This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
For the past month my car has been stalling in traffic. The car stalls and then turns back on a few seconds later. It also stalls when I am accelerating after stopping for a red light. This situation is very dangerous and it means that I cannot drive my car expecting to be safe at all. It seems like the motor and the transmission are involved which makes the stalling very dangerous as those are major systems.
My Santa Fe developed difficulty starting beginning the afternoon of February 18. While waiting in stop-and-go traffic to park for a sporting event, the ISG (idle stop-and-go) activated at least 40 times. After at least the 40th time, the Santa Fe did not turn back on. After about 10 minutes, I was able to start it. This happened while I was stuck in very heavy traffic exiting the freeway. After that, it would always take multiple attempts to start the car even though the battery had more than enough power to turn over the starter. After a couple of days of dealing with this, I took the Santa Fe to my local Hyundai dealer. After diagnostics, they were able to reproduce the problem and they determined that the starter had developed an intermittent short which was likely caused by the multiple ISG activations on Sunday, 2/18/2024. While they verbally agreed with me that repeated activation of the ISG was the likely cause of the starter short, they wouldn't put that in the written service statement. At the time of this problem, my Santa Fe was 1,887 miles past the 5-year 60,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty. I had purchased the Santa Fe a few months ago as certified pre-owned with about 58,500 miles on it so, even though being the 2nd owner, I retained the remainder of the bumper-to-bumper warranty as well as the 10 year 100,000 engine/drivetrain/transmission warranty. Oddly enough the starter, which is attached to the engine is categorized as part of the car's electrical system instead of as part of the engine so the starter replacement wasn't covered. I appealed to the dealer for a discount of some kind. They declined. They claimed to have called Hyundai USA which also supposedly said no to covering the cost of the new starter. A quick Google search for this problem revealed other owners of Santa Fes with the ISG have had the same exact issue.
There is a system in the car that starts and stops engine, supposedly only at lights to save on fuel. Mine has stopped in the middle of a highway on my way up to Tahoe. Luckily I had just left light and only driven enough to reach the speed of about 10 miles per hour so the cars behind me were able to stop and not hit me. I had to completely turn the car off, put in park and restart car to get it to operate. It has stalled out like a stick shift would if not handled properly, but it is an automatic transmission, on numerous times. Sometimes this will cause the vehicle to completely shut down and sometime it will sputter for a few minutes and then slowly pick speed up and stop. The IGS button to turn this feature on and off when you get into the vehicle will sometimes stay off (not supposed to) and sometimes turn back off as it is supposed to each time the vehicle is turned on or off. It doesn't register as a recall, but I have done my research and saw that at one point you guys had done an investigation into this exact problem with my car. It doesn't show up on diagnostic and it doesnt do this every time I drive. So I have no way to show mechanics the isues. But this puts my life and anyone in my cars lives at risk. Not to mention any cars behind me if this happens on the highway again. I dont know what to do :( Can you please help me?
Oil Pan leaks after an oil change. Oil pan has a hairline crack just below the drain plug after normal tightening of the plug. Excessive oil was found on my driveway. No obvious engine damage, considering the vehicle was only moved from one spot to the other. The dealer stated the oil pan isn't covered under warranty. I simple internet search revealed there was a high number of complaints. It was a "Do It Yourself repair." The cost to fix was to replace the oil pain, new tools and 5 quarts of oil.
Engine Failure. Engine stalls during deceleration. If it doesn-??t stall while braking, it immediately stalls around 5 mph when I come to a stop sign or red light. Vehicle start/stop button will not work to start the vehicle back up. It is to sit for 10-20 minutes and then it will start. If I don-??t let it sit, it gives me a message on the dash that the vehicle is already on/running even though it is not. I have done regular maintenance and have had it serviced 4 times for the same issues. It has 126,000 on it. The dealership said it was the oxygen sensors and spark plugs. We had those fixed and the problem continued. The dealership is now wanting me to pay $11,000 for a used motor to be installed. Check engine light keeps repeating oxygen sensor malfunction. This has been happening since July of 2022.
