my 2002 sante fe started having the ABS kick in randomly even on dry surfaces or when i brake at a stop sign. Sometimes it kicks in 4x in 1 mile, while just driving. My ABS-TCS lights did not go on. Checked the tone rings/wheels on the front axles and found the driver side cracked. I didn't see anyone doing a DIY and read and saw others on different cars do it on you tube , so i figured i give it shot. The part is a Tone Wheel 49590-26300. There are 2 sizes, one thick and one thin. Most of the cars use the thin version, which has a thickness of about 1/4inch from inside to top teeth, from inside to bottom teeth, its about 1/8inch thick. Part cost is $17. Since i am in my 9th year warranty, i asked hyundai if it was covered. They said the tone wheel or the axle is only covered under the 5yr warranty. Thus i am out of luck. They wanted $306 for labor and $470 for the axle. When i asked how much it costs to just change the tone wheel, they said $400. I asked an independent mechanic, he wanted $300 to replace the axle. Said replacing the axle is easier and most shops don't want to be responsible if they break the tone wheel during installation. I found a very honest mechanic referred to me by a friend and he agreed that most people just replace the axle, but he also felt it was a waste of money just because the tone wheel was broken. He charged me only $120 to replace BOTH front tone wheels. Said my axles were ok and i paid too much for the tone wheel. Took his mechanic 1.5 hours to do, first time he took out the axle and sanded it down a bit since the ring was too tight. Once he got the hang of it, he did the other side w/ the axle still in the car.
As for DIY, you can, it all depends on how tight your nuts on the car are. Mine were too tight, even the mechanic had to use a hammer and an airgun to finally get it off.
Here are the steps, sorry no pics since i never completed the job myself all the way
** take digital pictures of everything as you go step by step so you know what it looked like before and at what approximate distance the nuts should go on the bolts by the number of threads not covered.
1- you'll need a 17mm socket wrench, a tie rod puller, grease, 32mm axle socket, 2ft breaker bar, nose pliers, jackstands, tire iron, torque wrench, sand paper or better a grinder (i think you call it)
2- loosen the nuts on your tire, jack up the car, put jack stand for safety, remove front tire
3- use nose pliers to carefully bend straight the cotter pin (metal type 2in hair pin) holding the axle socket from turning, use a hammer and torx screwdriver to tap it out
4- using 32mm axle socket and breaker bar , turn counter clockwise to remove axle nut, mine came off easy, others say to put the tire, minus the H hub cap and use the car's weight to help take it off
5- remove axle socket and axle washer
6- BEFORE you waste any more time, like i did, see if you can use your 17mm wrench and loosen the two 3-4in nuts that hold the knuckle to the strut. Basically the brake rotor assemly to the pipe that is your shock absorber. If you can't no matter what you do, then you need to take it to shop that has the tools (airgun, etc) that can loosen them
7- where the tie rod is (the pipe that pushes and pulls your wheel so you can turn left and right) , use the nose pliers to remove the 1.5in cotter pin , use the 17mm wrench to remove the nut
8- PUT GREASE on the tie rod puller! and slowly hammer it in to pop the tie rod end from the knuckle. Once popped, you can use the hammer to gently tap the pipe up. Do not hit the screws, you may flatten them. Others have banged hard on the knuckle where the tie rod end goes to give it a shock to loosen it. DO NOT bang on the tie rod end itself. I forgot the grease and ripped my tie rod end bushing and grease oozed out. So *%+#@+. Autozone has a duralast part for $22, hyundai wanted $58 for thiers. if you need to replace your tie rod end, in the middle of pipe, where the tie rod end stops is a nut, turn that nut CLOCKWISE, just a little so when you know where it stopped before, then turn your tie rod end, COUNTERCLOCKWISE to remove. There are excellent you tube videos on replacing tie rod ends. Using a piece of tape to mark the nuts original position and measuring the new and old tie rod ends will help you not have to get your car aligned because your tie rods are the wrong length.
