2008 Hyundai Santa Fe brake job joy. Not!

[JTK]

Wow what a fun time I had replacing the original rotors and pads all the way around on my 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe @ 69500mi. I don't think all the pads were factory however. I started with the rears since that's all my Carquest had in stock that particular day.

Got some fine white box Chinese rotors and Carquest ceramic pads and a new tube of Sil-Glyde. ~$50/ea for rotors, ~$35 pads. Everything came off great right up to the rear rotors; The little screws that hold the rotors to the hubs came right off with my impact screwdriver, calipers, caliper retaining brackets, no problem. Then I start with the brass mallet beating.. and more beating until I get some wiggle. No joy and it took forever.

I wound up making up some 'jack bolts' to install through the holes in the rear spindles where the caliper retaining brackets go through ('nother tip I found online)to 'push' the rotors off. That worked! Got some wiggle! Now the parking brake shoes are preventing the rotors from pulling off. There is a tiny rubber plug on the face of the rotor to allow you access to the star-wheel adjuster. Yeah right!! It's about the size of a pencil eraser. Had to search online to determine the star-wheel adjuster is at the 7 O'clock position or I would have never found it with all the busted loose rust in there now.

Now the adjuster on the pass side is rusted solid. By the time I got that rotor off I busted a bunch of parking brake hardware. A spring, a couple clips and pins. OH JOY. I called around trying to locate the possibility of a parking brake hardware kit. Napa said they had one in California.. didn't even offer to order it for me. Told me to just call a Hyundai dealer. Carquest said the kit exists and they'd have one by the next day. Out of curiosity I called the dealer. The only way they could sell me p-brake parts is individually. Dude told me last time he pieced one together it was over $100 for a few pins, clips, springs and 2 adjusters!

The Carquest kit was just the ticket. It had everything I needed in one small box for $20.60. Luckily I had some help from my more tallented brother to rebuild the parking brakes. There's SO little room in there tucked between the backing plates and hubs, you need 3 hands to get everything lined up and locked in. Luckily we were able to salvage the p-brake shoes because new ones were ~$60. All in, it was about ~$150 for the complete rear brake job.

About a week later I did the fronts with eBay mail-order Chinese rotors and ceramic pads for $129 all-in. Other option was pay about $65/ea just for new rotors locally. My mail-order stuff was to my door in 2 days. Real nice stuff! No quality issues so far. Thankfully the fronts were REAL easy aside from me breaking my Craftsman 3/8" ratchet trying to break free one of the caliper retaining bracket 17mm bolts. SNAP!! Scared the heck out of me thinking I broke the bolt off in there, until the guts fell out of my 20yr/old trusty ratchet.

My main rants are; 1) Thank you Buffalo for your fine winters! Things shouldn't be that rusty on a 2008 w/ 70Kmi!

2) I truly HATE rear disk brakes. Gimme good old rear drums any day. I'm not a race track driver, nor do I need to tow!

Thanks for listening!

Joel

 

[Astro14]

It's not the winters per se...it's the salt!

Same issue in Vermont...and same issue down here when I get the truck wet in brackish water...oh my, the rust that salt water causes underneath that poor thing...I rusted out rear heater coolant lines the other day...and the transfer case oil cooler looks like something you would find on a long-sunken battleship...

When you get a nice new fun car some day, keep the Hyundai for the winters, throw 4 snows on it and make it the winter beater...drive the new car only in the summer and keep the new car out of the salt as long as possible!

 

[JTK]

Luckily everything is clean as a whistle body-wise and underneath, it's just hardware bits and components take a beating. There's no hope for things buried in the hat of the rear rotors!

I could imagine what a dealer would have charge me for a full brake job. I'd need to sell a kid or four.

Joel

 

[OVERKILL]

I did the brakes on my aunt's Tucson and it was about this much fun, minus the broken tools and e-brake grief. I used a large maul to get the rotors off.

 

[eljefino]

Is anyone else annoyed that when you have classic drum brakes the big shoes are $15 but the little dinky ones for "top hat" e-brakes within discs are $70?

OP, look into the possibility of not putting the little screws back in for the rotor. They're there (IIRC) to keep the rotor from randomly falling off going down the assembly line.

 

[oldmaninsc]

I hear you Joel. As for rear disc brakes - I replaced the ones on my Grand Marquis shortly after I got it (about 3 1/2 years ago) and I had no trouble at all. They were really easy. The rotor came right off with no problem. Of course being on the west coast I don't have the same problems with rust as you do.
When I lived in Minnesota I do remember having trouble getting some brake drums off due mostly to rust.

 

[scurvy]

Sounds like a problem could have been that the parking brake adjuster was frozen - typically seen on vehicles that never get it used.

