News

Life with my two Hyundai Santa Fes: Updates on how its going so far

27th February 2024, 08:03 by Dev Shah

Overall, Blue is giving us trouble here and there, but we haven’t been left stranded on the road and it still drives fabulous.

BHPian Sangwan recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Updates:

My phone's storage was full, so I don’t have all the pics anymore. Let’s look at each Santa Fe.

Blue:

Blue has been a headache overall but like I said earlier, its cleaner inside out and there is no creaking sound when it drives. In the last post, I mentioned about the horns and the headlights issue.

Horn:

There are two horns on each side, they are located at a very weird position, below the headlights and either you must move the headlights from their place or remove the front bumper. I removed the bumper to check them out, overall, an easy process but what I found out was the bumper holding brackets on right side are broken. So, there was this ugly gap when I fixed it back.

As you already know, I want to fix cars myself but sometimes I don’t have the confidence when it comes to wiring and electricals. I checked the wiring; it seemed fine and then decided to just check prices/shapes of horn available for Santa Fe. I found out that Canadian Tire (it’s a retail store chain) has a different set, so the whole setup would need to change, and the OEM horn would be coming from US, and I would be paying for shipping too. In order to avoid all this, I went to a shop, but this time went to a different one, on recommendation of a colleague of mine and turns out it wasn’t the best decision. I was on the phone attending a call and when I came back, instead of a simple plug and plaything, this shop’s worker had chopped off the wiring and is making his own connection. I wasn’t happy but the damage was done and at least the horn was working. Damage to pocket $100.

Also, gave a temporary fix to bumper, by applying this plastic paste on the inside. It holds it well.

Lights:

While the horn was worked on, I asked them to have a look at the light issue too. The high beam headlight on left side was not working, they looked but said more diagnosis was needed and I was running short of time. So, paid the bill and went out my way. Not coming back here.

I went to my original mechanic on a weekend and showed him the issue, after trying few things, he said the projector lamp bulb holder (don’t know if it’s the right word or not) needs to be changed as he and I didn’t believe it was a wiring issue, as there were no cuts or any other issue. But the problem was they didn’t have it with them, and I need to buy it from Hyundai. I wasn’t sure about the overall assessment and decided if I am going to Hyundai, might as well get it fixed from them.

I fixed an appointment, and the dealership was charging me $160/180 (not exactly sure which one was it) as “diagnosis” fee and I will be charged later for the actual issue. Turns out, it was the wiring which was short circuiting and blowing up fuses. Damage to pocket was $570. Ouch!

Battery:

This was unexpected. My wife goes to office at 7 in the morning and I start at 1 PM, so one car is always free if incase the other has an issue. Blue would not start, and my wife just called me. It was a cold December morning and I asked her to take the Black Santa Fe and I will deal with this one. I called my friend, he and I took the battery out and got it tested, as that probably was the reason according to me. Turns out, I was right. The battery was done, and a new battery was needed. I found out that my car was having wrong size battery in it, so I got the correct one this time. Also, while getting the battery out, the positive terminal holding bracket got damaged, it was already rusted and when I was getting out, it developed a crack.

I fixed the new battery in place, but this bracket was not holding the position, it became loose and as a result car would not start. Somehow, wife and I managed for the rest of the week and on weekend I got it fixed. Total Damage to pocket was $217+20.

The broken terminal (Sorry for the filthy engine bay):

You might think we’re done for now, but unfortunately, we are not, there is more.

Brakes:

So, when I bought Blue, I got the rotor and brake pads replaced. Note that it has been 30,000 Kms and besides few incidents I or my wife were not hard on brakes, and I casually asked the guy who was changing the oil as it was due, and he said that the rear ones are okay, but the front ones need replacement. He said that if I don’t do it now then it might affect the rotors and so I said yes because it costed me $800 when I had to change all 4 rotors and brake pads. I will attach pic for you guys, please let me know if it was really done or I was taken for a ride. I did check the new pads, they surely looked far-far better than the ones I had on my car now. Damage to pocket: $160.

Overall, Blue is giving us trouble here and there, but we haven’t been left stranded on the road and it still drives fabulous. There is a minor leakage somewhere, its not draining out the oil or anything but it has to fixed too, but the mechanic said that I can carry on using the car, and don’t really need to worry. I am keeping a close eye on the level of oil every now and then and will get it fixed somewhere in the future.

The old brake pads:

The current reading is 198,XXX KMs. We are getting close to 200K milestone.

Black:

There is really no real update besides the unfortunate incident which happened on last Saturday. The current odometer reading is 213,XXX KMs. I got the oil changed at 210K and during this whole time from the last to current oil change, there were no issues.

Wipers:

The wipers were not changed since I bought this car from the previous owner, and it has been more than a year now. They were making this awful noise and I understood that it was time. I replaced all three of them, front and back. When I was replacing the wiper blade on right side of the car, my son was helping me (he is just 4 years old) and so I was not being conscious and didn’t take the wiper all the way to the lock position, it was somewhere in the middle, and it went down on windshield. I checked right away, and everything felt fine but in the next 2 hours, I had this awful crack in the windshield, and it has stopped finally but it’s there and somewhere in the future I will either get it fixed or it will make me loose some more bucks when its time to sell.

New Ride?

In the last post I mentioned that I might start writing an ownership review of a new ride, but I didn’t go for it. In the last post you can see I spend so much on Black, so I was not happy and thought well we already have one car for my wife, so maybe I should buy something else, and get myself a Manual car. I really want a manual car, I hate automatics! No matter how convenient they are, they are boring and once I get the housing situation sorted, I will go after a manual for sure.

Well, this was the update till now. I really don’t hope to update this thread with more expenses but with only good things to say. Sometimes, I have this strong feeling to go for a nice car but then when these two Santa Fes run without an issue, then they make me so happy as I am not paying EMIs which would also affect our borrowing capacity when we go for a housing loan. Some pics for you guys:

On a snowy evening: