Air Conditioning Reliability

I have a 2002 Santa Fe with  114,000 miles on it ,  and have not had
any problems with the a/c .  I guess its just luck of the draw.  I
hope you were treated honestly on the diagnosis    .

n...@netfront.net ---

Fortunately I found a trustworthy dealer/service department.  I brought
it in after the it would no longer cool down (Texas winters have some
days where it is warm) and I caught it early enough that only the
compressor had to be replaced.  We expect to drive the car for at least
another 60k miles if not longer... until it starts to fall apart.

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I plan to drive mine for many hundreds of thousands of miles ,
hopefully.  And i dont mind putting a few hundred into it here and
there.   I think Hyundai has GREATLY improved since the late
'80's  .

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My 02 Sonata GLS started leaking some time between Fall of 09 and
Summer of 2010. Had my mechanic use some of the regular sealer coolant
stuff the first time and it lasted for about a year. Fall of 2010 to
Summer of 2011 the same thing happened and he used some expensive
premium coolant sealer stuff and it's been holding ever since. I just
used it today and it's still blowing cold air. He showed me the leak
one time before and said it's typical that the tiny o-rings get
brittle and crack and rather than replace a .50 cent o-ring, you have
to replace the whole A/C pump. Sucks. I'll keep using the expensive
sealer stuff until I have to buy a new A/C pump.

- Thee Chicago Wolf [MVP]

I think it is more or less typical for modern cars from all manufacturers to
have A/C systems that standup for years.

It took my 1992 F150 13 years before it need a recharge. It didn't have as
many miles as your Santa Fe, but then the truck sat for months at a time
with little or no use, which might actually have been harder on the A/C
seals that actually using it. My 1997 Expediton never had an A/C problem,
but then I only kept it for 150,000 miles. As best I can remember, the only
vehicle that I have owned in the last 20 years that needed an A/C recharge
was the '92 F150. A/C system are a lot better than they used to be. I
imagine your Santa Fe uses an A/C compressor manufactured by one of the same
companies that the major Japanese and American companies use.

Ed