CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2016 Tucson comes with a dual-clutch, 7-speed transmission. But Hyundai forgot to tell you about one key phrase – zero-move. That's right, an alarming number of owners have said their SUV wouldn't accelerate after a stop.

Turns out that's because the transmission's application logic has been stumbling all over itself. Hyundai recalled the issue in September 2016, but it's difficult to say if owners are out-of-the-woods, or if this is just a sign of things to come.

7.0

pretty bad
Typical Repair Cost:
$1,100
Average Mileage:
23,450 miles
Total Complaints:
12 complaints

Most Common Solutions:

  1. not sure (7 reports)
  2. replace compressor and recharge (3 reports)
  3. replace evaporator core (1 reports)
  4. replaced the evaporator core temperature sensor (1 reports)
2016 Hyundai Tucson AC / heater problems

AC / heater problem

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2016 Hyundai Tucson Owner Comments

problem #12

Aug 112021

Tucson ES 2.0L

  • Automatic transmission
  • 98,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

A/C quite working just was blowing hot air. Live in High Desert have to have a/c

- Kathleen B., Rosamond, US

problem #11

May 012021

Tucson ES 2.0L

  • Automatic transmission
  • 98,000 miles

A/C quite working just was blowing hot air. Live in High Desert have to have a/c

- Kathleen B., Rosamond, US

problem #10

Sep 292016

Tucson Limited 1.6t

  • Automatic transmission
  • 9,768 miles

Second time. Same problem as reported 3/23/2017; trip to Philly, air works when first turned on for about 3 hours, then seems to freeze up. Temp out of vents warms as volume decreases. We were miserable since we hadn't learned to turn it off for 10 min to defrost to get it to work again. Dealer replaced some valve in AC which was not the solution.

Update from Mar 30, 2017: They replaced the AC Evaporator Thermostat Sensor Assy; it didn't work.

- Jacqueline B., Montgomery, US

problem #9

Mar 232017

Tucson Limited 1.6t

  • Automatic transmission
  • 13,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

This is the third time that the problem has been reported, service dept cannot duplicate the issue so you are basically blown off with them looking for something new to replace. This problem appears frequently on the internet, brought in same reports and still won't recognize that factory needs to address this issue. You drive car for approximately 3 hours with outside to inside set temperature differential of about 7 degrees, and unit will start out blowing so cold it will make your teeth hurt. The longer you drive, the warmer the air gets out of the vents, and the lower it blows, even though you see the dash change to interior re-circulation; trying to maintain temp. This issue continues to get worse as you get warmer, until at approx 3 hours unit stops working although you can hear fan laboring in dash, but no air is coming thru the vents. If you turn it off and open the back windows a little for 10 min approx to force air thru upper vents, it seems to defrost and then you can turn air on again and it will work for another period of time that seems to correlate to the temp differential. We seldom drive this car more than about 30 min at a time. This is the second trip that we have had this same problem on, and no solution has been found.

- Jacqueline B., Montgomery, US

problem #8

Jun 162016

Tucson Limited 1.6t

  • Automatic transmission
  • 5,200 miles

First time I has problem with AC, went to golf tournament, hot as Hades in Texas summer heat, Car had been parked in sun for about 6 hours, going home, about 1 hour into trip air stopped working. I fiddled with controls, nothing worked so turned it off, and as I neared home turned it back on and worked, so I wasn't too concerned, had bought car in Feb, so thought it was glitch. Mentioned it to Service Dept but was told unless it could be duplicated, there was nothing they could do. Little did I know that March of 2017 I would still be fighting this problem to no avail. I bought Hyundai's 10 year extended warranty on this vehicle, at this point I would like my money back, because I can't imagine keeping this car very long fighting a problem that the company seems unwilling to address. I had a Genesis before this Tucson and loved it, my husband has the large Sante Fe and we have no issues that haven't been addressed. As long time customers, you would think that someone would pay more attention and get this problem resolved. It acts like system is freezing up.