9- Remove the 2 bolts holding the knuckle to the strut
10- Some have loosen the brake hose from the mounting to give it more slack, others left it as is
11- Pull the brake rotor assembly towards yourself, while gently tapping the Axle inward using a rubber mallet. mine came off easy.
12- Now let the brake rotor assembly hang by itself or use bungee cords to hold it to the shock absorber spring coils. Angle the end of the axle out of the way to the right . Make sure to support it, again you can use bungee cords or have a helper hold it.
13- now my mechanic took out the axle, but he didn't have to on the other side once he figured it out. Since the tone ring is cracked, you can use a hammer to tap it out.
14- using sandpaper or a grinder , sand away all rust. put your new tone wheel in place and see how tight its going to be. my mechanic realized it was very tight, no matter how much he tapped, he couldn't get the new tone wheel to go in. so he used the grinder and sanded down the metal along the circumference of the axle where the original tone wheel sat. he grinded and test, grinded and test. NEVER grind too much that the tone wheel slides it by hand, now you need a new axle.
15- To give him a better angle to use his hammer, he used his hammer to knock out the first metal flat wheel piece at the end of the axle, which is in front of the tone wheel. i don't know the exact name but you can bang it out and bang it back in, when you're done. he remove that piece and using the ORIGINAL BROKEN tone wheel, he used that as a buffer on top of the new tone wheel for his hammer strikes to avoid damaging the new tone wheel. He had an assistant hold the axle straight while he put a little grease and tapped into place the new tone wheel. he made sure it was straight and the correct distance from the edge on the axle. he then tapped back the metal flat piece , making sure it too was straight and proper distance.
16- now put the fixed axle back into the brake rotor assembly, put back your 2 4in bolts to hold the knuckle to the strut, use a torque wrench to get the proper torque, i believe is 148ftlb -172ftlb, don't remember, he used an airgun. put your axle washer and socket back in, put the axle cotter pin back in place. Put your tie rod back in, the nut and cotter pin.
17- now put your tire back on and test drive to see if when you do normal braking, the abs doesn't kick in.
i still have to test on a slippery road to see if my abs still functions , which i believe it should since i got not abstcs lights on and the battery wasn't disconnected during the repairs.
if i had an airgun and a bigger hammer, i might have done it myself, but $120 is not a lot to have a pro do it with his car lift. And to think, hyundai wanted $306labor + $470axle =$770 for 1 axle, or $400 just to do 1 side what this guy just did for 2 sides for $120.
btw, the mechanic is in Queens, NYC. There's an interesting video clip on msnbc for nbc investigative reports showing how dealers inflat costs to get profits, sometimes even making up phony damages on the car. The article was about jeep cherokee. the repair job cost $100, but 4 of 5, charge up to $250. the 5th said the car needed $2100 in repairs. Service is a dealer's bread and butter. Glad there are forums like this that help the common DIY
As for DIY, you can, it all depends on how tight your nuts on the car are. Mine were too tight, even the mechanic had to use a hammer and an airgun to finally get it off.
Here are the steps, sorry no pics since i never completed the job myself all the way
** take digital pictures of everything as you go step by step so you know what it looked like before and at what approximate distance the nuts should go on the bolts by the number of threads not covered.
