Hyundai Terracan (2003 - 2007) 2.9 CRTD 5d Owner Review

Tonka toy toughness at a bargain-basement price. If you want a driving experience like a normal car this isn't the vehicle for you, however if you're not a badge snob and the ugly duckling looks don't put you off, you'll discover a real hidden gem of a do-it-all vehicle with the Terracan. Underpinning the Terracan is a solid, old fashioned, box-section chassis, which will never give it sports car handling but that's not the point of this car. With an elevated driving position you're able to see well ahead on the road and feel much safer. There is a fair degree of body roll that you need to become used to but the grip and traction from the limited slip rear axle coupled with the double wishbone front suspension are very good. Speed humps and potholes are taken in its stride. The 160 hp 2.9L turbodiesel 4 pot is a bit agricultural after a cold start but soon warms up and always has enough power to accelerate swiftly away from junctions as well as cruising fine on the highway. Mpg is surprisingly good considering that 2.2 tons are being hauled along. This bulk maybe explains why this car is an excellent towing vehicle. If you make sure you get it serviced regularly there is no issue with putting on a cheap tuning box to up the power & torque. They can be bought for £100 or so and give a noticeable improvement in performance & smoothness as well as gaining a couple of mpg. A win-win in my book. Driving position is good and the seats are 450-mile comfortable. Passengers in the rear sit slightly higher than the front seats so are great for those who are prone to travel sickness. Rear seats also recline slightly which is a nice touch for those wanting to take a snooze. Plenty of room in the cavernous boot and a huge tailgate that raises high so you can easily stand up underneath or when sitting on the back acts as a great sunshade / rain protector. Be aware that the 4wd system does not have a centre differential, so is only for use when the going gets really rough or slippy. If you do engage 4wd on grippy tarmac it will cause the transmission to do something called 'wind-up'; this will not be news to landrover owners, since they do the same. Best advice is to leave it in normal (rear) 2wd unless really needed to use the extra (front axle) traction. Changing from 2wd to 4wd high is as easy as twiddling the round switch next the gearstick and you can do this at up to 50mph. Going to 4wd low ratio (for steep climbs or low speed work) requires stopping and clutch depress before the gearbox will allow a small electric motor to activate to put the gearbox into low ratio. It's quite good fun in low ratio & you should try it once in a while with this car. Maintenance-wise, you're onto a winner if you are competent to service it yourself, but do be careful not to drain the front axle oil the 1st time you change the engine oil. The front axle drain plug is in the position you'd think is the engine drain plug. Look a bit further back and you'll see the engine oil sump plug. The giveaway is if only 2 litres of oil comes out instead of 6 litres! Budget on new engine oil and filter every 10k miles and it will run forever. 6.5 litres of oil needed for every oil change. All service parts are available from motor factors and are cheap enough, oil filters £8, air filters £9, pollen filters £10. If there is no history of a fuel filter change, put a new one on (£14) since they are often missed and are essential to keep your high pressure common rail diesel pump and injectors clean & in good condition. Neglect the fuel filter and you can have a bill of over £1000 if the pump gets dirt in it and fails, then sends metal bits to the injectors and throughout the fuel return hoses. Turbos seem very reliable, again helped by regular engine oil changes and letting them cool down properly for 60 secs at engine idle after any high speed running. Rear LSD axles were a bit of a problem on these cars when new, but now these cars are between 8-13 yrs old, any problems would have been fixed a long time ago within the initial 5 yr warranty period. Most seem to agree that hyundai put the wrong oil in the axles at the factory, although nothing was ever admitted. Again, if there is no service history with your car, get the rear axle oil changed as a priority with a decent LS90-spec limited slip differential oil. Most owners also add a small bottle of LSD additive at the same time and this seems to keep the LSD friction plates happy. If your rear axle moans and groans when turning tightly, new rear diff oil, a small bottle of LSD additive and 10 mins doing figure-8's somewhere quiet like a deserted car park will