Recently did a brake job (the first ever) on my wife's 11 year old, 125k mile Beetle that sees regular parking brake use. Everything came apart easily and was replaced easily. Used ample amounts of Permatex purple nurple ceramic lube on all the brake parts & anti-seize on the hub, wheel & lugs.

I'll take discs over drums any day of the week!

 

[SLCraig]

That sucks. Wow.
I like rear disc brakes, but I've only ever had the kind that clamp the rotor. (The E-brake) They are always easy to service, just as the fronts are. Only extra piece is the manual actuator for the ebrake.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted By: scurvy
Sounds like a problem could have been that the parking brake adjuster was frozen - typically seen on vehicles that never get it used.


Nope. Parking brake is used on a daily basis and works perfectly. I just couldn't get the shoes to clear the 'ridge' in the drum/hat area of the rotor because the manual adjusters were frozen. This p-brake does not self-adjust.

Joel

 

[mechtech2]

Rear drums can have horrid problems , too.
It's no fun when a routine job is a battle.

 

[JustinH]

I can't wait to move out of the rust belt. The last two brake jobs I did on my cars were due to the inside of the rotors rusting out. The brake pads had about 75 percent life on them!

 

[Slick17601]

I hear ya on the rear disks....I think it's a huge step backwards. I know on GM trucks they wised up and went back to drums on the rear.

 

[Ken2]

By the way, rear drum brakes are better for towing because of the superior parking brake. Heavy trailers should have their own brakes, by law, and by good sense.

 

[cmf]

Rust can turn the simplest job into a nightmare. And I really like the stopping power of having disc brakes front and rear, definitely wouldn't even consider a car with rear drum brakes.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Be careful discounting rear drum brakes as the rears do very little of the braking. Especially on a FWD vehicle.

It's worth noting that my fleet Silverados all have discs front and rear except for my 2005 that has a special towing package from the factory.

It has drums. There's a clue in there somewhere.

 

[sambojoho]

I have had several Hyundai and Kia products with rear disc brakes. All of them were a real pain to get off. Even the fronts were terrible, with the rotors rusting to the hubs. All had to be hammered off with a rubber mallet.

I also have a Toyota and Honda. These were very easy, came right off. It seems to be the way that Hyundai designs the rotors, or the materials they use are more prone to corrosion. I am a big fan of Korean cars, but I hate doing brake jobs on them.

 

[mechanicx]

GM uses parking brake in the hat design for the rear disks but it normally gives no problems and has fewer parts. It is probably more reliable that the the parking brake being built into the caliper and probably easier to work on than drums, but it seems the drum brakes and the calipers with parking brake mechanism have a stong hold.

I like rear disks but good drum brakes work fine on FWD cars. My '97 Malibu has rear drums, 135k miles and still has its original rear brakes. They haven't needed touched yet with still plenty of shoe lining remaining and the parking brake works great.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Yeah, drum brakes get a bad rap.They are actually quite good and typically seem to require less maintenance on many platforms.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted By: sambojoho

I also have a Toyota and Honda. These were very easy, came right off. It seems to be the way that Hyundai designs the rotors, or the materials they use are more prone to corrosion. I am a big fan of Korean cars, but I hate doing brake jobs on them.


I have to agree there. My Honda is cake and I just did pads and rotors all the way around on my nephew's 2000 Nissan Pathfinder with 230K miles on it with no problems.

As much as I enjoy my Hyundai, they do use some junk components. Issues started about 60Kmi when my (second-hand owner) warranty ran out.

1) Had to replace badly worn front stabilizer bar end-links. Real easy DIY. About $45 total

2) Rear left wheel bearing went out. That was about $400 and a nightmare to r/r per the shop because of how the mounting bolts are hidden.

3) Ignition coil went out on cyl #1. Of course it's buried under the intake on the rear bank (2.7L V6). Intake has to come off. It took 3 days to "overnight" a replacement coil and have my local shop do it. Dealers didn't even have a replacement coil. That was about $150.

4) It's going into the shop in a few days for what I'm almost certain is a front left wheel bearing. It's been on it's way out for months and was actually was drowned out by the rear bearing noise for a long time!

5) The range/mode sensor on the trans has acted up, causing the PRNDL dash lights to not sequence properly and not allow you out of park without mashing the little manual unlock button on the console. At least I know how to get at it and replace it if needed.

I guess my point is, lots of things are decently designed and laid-out, but when it comes to brakes and suspension? Not so much.

Joel

 

[JTK]

Wound-up being the right front wheel bearing that was bad! Man I swore it was the left. Anyway.. OUCH! $289 for the hub, $130 labor + tax. ~$455. Man that hurts. I've got ~$850 invested in replacement wheel bearings alone on this vehicle. These failures began just over 60Kmi when my subsequent owner warranty ran out.

Hyundai owners with the 10yr/100K warranty thank your lucky stars!