28th Jun 2008, 00:20

I have just had my 30 000k service and still can't fault this car. Not so much as a squeak or rattle. I've never driven a car, Japanese or Australian/American that I can say the same about. As a first time Hyundai buyer, I have to say they've impressed me no end.

I have had an opportunity to run the car on the beach and over rough terrain, and it was very impressive for a soft roader. Obviously it lacks a low ratio transfer case, and for take offs in very soft sand or for crawling over ruts and gullies, perhaps the auto gear box would be the way to go. My car is manual.

The manual gear box is however very easy to live with in every day driving conditions, and is amazingly good in fuel economy. I can get low 5 litres per 100k when cruising, and never go over 8 litres per 100k, even in heavy traffic driving.

I'll still be driving this at 200 000 kms, with its 8 year dealer extended warranty. So watch this space if problems arise.

14th Jun 2016, 02:41

2007 Santa Fe manual 4w 2.2 CRDi.

I have 2007 Santa Fe 5 speed manual 4x4, 2.2 diesel SX model. I have been very happy mileage/fuel wise and good passing ability. The rest of the story has been costly. Once the warranty was out my problems were left for me. There is a binding cluck showing up which Hyundai tried to fix (rear axle replaced, and fixes and setting changes made no difference) under warranty. The jolt/clunking made the car untradeable above wrecking price.

I live in country South Australia and most kilometres are traveled from home on bitumen to the state capital city at speed limits. I regard myself as reasonably gentle on cars / trucks even though I travel at max speed limits. I qualify this by pointing out the Hyundai is still on its original disc brake pads all round and its got some excellent life from tyres and excellent low fuel consumption figures. I have had the car serviced as per book and used early service pages to keep the rotation, even though the service pages have run out in the service manual. Both timing belts were changed as per Hyundai revised instructions. Currently traveled 251,000km. The clutch destroyed itself without any warning or prior noise until it was really noisy while pressing in to change gears to slow down to enter my home driveway. The clutch lasted 245,000km and cost $5100 to replace. Obtained a few different quotes to buy a clutch just in case my local garage was having a lend of my back pocket. One quote from Hyundai city dealer was just under $4900 for the clutch only plus fitting.

"The dearest manual car clutch I have ever purchased for a client." was the local garage owner's comment. At 247,000km the turbo inter-cooler started losing a very small amount of oil through a very small crack when hot. Last trip home the oil light was flickering and I first thought the inter-cooler situation must have got bad, which was not the case. 1 litre of oil was used to take the oil level to the full level. The motor cooled even though the next service is still 4,000kms away.

A new sender switch did not fix the oil light flicker and finally red was on all the time. I will most probably get the garage to pull the motor and check the bearings as the oil pump pressure changes from good cold morning oil pressure and gradually drops over 30 minutes. When restarted once cool again, it takes about 15 minutes for the pump good pressure to drop to very low pressure. Oil used is as per book and has never been really low.

Has anybody had a Santa Fe 2007 diesel oil pressure pump replaced, and the reason for the replacement and what km or mileage was showing?