Hyundai’s "Blue Drive" Exposed: What’s Really Inside the Hybrid Transmission and Why it FAILS!

What’s actually inside the Hyundai Blue Drive system, and why do these hybrid transmissions fail? Today, I'm doing a complete technical deep dive and a full teardown of a failed Hyundai Hybrid 6-speed automatic to see how it works!

Hyundai’s Blue Drive technology is unique in the hybrid world. Unlike Toyota and Ford's eCVT's that use planetary gears and two motors, Hyundai uses a Parallel Hybrid System with a TMED (Transmission Mounted Electric Device). This means the electric motor sits right between the engine and a traditional 6-speed automatic transmission.

Unlike Honda's IMA system, Hyundai's Blue Drive system can decouple itself from the internal combustion engine to propel the vehicle up-to highway speeds on electric power alone. A separate electric 3 phase starter generator is attached to the crankshaft via the belt drive to provide additional power to the battery pack and to start the engine when decoupled.

A follow up video on how the power electronics work to control this all will be coming soon! This system is the same as Kia's Hybrid System on the Optima / Sorento / Sportage. Here's a teardown video on the failed engine from the Sonata Hybrid:

   • Why Hyundai Engines are JUNK! Engine Teard...  


But what happens when this complex piece of engineering stops shifting?

In this video, I pull apart a failed unit from a 2012 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid to see the internal clutch packs, the high-voltage motor assembly, and exactly where the mechanical breakdown occurred. Whether you’re a tech-head, a mechanic, or a Hyundai owner curious about your car’s reliability, this teardown reveals the "magic" (and the flaws) of the Blue Drive system.

A single clutch pack is used to transmit all the torque between the engine and the electric motor and transmission. That's a lot of torque for just one clutch pack, and as a result it burnt out.

In this video, we cover:

The Blue Drive Architecture: How the battery, motor, and engine work in sync.

TMED Explained: Why Hyundai chose to sandwich a motor between the engine and transmission, instead of inside the transmission like other brands.

The Teardown: Step-by-step disassembly of the hybrid transmission with an in-depth explanation on how it works.

Failure Analysis: Identifying the "smoking gun" behind this specific unit’s death.

Reliability Verdict: Is this a solid design or a ticking time bomb?

🕒 Timestamps:

0:00 - The Mystery of Hyundai Blue Drive - Introduction
1:37 - The TMED (Transmission Mounted Electric Motor)
4:32 - The Carnage - Smoked coupling clutch
5:45 - The Transmission Teardown
8:20 - Inside the 6-Speed Internal Clutch Packs and Gears - Mechanical Analysis
16:47 - Valve body
18:30 - Fluid Pumps
20:35 - Hybrid Starter Generator Teardown
23:21 - Final Verdict: Engineering Genius or Junk?

This is the Camera I use:
https://amzn.to/3oaRcZX (US)
https://amzn.to/3KWQ2uU (Canada)

speedkar9 on Instagram and Tiktok
  / speedkar9  
  / speedkar9  

speedkar99 on Facebook and Linkedin:
  / speedkar9  
  / speedkar99  

Tags:

#hyundaihybrid , #BlueDrive, #transmission #Teardown, #hyundai #sonata #hybrid #hyundai #tucson #kia #optima #sportage #sorento #TMED #Explained, #hybrid #failure #mechanic #review #works #inside #electric #motor #generator #6-speed