project Free car - Hyundai Santa Fe 2.7 V6 rescued - now in hibernation

[Blake's Den]

Hello all

I inherited this Santa Fe V6 about seven years ago. Shortly afterwards the fuel line split and the car was parked up. After towing it to parking locations (and after the rats moved in!) I've decided to get it running.

It's too good to scrap (only 30k miles), too naff to sell so I've decided to get it running and have some fun with it. When I did drive the car years ago it was actually quite nice to drive. It's also got all of toys: sunroof, heated seats, leather etc.

Here's a video of me trying to get it to run. Will it start?!

 

[Tamworthbay]

Good luck!

[Wingz123]

My god! 30k miles......!!!!! Must be the lowest mileaged one in existence!!

Can't quite believe it's been off the road that long due to that 5 minute fix!

[Blake's Den]

Yep, genuine 30k!

The official replacement fuel line from Hyundai was well over £100. As it's not very economical and was a spare car there just wasn't the urge to get it fixed. 

[Crackers]

What a machiiiiiine                                                                            it isn't.

 

Quite modern shite that actually. Enjoy.

[Blake's Den]

I haven't had much time to spend on the Santa Fe lately but I have decided to get it back on the road and enjoy some V6 wafting ?. 

The locking wheel nut key is missing in action and with a perished front tyre I had to swap the wheel for the spare. It was surprisingly easy to remove the locking nuts with a left hand threaded socket. I considered braying on a hex socket or welding on a plain but but it really was far too easy.

 

[Blake's Den]

It's been a while since I last posted. After my daily driver Subaru decided to fall apart, I had to make progress with the Santa Fe.

I took it for the Most expecting a fail as the engine warning light was on.  It did fail but the only other thing wrong was binding brakes. I sorted those out and changed the MAF and got a 12 month ticket from the man from the Ministry.

Happy days! Until I brimmed the tank and discovered a major fuel leak.....

 

 

[808 Estate]

Excellent work and a tidy motor.

I have been watching these on Autotrader for a while and there are still ones popping up with 50K on the clock for a couple of grand.

They seem good for about 200K so should last a while and be pretty reliable..

[Blake's Den]

Yeah they seem pretty solid. Considering how this one was neglected for 7 years I'm surprised that most things work! Just the digital clock on the dash that doesn't work, I didn't even have to fit any new bulbs. 

[Blake's Den]

It has been a while since I posted about the Santa-Fe so here is a quick update.

It's been running fine and providing reliable and cheap motoring. Admittedly the mileage this year will be low due to COVID and all of that but she's doing everything that I'm asking her to do.

If fitted some 'Event' ML698 off road tyres as they were an ebay bargain along with another set of wheels. The tyres are noisy but then do grip well in the soft stuff.

I've also had a towbar fitted. I actually paid a man to do it as the car doesn't really owe me any money and I've supported a local business too. Its an excellent tow car with the 2.7V6 and auto 'box provided that you don't set the trip computer to MPG

The only problem that I have had is that the digital clock on the dashboard has stopped working. I guess that they don't make cars like the used to 🤣

[tooSavvy]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Black-Small-Electronic-Clock-Digital-LCD-Table-Car-Desk-Date-Time-Clock-/143418269887?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

Sorted, m8

[Mally]

9 minutes ago, tooSavvy said:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Black-Small-Electronic-Clock-Digital-LCD-Table-Car-Desk-Date-Time-Clock-/143418269887?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

Sorted, m8

How long have they been selling those?

My dad had one in his Brand new CF Campervan.

Someone actually broke in and stole it.

[Alan_Green]

Are these good engines then?  What's the official view?  I'm on the look out for a non-wheelchair Kia Sedona 2.7 V6.  Can only see one available in the UK at the mo' (in Wishaw).  And, yes, I do know the road tax is £565.

[somewhatfoolish]

Our own @worldofceri uses a Santa Fe to earn his bread.

[worldofceri]

Mine's a Kia Sorento, and a 4-pot diesel, so not sure how comparable they are.  But in terms of general bullet-proofness, I'd rate highly.  (Figuratively speaking, of course.  In an actual gunfight I'd recommend a tank.)

[Rod/b]

I had a Kia Sportage with the 2.7 V6 and the Autobox. I liked it. Nice and smooth it was. 
I’ve had a few Kias, really rate them. 2x Sportage, a V8 Mohave and currently a 3.3 V6 Grand Carnival. Would Kia again 13/10. 

[Blake's Den]

2 hours ago, Alan_Green said:

Are these good engines then?  What's the official view?  I'm on the look out for a non-wheelchair Kia Sedona 2.7 V6.  Can only see one available in the UK at the mo' (in Wishaw).  And, yes, I do know the road tax is £565.

They seem to clock up large miles in America with the V6's so I guess they aren't bad as long as they are looked after.

I think that they are very understressed. Only 170ish hp out of 2.7 litres was pretty lazy back in the early 2000's. My road tax is £325, it's not in the top bracket (like my forester xt).

[somewhatfoolish]

59 minutes ago, worldofceri said:

Mine's a Kia Sorento, and a 4-pot diesel, so not sure how comparable they are.  But in terms of general bullet-proofness, I'd rate highly.  (Figuratively speaking, of course.  In an actual gunfight I'd recommend a tank.)

Oops! My wrongage in the field of Korean 4x4s is showing.  

[Blake's Den]

I'm surprised by how much love there is for this old bus. I'm kind of getting it now, Korean reliability is definetly quite good!

I've had the car back on the road for a year now and it has just passed it's second MoT under my ownership (no advisories!) so I thought that I'd do a quick video summary/review to mark the occasion.

 

[Blake's Den]

Well, the Santa Fe is still running and serving me well.

