Hyundai suspension parts held in the UAE

The Hyundais that fill most of our tables share one front layout and part ways at the rear. The Accent, Elantra, Sonata, Tucson and Santa Fe in the generations listed below all steer on MacPherson struts, where the shock absorber, the coil spring and a top bearing sit together as one unit. Behind, the Accent and most versions of the Elantra of those generations use a twist beam, also called a torsion beam: one cross-member with a bush at each end where it bolts to the body. The Sonata, Tucson and Santa Fe use a multi-link rear, with several short arms on each side and a bush at each end of every arm.

That difference decides what a request for a rear bush actually means. On an Accent the choice is short. On a Tucson there are trailing arm bushes, transverse rod bushes and knuckle bushes, and some of them are made as a left part and a right part. The table pairs each family with the kind of lines on our shelf that the part maker lists for it.

Layouts are given for the generation named in each row. Other years and other market versions can differ, which is one more reason we start every quote from the chassis number rather than the badge on the boot.

Plenty of Accents, Elantras and Sonatas on UAE roads work for a living as rental, company or ride-hailing cars. They do stop-start mileage all day, cross the same speed bumps at walking pace dozens of times a shift, and sit in the sun between jobs. A private Tucson or Santa Fe may cover fewer kilometres, but it climbs kerbs into villa driveways, turns on full lock in mall car parks and carries a family's luggage to Oman and back.

Each of those habits lands on a different part. Slow speed bumps work the stabiliser links and their bushes. Full-lock turns at parking speed load the strut top bearing, which is why a creak when you turn the wheel in a car park so often leads back to it. Heat dries and cracks rubber, so arm, knuckle and beam bushes lose their grip on the metal sooner than they would in a cooler country. Fine sand finds every split boot on a tie rod end or ball joint and grinds the joint from the inside.

Most Hyundai suspension complaints reach us as a sound. The table below is how we narrow one down over a chat, and it is a shortlist, not a verdict: a garage with the car raised and a pry bar under each joint will find the worn part in minutes, and that is always worth doing before you buy a whole corner.

We hold genuine Hyundai suspension parts and aftermarket ones, mostly FEBEST and STELLOX, and the comparison table next to this section sets their typical prices in our stock side by side. A typical price is the middle of everything under one heading, so it can tip either way between genuine and aftermarket. Ask for both prices for your own car on the same chat and you see the real gap.

As a rule of thumb, a Tucson or Santa Fe that carries a full family and luggage on long trips is a reasonable place for genuine shock absorbers and arms. On a high-mileage Accent or Elantra doing fleet work, a sound aftermarket bush, link or tie rod end is a sensible saving, because those parts are simple and will be replaced again in time either way. FEBEST, which makes up a good share of our aftermarket lines, concentrates on rubber-to-metal parts, so a garage can press a fresh bush into your existing arm or knuckle and keep the metal.

If you want a genuine Hyundai part that the tables do not show, ask anyway. We can price a genuine part on request and tell you how it compares with what is on the shelf.

The chassis number on your mulkiya is the key. Hyundai has sold the same model names across several generations and several market versions, and a US-import Elantra or Sonata can look identical to a GCC car of the same year while taking a different part number. One photo of the registration card settles that.

Then tell us the corner: front or rear, left or right, and for arms, upper or lower or trailing. Shock absorbers should go in pairs across an axle, because a new damper beside a tired one makes the car behave unevenly, and many garages change stabiliser links in pairs too. Any job on a control arm, a bush that locates the wheel, a tie rod end or a front strut needs a wheel alignment afterwards, because on these Hyundais the strut helps set the front wheel angle. Skip it and the tyres pay for it.

Two catalogue habits are worth knowing when you read the fit lists in the tables. The second-generation Tucson was sold as the ix35 in Europe, Australia and China, and the part makers' catalogues use that name, so a line listed for the ix35 can be the one for your Tucson. The catalogues also count generations with Roman numerals, as in Accent IV or Sonata VII, which does not always match the way a dealer or a garage here names them. We translate both from the chassis number.