- Hartselle, AL, USA
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While driving, the engine stalled out/cut off while the car remained on. I had to push the brakes completely to re-engage the start button. The engine turned off and the check engine light came on, but turned back off once the engine restarted. The car never turned off when the start button was pressed, just the engine.
Car just stopped working one day. First oil on spark plugs got them changed then the coil packs now oil is on the air filter. Car drivers really hard and doesn't shift properly. Took dealership and they aren't really helping or even trying to diagnose my car.
I purchased a pre-owned certified 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe from a Hyundai dealership on 10/13/2020 and the vehicle had 21,770 miles. Then on 10/25/2021 (vehicle mileage was 31,950), I was driving my vehicle on the onramp to i-10 West lanes at Gessner Road. As I was accelerating at 40 mph to enter the freeway, my car engine seized and immediately I lost the ability to accelerate since the engine died. I immediately pulled over and had my car towed to the local Hyundai Dealership, HUB Hyundai Mitsubishi West. The Hyundai Dealership Service Manager, Daniel Castillo (832-739-6353), inspected my vehicle and after an inspection of the engine/underside of the vehicle, Hyundai found no damage or impact on the vehicle or the underside of the vehicle besides a missing drain plug. Their analysis concluded that the full result of the mechanical issue with the engine was a result of the missing drain plug which caused the oil to leak from the engine. Hyundai denied the warranty on the engine citing due to the drain plug issue is a direct result of a third party, Brake Check, that recently changed the oil (See attachment). The Brake Check Store #545 (11564 Westheimer Road, Houston TX 77077) had conducted recent oil changes performed on the vehicle on 12/8/2020 when the vehicle had 24,300 miles and on 5/5/2021 when the vehicle had 27,681 miles. I filed a claim (#3419328-1) with Brake Check for the damages however after 5 months of correspondences I was denied since I could not prove they did anything and the drain plug was missing. I also tried to file a claim with my personal auto insurance carrier, Progressive, however I was denied since the claim did not involve an accident. There was no warning lights that ever appeared on my dash prior to the incident. However, when I did go home that evening, I noticed a fresh large oil stain on my driveway were my car had previously be parked. The oil stain just occurred that day (See attached photo)
2019 Hyundai Santa fe first owner after each use of the Auto Stop/ Start feature is guaranteed that in 24-48 hrs the car will stall at stop lights and take anywhere from 15-20 min to restart. The power to the electronics continues but the engine can't restart from the stop. It appears as of the feature takes the power from the alternator, starter and battery and drains it until the car can be restarted. Once it starts it drives well until the system is engaged again. I have chosen to not use the system and the car has not stall however once the use of the Auto/ Start Stop system is engaged for a day or two it will stall the vehicle from a stop mostly at stop lights after so much time on standby mode while using the Auto Start / Stop system. Dealer can not recreate the issue.
The contact owns a 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe. The contact stated that while at a complete stop with the auto engine Start/Stop feature activated, the vehicle would intermittently shut off upon depression of the accelerator pedal with several warning lights illuminated on the instrument panel. The contact would be forced to turn off the vehicle and open the driver-??s side door to reset the vehicle; after multiple attempts, the engine would restart and resume normal operation. The contact had taken the vehicle to two separate dealers, Freehold Hyundai (4065 US-9, Freehold, NJ 07728) and Greg May Hyundai (1501 TX-340 Loop, Waco, TX 76712)] on multiple occasions but neither dealer was able to duplicate the failure. The manufacturer was also notified of the failure and provided a case number. The contact was referred back to the dealer for assistance. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 40,000.