One of the jobs that I had to do before putting it back on the road was to replace the fuel line from the fuel pump. To do this I used some 'petrol resistant' fuel line from a populare internet auction site. Fast forward 18 months to last week when I started to get a strong smell of petrol when the car was running. After reversing back and seeing a fluid patch on the floor I decided that further investigation was necessary.

It turns out that the petrol resistant fuel line had rotted out. My guess is that it wasn't ethanol resistant. It has been on E5 since I got it back on the road and its only had half a tank of E10 so I can't blame that!

Anyway, I've replaced it with a length of Halfords finest 7mm fuel line (courtesy of my trade card), hopefully this will do the job.

No appologies for the click bait video title, I'm trying to jump on the 'E10 is bad' band waggon!

 

[Blake's Den]

TodayI decided to investigate an annoying and random problem where the engine stalls a few seconds after a cold start. I checked the fuel pressure regulator, idle control valve and looked for air leaks. Of course, as soon as I went to film the cold start it fired up straight away with no issues!

Anyway - when I was looking under the bonnet I spotted that the passenger side wiper was stamped "AS". Maybe the Korean designers knew that this car would end up on the beige forum?!

[Blake's Den]

Hello all

So I have been suffering with an odd problem with the Santa Fe. It would start up  really easily, run for a second or so then cut out. Restarted fine and sometimes would cut out again. As the car had been laid up for about 7 years I suspect crud in the fuel system to be at fault so I decided to replace the in tank fuel filter. That is when things started to go wrong!

There were two O rings on the old filter assembly which didn't come with the new filter assembly. I didn't even think to check this. With the pump and filter back in the car it just would not start. After asking on the helpful Hyundai Forums someone recommended checking the O rings and sure enough I was missing one. Once replaced I could get it to run but not very well and it would not start without the help of some brake cleaner. 

New fuel pump, new fuel lines, new non retun valve, new fuel pressure regualtor and still no start.

I took the pump and filter out again and sure enough, there was a second O ring missing which I believe was part of the overflow/blow off system on the pump. I replaced the O ring and she fired up straight away for the first time in 2 months 🤦‍♂️

Anyway, it made a good video!

 

[Dan302]

I'm really enjoying the Santa Fe content 🙂

[martc]

On 1/17/2021 at 7:07 PM, worldofceri said:

Mine's a Kia Sorento, and a 4-pot diesel, so not sure how comparable they are.  But in terms of general bullet-proofness, I'd rate highly.  (Figuratively speaking, of course.  In an actual gunfight I'd recommend a tank.)

Would Sir be interested in our special vehicle range? I think the Kia Light Tactical Vehicle (KLTV) would meet Sirs requirements quite adequately.

https://special.kia.com/en/main.do#

[New POD]

4 minutes ago, martc said:

Would Sir be interested in our special vehicle range? I think the Kia Light Tactical Vehicle (KLTV) would meet Sirs requirements quite adequately.

https://special.kia.com/en/main.do#

https://www.ivecodefencevehicles.com/Pages/Products/lmv.aspx

Everyone makes something similar. 

Even one for when @Cavcraftbecomes defence procurement Secretary 

[Blake's Den]

4 hours ago, Dan302 said:

I'm really enjoying the Santa Fe content 🙂

It's a car I would have never considered buying. But it has grown on me too, it's not a bad old bus 😁

[Blake's Den]

No video update this time but the MoT was succesfully passed again today so I'll be having another 12 months of Korean motoring. Only one advisory too, not bad for a 17 year old car which sat in a field for 7 years.

I was a bit worried on the run up to the test. The starting and running issues wouldn't go away. I started looking for intake leaks and accidentally left the MAF disconnected  - suddenly it started running fine! I replaced the MAF 2 years ago but it was a cheap ebay special, I've replaced it with another cheap but not the cheapest part and its now running fine.

22 mpg isn't great given the current fuel prices but I have only done 1,165 miles between MoT's so I can live with this. I can spread the mileage between the Defender (30 mpg on a good day) and the Mini (40 mpg when driving like Paddy Hopkirk) to make up for it.

I even treated it to a wash! I'm beginning to really like this car.

[RoverFolkUs]

4 minutes ago, Blake's Den said:

No video update this time but the MoT was succesfully passed again today so I'll be having another 12 months of Korean motoring. Only one advisory too, not bad for a 17 year old car which sat in a field for 7 years.

I was a bit worried on the run up to the test. The starting and running issues wouldn't go away. I started looking for intake leaks and accidentally left the MAF disconnected  - suddenly it started running fine! I replaced the MAF 2 years ago but it was a cheap ebay special, I've replaced it with another cheap but not the cheapest part and its now running fine.

22 mpg isn't great given the current fuel prices but I have only done 1,165 miles between MoT's so I can live with this. I can spread the mileage between the Defender (30 mpg on a good day) and the Mini (40 mpg when driving like Paddy Hopkirk) to make up for it.

I even treated it to a wash! I'm beginning to really like this car.

A prime example of Korean "shite" in those few years before they really nailed it and took off in the UK. Just look at how popular Hyundai and Kia are today!  

[Blake's Den]

13 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

A prime example of Korean "shite" in those few years before they really nailed it and took off in the UK. Just look at how popular Hyundai and Kia are today!  

You're not wrong there. The new Kia's and Hyundai's look really sharp, I'd happily buy a new one

[RoverFolkUs]

31 minutes ago, Blake's Den said:

You're not wrong there. The new Kia's and Hyundai's look really sharp, I'd happily buy a new one

Probably the only modern I'd happily consider myself. Maybe one of the MG EVs as well

Anyway I shall not derail your thread any further