 kW (225 hp) motor, while AWD models pair a 74 kW front motor with a 165 kW rear motor for a combined 320 hp
Into that vacuum of certainty stepped Reddit. One commenter, SubPrimeCardgage, reminded everyone of ozone’s darker side: “Ozone is a strong oxidizer and destroys things if you don’t know what you’re doing.
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It can degrade plastics to the point where they become brittle and can even cause them to off-gas irritants.” It is the kind of caution that feels both obvious and ominous once you realize the car has already been marinated in ozone for forty minutes. The owner defended the choice with the calm logic of someone who felt backed into a corner.
Taking The Hyundai Ioniq 5 To The Detailer
He had consulted a professional detailer, run the machine less than the suggested maximum, and let the car air out overnight. “This was best practice as far as I was told,” he explained. It is a distinctly modern moment: an owner armed with advice from experts, counter-arguments from strangers, and symptoms that suggest something more than just a lingering odor.
More technical guidance arrived from kenneth_dart, who laid out ozone usage with the precision of a laboratory manual. Generator output ratings, humidity levels, and airflow patterns were all part of the recipe. His advice elevated the conversation from “maybe just leave the windows open” to a serious exercise in controlled atmospheric treatment. For the uninitiated, it was a sobering reminder that even simple odor removal can demand an engineer’s playbook.
Not everyone leaned into complexity. intrepidzephyr offered the simplest path forward: leave the windows down and let nature work. Sometimes cars, like people, just need time to breathe. It was the kind of reminder that cut through the fog of speculation and brought the conversation back to basics.
Hyundai Ioniq 5 Wheelbase & Legroom
- The IONIQ 5’s long 118.1‑inch wheelbase allows generous rear legroom (over 39 in) and cargo space expanding to 59.3 cu ft with seats folded (per earlier data); multiple trims offer sliding rear seats for added flexibility
- It combines retro‑futuristic styling (parametric pixel lights) with eco‑friendly materials and features like a V2L port to power appliances off the battery, plus options like a digital key and Remote Smart Parking.
- Hyundai backs the IONIQ 5 with a 10‑year/100k‑mile powertrain warranty and 5‑year/60k‑mile bumper‑to‑bumper coverage (per earlier references), adding value to its competitive pricing
Cars continue to provoke, frustrate, and occasionally scare their owners in ways that transcend drivetrain technology.
A man sitting dizzy in his driveway beside a Dyson air filter is no different from the driver of a 1970s small-block Chevy choking on fumes after a carb rebuild. It is the eternal bond between machine and human, punctuated by uncertainty, trial, error, and the hope that someone somewhere has the answer.
Image Sources: Hyundai Media Center
Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys covering the latest news in the automotive industry and conducting reviews on the latest cars. He has been in the automotive industry since 15 years old and has been featured in prominent automotive news sites. You can reach him on X and LinkedIn for tips and to follow his automotive coverage.
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Source: torquenews.com