1- you'll need a 17mm socket wrench, a tie rod puller, grease, 32mm axle socket, 2ft breaker bar, nose pliers, jackstands, tire iron, torque wrench, sand paper or better a grinder (i think you call it)
2- loosen the nuts on your tire, jack up the car, put jack stand for safety, remove front tire
3- use nose pliers to carefully bend straight the cotter pin (metal type 2in hair pin) holding the axle socket from turning, use a hammer and torx screwdriver to tap it out
4- using 32mm axle socket and breaker bar , turn counter clockwise to remove axle nut, mine came off easy, others say to put the tire, minus the H hub cap and use the car's weight to help take it off
5- remove axle socket and axle washer
6- BEFORE you waste any more time, like i did, see if you can use your 17mm wrench and loosen the two 3-4in nuts that hold the knuckle to the strut. Basically the brake rotor assemly to the pipe that is your shock absorber. If you can't no matter what you do, then you need to take it to shop that has the tools (airgun, etc) that can loosen them
7- where the tie rod is (the pipe that pushes and pulls your wheel so you can turn left and right) , use the nose pliers to remove the 1.5in cotter pin , use the 17mm wrench to remove the nut
8- PUT GREASE on the tie rod puller! and slowly hammer it in to pop the tie rod end from the knuckle. Once popped, you can use the hammer to gently tap the pipe up. Do not hit the screws, you may flatten them. Others have banged hard on the knuckle where the tie rod end goes to give it a shock to loosen it. DO NOT bang on the tie rod end itself. I forgot the grease and ripped my tie rod end bushing and grease oozed out. So *%+#@+. Autozone has a duralast part for $22, hyundai wanted $58 for thiers. if you need to replace your tie rod end, in the middle of pipe, where the tie rod end stops is a nut, turn that nut CLOCKWISE, just a little so when you know where it stopped before, then turn your tie rod end, COUNTERCLOCKWISE to remove. There are excellent you tube videos on replacing tie rod ends. Using a piece of tape to mark the nuts original position and measuring the new and old tie rod ends will help you not have to get your car aligned because your tie rods are the wrong length.
9- Remove the 2 bolts holding the knuckle to the strut
10- Some have loosen the brake hose from the mounting to give it more slack, others left it as is
11- Pull the brake rotor assembly towards yourself, while gently tapping the Axle inward using a rubber mallet. mine came off easy.
12- Now let the brake rotor assembly hang by itself or use bungee cords to hold it to the shock absorber spring coils. Angle the end of the axle out of the way to the right . Make sure to support it, again you can use bungee cords or have a helper hold it.
13- now my mechanic took out the axle, but he didn't have to on the other side once he figured it out. Since the tone ring is cracked, you can use a hammer to tap it out.
14- using sandpaper or a grinder , sand away all rust. put your new tone wheel in place and see how tight its going to be. my mechanic realized it was very tight, no matter how much he tapped, he couldn't get the new tone wheel to go in. so he used the grinder and sanded down the metal along the circumference of the axle where the original tone wheel sat. he grinded and test, grinded and test. NEVER grind too much that the tone wheel slides it by hand, now you need a new axle.
15- To give him a better angle to use his hammer, he used his hammer to knock out the first metal flat wheel piece at the end of the axle, which is in front of the tone wheel. i don't know the exact name but you can bang it out and bang it back in, when you're done. he remove that piece and using the ORIGINAL BROKEN tone wheel, he used that as a buffer on top of the new tone wheel for his hammer strikes to avoid damaging the new tone wheel. He had an assistant hold the axle straight while he put a little grease and tapped into place the new tone wheel. he made sure it was straight and the correct distance from the edge on the axle. he then tapped back the metal flat piece , making sure it too was straight and proper distance.
16- now put the fixed axle back into the brake rotor assembly, put back your 2 4in bolts to hold the knuckle to the strut, use a torque wrench to get the proper torque, i believe is 148ftlb -172ftlb, don't remember, he used an airgun. put your axle washer and socket back in, put the axle cotter pin back in place. Put your tie rod back in, the nut and cotter pin.
17- now put your tire back on and test drive to see if when you do normal braking, the abs doesn't kick in.
i still have to test on a slippery road to see if my abs still functions , which i believe it should since i got not abstcs lights on and the battery wasn't disconnected during the repairs.
if i had an airgun and a bigger hammer, i might have done it myself, but $120 is not a lot to have a pro do it with his car lift. And to think, hyundai wanted $306labor + $470axle =$770 for 1 axle, or $400 just to do 1 side what this guy just did for 2 sides for $120.
btw, the mechanic is in Queens, NYC. There's an interesting video clip on msnbc for nbc investigative reports showing how dealers inflat costs to get profits, sometimes even making up phony damages on the car. The article was about jeep cherokee. the repair job cost $100, but 4 of 5, charge up to $250. the 5th said the car needed $2100 in repairs. Service is a dealer's bread and butter. Glad there are forums like this that help the common DIY
