Any recommended antifreeze to use on a 2003 Santa Fe

I have a 2003 Santa Fe w/the 2.7L engine. It's just over 30,000 miles and I
was planning on changing out the coolant per the maintenance schedule. The
manual states that you should use antifreeze suitable for aluminum, but
doesn't give any other information.

Is there a particular brand/type recommended, or would any of the major
brands be OK. Also, is it going to be a special case to find one that's
acceptable for aluminum parts? With all the aluminum engine components
anymore, I would think it would be a pretty common requirement.

Any information would be appreciated.

Mike O.

 

try Peak antifreeze, great stuff gets cold up here and hot and ever had a
problem when i used it..
Right now I have Wamart tech 2000 brand in our 99 Accent, no bad things to
say about that eaither still clean n green and ph within specs..
shes due this fall for a flush...

 

I would think any name brand antifreeze should be suitable for aluminum by
now. The no-name stuff we have here specifically mentions it protects
aluminum on the bottle. I'd suspect reading the back of the bottle in the
store will be sufficient to determine whether any particular antifreeze is
okay to use.

 

Thanks, that's pretty much what I figured. Usually though it seems that
car manufacturers have all these requirements "...Must use genuine Garbonzo
brand that meets standard 403-13/sy.7465 or equivelant...". With the long
warranty on the Hyundai, I want to make sure I'm not missing something in
case I have some problem later and they try to blame it on the wrong
antifreeze..

-Mike O.

 

Can you (or anyone else) give me some direction on where the drain valve,
plug, etc. is on the Santa Fe, 2.7L engine? I briefly looked at it earlier
today and didn't seen anything obvious. I did some internet searching and
it sounds like it's a large phillips type screw on the bottom of the
radiator, is this correct? I didn't see one, but I'm going to take a more
detailed look tomorrow.

Also, there's a cover or shield on the underside of the front of the car.
I'm not sure where to get at the lower part of the radiator with this in the
way. Is there a trick to access the drain point? I did see a small
screwed in panel on the underside, near the left front. Is this where I
access it?

Thanks.

Mike O.

 

There's no drain I know of on the engine per se. The drain in the radiator
is right above the front of the subframe. There's a hole in the subframe
under the plug so you can insert a screwdriver through the hole to get to
the plug. A #3 phillips works well.

 

Thank you very much for the info. Actually, I did figure it was on the
radiator somewhere; I just mentioned the engine size in case there was a
difference between the models.

Mike O.

 

I looked today and found the red plastic plug so I went ahead and changed
out the coolant. I like the Santa Fe, but the radiator drain seems like a
very poor design. The coolant hit the subframe and spread out all along the
front of the frame. I ended up having to use two buckets to catch the
stuff. A small tube extending down, with the end flush with the frame would
have made things much easier. At least I don't have to worry about the next
change at 60K; Along with the timing belt, etc., it's going to be done by
someone else..

Another question I have now: The manual shows 7 quarts for the cooling
system capacity. Allowing for some that didn't make it into the bucket, I
ended up with about 5 quarts drained out. After running some clean water
from the hose through it, I sealed up the drain and filled it with fresh
50/50 mix. Is the extra two quarts or so that I didn't get out of the
engine going to be a problem? What did come out was pretty clean.


Mike O.