Sante fe had died.

[saint-spoon]

took my 2010 Sante Fe in for it's MOT and had a phone call from the garage saying that my rear diff has gone and the car won't pass an MOT. Second opinion confirms this and actually I could have probably guessed as recently I have been spinning the front wheels when pulling away hard. So to the repair, the cheapest i could get was actually from a local Hyundia dealer who advised that the cost was more than the car was worth so unfortunately my Fe is now scrap awaiting collection from my driveway.
Now I knew that the car was high (ish) mileage when I got it, 97K but it ran very well.... but it had a tow ball already. Lessons to be learnt there and I am sure that all of the experienced caravanners in here advise against buying cars which already have tow hitches. I've been offered a grand scrap for a car that I could have got £4,000 for six months ago.
Anyway looking at a new Tug but a bit concerned, as we all are, about the new MOT rules (and have read the recent post.) As such I am going to go for the newest car I can afford that fits the bill for kerb weight and legal capacity and think that either the Kuga titanium 2L 180 AWD or equivalent Sportage.

I have seen a 2015 Sante Fe, low milage but have been put off by owning one, the car being two years older than the same price Kuga and the cost of spare parts for Hyundia cars.

 

[Kevin2306]

Morning

I would explore prices from other independent garages before proceeding, it is highly unsual for a diff to break under normal conditions even towing.
if the diff is available, from a scrapper, it would be no more than a good days work to swap out (ive done a few in my motoring life including periods spent offroading where blown diffs were common)

Have a tour of small repair garages, there are some really good ones that do a great job.

Kevin

 

[saint-spoon]

I have explored options with several small local garages, including the one that I normally use. The rear diff/axle for my year car is quite difficult to pin down as they use a selection of different ones over a short period of time (Hyundia told me) so the best option is a new unit from the manufacturer. scrappies are unwilling to provide any guarantee that the bits that they have will fit for obvious reasons but I have been quoted from £1,500 - £2,500 for the unit plus shipping.

the problem is that they 4wd drive varies on speed and perceived power distribution requirements from the onboard PLC, it is not just a diff.

 

[seth1]

If you can live with the wheel spinning on soft ground,why not remove the rear diff,take out the power divider located in the diff and then refit the diff.I presume the rear wheels are not rotating in different directions during a brake test thus they cannot test it.

 

[Scorpy]

2010 Sante Fe is surely worth more than £4000?
Looking on Auto Trader these are between £6k & £9k depending on model condition etc. I think I would bite the bullet and get it fixed rather than fork out £10k more for what might be someone elses problem car.
Have you thought about a Sorento diff? These are virtually same car
Mike

 

[otherclive]

Sorento M1 had a problem with transfer box failure and Kia were quoting £4K but a company called David Beaumont Engineering reconditioned/ rebuilt at far lower costs. They are 4x4 specialists. Here is the link to their website.
http://www.4x4gearboxes.co.uk/price.php

If yours is fwd with power sent to the rear on demand have the prop shaft removed and be in 2wd. Don’t know if it’s feasible given the controls excercised by the electronics. But I did it the other way round on a Mitsubishi for while when the front diff gave a problem. Anyway try Dave Beaumont.
https://www.mandttransmissions.co.uk/differentials_transmissions_sheffield.html

 

[saint-spoon]

Thanks for the Advice. Sheffield is a bit of a hike from the South Coast and 4x4 didn't list differentials for Hyundia. the problem is that even the manual that comes with the car states that they used a series of different diffs even across a single registration period so the only way to know for sure is to go via Hyundia to ensure that the same one is sourced (yes I have looked into this quite deeply).
the prices for low mileage cars are quite high but mine was over 108,000 miles which throws the value right down.
it saddens me to say this but I think that my car is essentially scrap

 

[Hutch]

SS, as a SF owner I am interested as to what went wrong with the rear differential, for the MOT tester to fail it, and how they noticed it.
Thanks Hutch.

