Hi all
My car is a 2001 v6 2.7l AWD Santa Fe. Just this week the rear differential had a bearing go out, so the dealer says. Symptoms roaring noise similar to a wheel bearing gone but as I had suspected from my own examination it was not.

How unfortunate! the new differential is 1450 dollars! plus labour a 1800 dollar hole in my pocket!

This seems mad wondering if its a commom problem the car has 114000 miles on it which is not that much! We have owned the car from new and it has not been abused.

I would like to hear your experiences or comments

This post has been edited by patrick7600: Oct 5 2007, 11:44 AM

Hi,

I have a 2001 2.7 v6 Santa Fe with 75k on the clock and experienced exactly the same as you have, I had the rear wheel bearing changed to see if that cured the whirring noise but it did not. I had 3 seperate opinions and they all said that the noise was coming from the differential. In UK the replacement price is £1400 not a cheap repair! So I went to a breakers and managed to get a replacement from a car that had done only 28k, my mechanic fitted it and lo and behold... the same noise again! we then put in some oil with graphite added to see if that would help with the noise but it doesnt seem to have done. The next task is to open the original diff and see if any bearing can be identified as my mechanic says you can replace certain parts, I hope so but I will let you know how he progresses!

:)

i was wondering........

what if, just if you can remove the rear diff. ???
the car should still work since its basically FWD !!!

what do you think?

If you have a mechanic that is good they should be able to replace the bearings and repair the original axle. I'd guess there are only $300-400 worth of parts in it unless it is a LSD or something like that. Most bearings should be available aftermarket. If all else fails the dealer should be able to get them for you. Generally there are two reasons why a dealership replaces the whole assembly:

1 - Quicker and easier for the mechanic and the dealer doesn't have to worry about the mechanic screwing it up and having to redo it out of their own pocket.

2 - Affordability. If the dealer charges you by the hour then it would often cost more than the new unit because their labor rates are so high. If you find a good repair shop that is not a dealer the labor rates can often be half as much as the dealer.

Derek

Hey Spotthedot and everyone else.
I also got a part from a scrap yard as I didn't fancy shelling out 1450 dollars for the new part. The used one cost me 350 plus labour the job cost 700 dollars.

I got it back today and it sounds bad, I don't have the same wheel bearing like noise but more of a rattling noise. Actually I think the used differential is fine. The dealer said the shocks were almost shot and I think its those rear shocks making the new noise and not my used part (I hope!)

It crossed my mind to have the bearing in the old one replaced but I forgot to ask when I found a used part easily.

Doing away with the rear drive assembly probabaly is an option from what I have seen but who really wants to do that?

Will update when I get it functioning normally!

Yes seem a bit strange that another diff from another younger (well it could be a 2001 I suppose) vehicle is making exactly the same noise again, which makes me wonder if it not the diff at all! apart from trouble with the ABS (is that on the rear wheels?) there seem to be no other problems though

All is well now, used part is working fine

Thats good news! I also have some good news, after taking the car back again to the local dealership and explaining that it has another diff fitted, they had another look and came to the conclusion that it was the other wheel bearing and a circlip that was the problem. I pick it up today, it just shows you sometimes professional can get it wrong too!

I also have a '01 AWD Santy with a 2.7L engine. About 2 months ago I noticed a dull clunking noise when going from reverse to drive. It came & went 2-3 times until one day there was a loud "clunk" when I stepped on the accelerator and the car would drive no more. :w00t: $2,300 later it was fixed at an independent transmission shop. The splined boss in the transaxle that the transmission shaft fit into sheared from the differential. It took out the differential, the shaft between the transmission and the differential and the transaxle!! :crying: The transaxle too 2 weeks to get from Hyundai and I had the expense of a rental car for three weeks. Beware of "clunks" when shifting from R to D!!!!

Well
There the update, 2 months of the used resr and the noise is back with a vengence. We went to trade the car and we only offered 1900 dollars for it. The new rear installed costs that much! Decided to keep the car and drop all the rear wheel driving components. Drastic action but wondering if anyone else has ever done this with an AWD santa fe. Going to give it a try anyway :P

yeah Patrick its a very drastic measure, and i dont think anybody ever did it :)

please let us know the results

Well Folks
I abandoned my drastic plan to convert from awd to 2wd in favor of getting a second opinion on the problem. They just fixed it, the right rear wheel bearing. The Hyundai dealer replace the rear diff and it was obviously fine! Well at least I used a 2nd hand part for 360 dollars instead of the ne wone 1400 dollars!

Lesson: if someone says rear diff bad get a second opinion.

Also the Santa Fe has now had the left bearing replaced at 60k and the right one at 119k miles

Just to add some current history for all others in 2008.

2003 Santa Fe. 84k miles.

Right rear started making noise like brake pad was grinding while driving at any speed.

Replaced the brake pads. When putting the tire back on I noticed some slop while wiggling the tire.

Point. Bad bearing !!

After reading this thread I would definately say that this model has an issue with pre-mature bearing failure ( geez, I've had other vehicles with 100k+ and no such problems).

Moral, if you hear a grinding from left or right rear it is a high probablility that it is a bearing and NOT the diff.

Now to start a post to see if special tools are required for bearing replacement. Replace BOTH.

Cheers :)