On 3 different occasions my vehicle has not restarted at a stop light after the idle stop and go feature turned the car off. I can-??t to a complete stop, the car went into idle mode, then wouldn-??t restart when I hit the accelerator again. I put on my hazard lights so cars could go around me and all the lights on my dash were flashing, brakes would not engage and it took several attempts to restart the car. The car has also not turned on 4 times when I first get in and go to start it. All the dash lights go on then as well and takes several attempts to start the car. I took it to the dealer and they could not find any issues. It is scary to drive as I fear it not starting after coming to a stop and being stuck on a main road.
Was driving and the car started stuttering. When I came to a stop the car would not move, a message flashed across the dash saying something about the auto stop feature was active and I had to put the car in park or neutral in order to drive again. Has happened numerous times almost daily. In order to stop this from happening you have to remember to turn the auto stop feature off.
The engine stalled while driving on highway at 65 miles per hour. When I tried to push the gas the vehicle was resisting to speed. When I took a nearest exit, the car suddenly jerked and slowed on its own without me pressing any brakes. Somehow I managed to drive to a nearest parking area and called for assistance. When it jerked and slowed suddenly the person behind me honked so hard. May be the person barely missed hitting my back of the car. It was a scary experience.
The car engine completely shuts off while driving multiple times. While driving on highway and the streets the car just stops almost causing an accident. In order to get the car off the road we had to move it physically off the road.
Stop / Start does not engage at stop light. Dealer finally replace battery and battery cable. This did fix problem. I understand this could be a starter problem and or software problem. The battery does not charge above the 70% required to engage stop /start.
Ya he llevado 4 O 5 veces mi carro al dealer, el lado de driving cuando yo entro a cierto drive way hace un sonido extrao al igual si me parkeo en riversa Y tengo que mover el quia para la derecha tambien, 4/21/2021 me hicieron un trabajo Y desde esa fecha el motor esta teniendo un sonido extrao Y la reboluciones.
The idle down feature stopped working several months ago. No change in how the engine runs when we get to a stop sign or traffic light. When we called the dealership maybe in February, they said they hadn't seen the problem yet. My wife found an article about the problem and it said that several cars had caught fire or stalled in traffic. Taking it to the dealer on 5/4/2021. The rear power gate also has started malfunctioning. Not sure if they are related as of yet.
The contact owned a 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe. The contact stated while driving at 65 mph, a thick, grayish smoke entered the vehicle cabin from the rear, passenger side without warning. The contact immediately pulled over and requested all occupants to exit the vehicle. As the contact began to call 911, an officer nearby came over to assist the contact. The fire department eventually arrived at the scene and extinguished the fire. No injuries were reported and both a fire and police reports were filed. Due to the failure, the contact had the vehicle initially towed to an independent mechanic and once insurance was contacted about the failure, they deemed the vehicle a total loss. The insurance then had the vehicle towed to another independent mechanic where it remained in their possession. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and initially offered to assist the contact with the purchase of another vehicle. Hyundai then sent out an investigator to inspect the vehicle and their assessment determined that the fire was caused by defective wiring harness attached to the trailer hitch. The manufacturer offered no further assistance after the conclusion of the investigation. The vehicle had been destroyed. The failure mileage was approximately 41,000. Consumer filed a claimed with U-haul they spoke to Hyundai and Hyundai blames on wiring hitch because it was installed after purchased.
Stopped the car at a red light and the idle stop and go (isg) feature has turned off the engine... once the green light turned on, I pressed gas and the engine did not start and after couple of attempts all warning lights turned on and I was not able to use the key to start the engine aswell. And so I had to turn off the key completely and then start the engine... bought the certified pre-owned car at 38000 miles in Feb 2020 and this happened only once in August 2020 and the mileage was about 39800 during that time. Luckily I had only one car at my back who honked on me continuously... I was not able to reproduce the issue afterwards but to be honest I kept only about 50 miles since then. I am afraid if I would get stalled one fine day... and also afraid Hyundai service center would just say not reproducible and may just say to turn off the feature may be?
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Phoenix, AZ, USA