 

[saint-spoon]

The MOT test centre phoned me before the test had started, apparently the rear diff had failed and was supplying no power to the rear wheels and the seal had all gone leaking oil out all over the place. I had a look and it appears that I was lucky because indeed the seal do appear to have gone and there seems to be a lot of oil lost. that is apparently a failure (I got a second opinion and they said because of the oil lossage it would fail. )

I think, and this is only speculation, that it went when I was stuck in mud on our storage area, the 4wd light came on. anyway it went off and there was no problem but I spun the front wheels a couple of time pulling away which shouldn't happen so that rings true about there being no power to the rear wheels.
anyway, I got the car with a tow hitch attached and quite high mileage so I think that the failure may well be down to years of hard graft and a simple thing like spinning wheel in mud. Most annoying.
it may well be a problem that the 2006-2012 models had as they seemed to get through a number of drive trains from different manufacturers and looking for a diff from the scrappy (I had two garages look) and they were droppings from the rocking horse, very expensive and came without any guarantee. My cheapest option was the local hyundia dealer that quoted me £3,800 but that would be a guaranteed part for the car.
for the mileage of the car it isn't worth much more than that and I will get a grand if I scrap it (still losing over £3k though). sickening. the good thing is that I owned the car so there was no finance or anything to be paying. Silver linings even if they are tarnished.

I am however looking at a 3 year old SF as a replacement, or a 2017 Kuga (180) 4Wd or perhaps a 2014/15 Nissan Navara or Mitsubishi L200 Barbarian. Mrs Spoon as a Venga as a family car, this is needed solely to tug 1500kgs of adria from place to place (I cycle to work).

Edit:
the aricon packed in just before the last heat wave, it was a pig to start when it got icy (I had to resort to easy start) and there is a funny buzzing noise just started up in the engine compartment in front of the passneger's side. And one of my headlamps keeps blowing, genuine Hyundia relays are super expensive and I was having a heck of a job trying to source an equivalent to see if that is what was causing it).

 

[otherclive]

Why would spinning in mud cause the problem as that’s what 4wd is designed to do. I’ve had numerous 4wd and some including my Sorento Mk 1 I took on Salisbury Plain with an off road group. At times all wheels were spinning. I suspect that a dicky seal led to loss of oil over time.

 

[Dustydog]

Saint Spoon,
Sorry but I’m getting 5 from 2+2 here hmy:
The diff on a lot of Hyundai’s and Sorentos is a limited slip diff. Are you sure that is the real problem or is it the electronically controlled transfer box, the torque on demand unit?
As Clive says there are plenty of good engineering firms that recondition diffs at a fraction of the OEM price.
These guys have been going for nearly 50 years. Worth a phone call and not that far really.
https://www.hardyengineering.co.uk/
Mr Hardy started the firm and had a small workshop in Epsom where I lived many many years ago. They are still going at Leatherhead so that must say something.
Sorry if I have not understood your problem correctly

 

[Brasso530]

Just to add a footnote to this thread.The actual diff isn't part of the test,however,the new mot states any fluid leak is now a fail(used to be an advisory).
P.s by diff,I mean internals,obviously if it's hanging off etc...poss fail.

 

[Kevin2306]

Another thing to look at is:
If it is an lsd diff and the fluid has leaked out then that will render it useless.
I really would be getting a smaller garage to pull the diff out for a look, change seal and oil, if it still malfunctions, set fire to the car ..lol

Kev

 

[saint-spoon]

quite probably Clive, but the fact is that it is now dead.

 

[bertieboy1]

Saint Spoon,
My experience with dealers is that they tend replace a part completely with a new part rather than try to repair it.By using a local small garage who tend to repair something, this has saved me a lot of money.Dealers hourly rates are out of this world as well.

 

[waffler]

Really sorry to hear your news. We had a series 1 Sorento that had a seal go on the back of the transfer box. Oil leaked a little but technician assured me it was ok to drive whilst awaiting the part. The symptoms you describe about front wheels are the same we had with a series 2 Sorento. Turned out to be output from the auto box and input into transfer box had disintegrated. (This was fixed by Kia under warranty.) My understanding is that AWD is provided by a magnetic clutch in the transfer box. It it be that rather than the rear diff?

 

[Hutch]

Wafler i agree wih you, since , i read that the FWD system is an electronic clutch to the rear wheel, and disengaged at 20/25 kph. , Mine worked well the last two years and tried it many times to make sure it worked in snow, for confidence, with the selective FWD you do not have as much front wheel slip , its more like an old Landrover system with a limited slip diff. .
As My son works for JLR I would like to see if they would let folk take other cars over their "Softer" course . ?

 

[saint-spoon]

In the end I had to get rid, two independent garages and a main dealer advised as much. The problem is that even the small garages would cost a pretty penny just to have a look to see what the problem is and when I put that alongside the other problems that I know that I had I/we decided to cut out losses and get rid.
I thank you for your inputs, it is always handy to see other opinions on such things.