fix it 99% of the time. Very black rear diff oil is quite normal as the friction plates are designed to shed material into the oil as they wear normally. Most cars that have towed during their lifetime or have over 60k miles will have a little bit of rear axle whine, but as long as it's only apparent at motorway speeds and on very light throttles, don't be too concerned. In general though, the engine, gearbox, transfer box, axles and driveshaft are all heavy duty and very well engineered. Apart from the engine, the rest of the drive train mechanicals are all the same as the mitsubishi pajero /shogun mk2. So tough as they come. Some parts like oil seals are cheaper from mitsubishi than from hyundai, the giveaway is the mitsubishi part number prefix (MR) as opposed to the hyundai part number format, (like 51020-4566). With some cars getting on for 13 yrs old, some corrosion will be happening underneath and these cars do rust quite well when assisted by the salt we throw on our roads during the winter months. If you go under your car it'll annoy you and you'll want to get an underbody clean done and undersea applied. If you don't venture under your car, it'll never worry you, apart from 1 of the 5 main brake lines needing replaced every few yrs when the MOT man tells you it's needed. Brake lines are quick & easy to replace and very much bread-and-butter work for mot garages, so don't worry. Copper or cupro-nickel brake pipe lasts much longer that the original ones, so once done you'll not have to worry about that individual pipe for the useable lifetime of the car. Tyres- they wear evenly and last a long time, especially if you fit M+S tyres with chunky tread. Road biased tyres still wear good and expect 30-40k out of a set. Big tyre sidewalls mean alloy wheels don't get kerbed, ever! It's a heavy vehicle, so expect to replace brake pads every 25-35k, more frequently on automatics of course, but pads are cheap enough and fit genuine hyundai brake pads to the front or you can get clunk's and squealing. Not unsafe, just annoying. Rear pads are less critical, so cheaper motor factor pads seem fine on the rear brakes. Don't expect the handbrake to be brilliant, from the factory they were crap. Your handbrake will need a good hard tug to hold on anything approaching a slight incline, don't worry, this is quite normal for a terracan. Hold gently on the clutch at steep junctions is the best option. The handbrake should pass mot standards of course, but they aren't that strict to be honest. Leave in gear when parked to be on the safe side. Automatics seem very reliable, even at 200k and expect manual cars to need a new DMF flywheel and clutch at some point during the cars lifetime. Depending on how the car is driven, clutches can wear out by 70k & if the whole car shudders as drive is taken up, suspect either the clutch or the DMF. Both are expensive, so walk away from a potential purchase if this is suspected, except of the car is really cheap and you can factor in £850 for DMF and clutch to be replaced. Or wait until euro car parts have a 30% off sale & buy a LUK DMF and clutch for £550 and give the parts to your friendly local garage to fit for you. Clutch and DMF are no more difficult to replace than a normal car, just not really a home job owing to the weight of the gearbox when manoeuvring it about; a workshop with a ramp is the best place to have it done. Electrics and switchgear are robust and reliable, apart from the central locking they can play up a bit. It's normally just one connector causing the issues and mainly it's the one in the drivers door. Take off the door card (easy) and clean up all the connectors with contact cleaner spray, check for corroded connectors or chafing. If it's not the drivers door connectors is just trial and error on all four doors until you find the culprit. Hyundai panels seem to come off pretty easily without damaging spring or plastic fasteners, unlike Vw / Audi where they seem to be designed to break every time, necessitating costly replacement. I'm always amazed at how well engineered and put together hyundai's are, for a budget marque. All in all then, a good solid car at pocket money price. Do your own maintenance if you can, or at least find a local independent garage to maintain your car. Keep away from hyundai dealer unless you need complex diagnostics or are very rich! Go buy one & enjoy your Terracan and secretly smile that you've got the toughness and abilities to rival any decent 4x4, at a bargain price. Who cares if it's a bit ugly, that's in the eye of the beholder and the looks do grow on you, honest. You'll grow to love your Terracan once you realise what a great workhorse it is.