- Jacqueline B., Montgomery, US

problem #7

Nov 062016

Tucson Limited 1.6L Turbo

  • Automatic transmission
  • 11,000 miles

I had owned this Tucson for a little over a year but had never taken a trip of more than 20 or 30 minutes. Then in November of 2016 on a trip to Disney World (a trip of about 3 hours) the A/C stopped blowing cold air. It sounded like the fan was blowing under the dash, but no air coming from the vents. After the car sat for 3 days in the parking lot, the air worked fine when we started it up. The dealer "could not duplicate the problem". On a second trip in December of 2016 (more than a 2 hour drive) the same problem occurred. When I got home and parked the car, there was a large water puddle under the car the next morning. I became convinced that the evaporator core was freezing up on a long trip. Again, the dealer could not duplicate the problem. I took the car in in March 2017 for the 15000 mile service and the service agent said that they still had no info from Hyundai about this problem. While waiting for my car, I went to the Hyundai web site and found an email address for contacting Hyundai. I sent Hyundai and email laying out my problem and what my belief was about the problem. I also pointed out this web site and that other 2016 Tucson owners had the same complaint. To my surprise, I received a call from the Hyundai representative and we discussed the problem. After explaining that I didn't want to waste my time having the dealer again tell me that they could not duplicate the problem in the shop, he agreed to authorize the dealer to make a claim for troubleshooting the problem. I took the car in on the following Monday and by that afternoon, the tech after removing the dash was able to observe the evaporator core freezing up. They replaced the core temperature sensor said that it fixed the problem. So far it seems to be good.

- James T., Palm Beach Gardens, US

problem #6

Oct 302016

Tucson Limited 1.6L Turbo Gdi

  • Automatic transmission
  • 3,500 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

So, I finally get my new 2016 Tucson back in mid-August, after sitting on the dealer lot for 2 months waiting for the DCT transmission problem to finally get diagnosed and the Recall performed... now my a/c isn't working. I had thought that there had been several instances when the a/c was not blowing as it should (you can barely feel the air from the vents, while on full blast and lowest setting) but had passed it off as a too short a trip for it to cool down. Now, however, I just came back from an 8 hour trip and was literally dripping in sweat for at least 7 hours of it. NO relief, whatsoever! What little air came out of the vents was lukewarm. Dropped my Tucson off at the dealership again and was provided with a rental, since they don't know how long they're going to need it to fix the a/c problem... and perform an MPG test, as my Tucson gets about 20 MPGs. I was told that hopefully when they performed the Recall that it would address the low MPGs, but, it hasn't. If there are other mpg complaints, I'll add my too. Thanks, CarComplaints.com, for letting me know I'm not the only victim of the 2016 Tucson complaints.

Update from Nov 5, 2016: Picked up my Tucson on 11/04/16. Dealership had it for 3 days and said they couldn't replicate the problem, so there's nothing they can do. As with the DCT problem, I told my dealership that mine is not an isolated incident and suggested they look to Hyundai for the solution. I suspect this is the beginning of another Nationwide problem that Hyundai is going to have to address. It's maddening that Hyundai lets these problems go on and on and on before they have to be forced to do something about it. I'll keep you posted, as the next time it happens, when I'm in town, I'm heading straight to the dealership!

- Susan R., Jacksonville, FL, US

problem #5

Oct 092016

Tucson Limited 1.6L

  • Automatic transmission
  • 3,500 miles

I started my car after going into the grocery store for a few minutes. When the AC came on it blew fog out of the vents, which is usually the death cry of an AC. It hasn't worked since. This is of course completely absurd for $30,000 car with 3,500 miles. Before it stopped working it seemed to be blowing air inside the dashboard instead of through the vents because there was an air flow sound coming from inside the dash and not much air flow coming through the vents. Now the vents get plenty of air through them but it is all hot.

Climate control has always been a little flaky with in this car. I drove about 2,500 miles in the first week I owned the car, and sometimes the fans just refused to blow at full speed. I found by just keeping it on auto it seemed to work most of the time. Trying to manually adjust the fan speed didn't work.

Update from Nov 1, 2016: It was fixed under warranty. It had a bad evaporator core. Replacing it requires removing the dashboard. The part was on back-order. It was in the shop for 2 weeks.

- Jeremy T., Austin, TX, US

problem #4

Oct 122016

Tucson Luxury 2.0L V4

  • Automatic transmission
  • 17,398 miles

I got mine last December of 2015 and runs like a charm and been able to drove 26,500 kilometers on it until the following:

I drove to New Brunswick the October 10, 2016 and drove back to Toronto the following day. What I noticed driving to New Brunswick was when I was almost to the border between Quebec and New Brunswick the temperature plunged to 2 degrees Celsius and so I turned the heat on to 25 Degrees Celsius and to my surprise I was still feeling cooled and I thought that it was outside temperature that was making me fell cold so I ignored it.

Anyway, now driving back to Toronto the October 11, 2016 and got in the vicinity of Quebec and was a little warm that day. I think it was 23 to 23 degrees Celsius and turned on my AC and had it set to 20 degrees where I normally set my AC when I am alone in the car and 18 degrees Celsius when there 3 to 5 in the cabin. And I was waiting for it to cool down but it didn't, So I put the setting all the way to Lo and it was just giving warm air until I decided to just turn it off and opened it's panoramic roof to get cool.

Until to this day I have not been able to take the car to dealership to get it look at and I am trying to figure out myself what is going on with my Tucson. Until I stumble on this website that I thought I am the only one having this issue.

I admit I like the car and I need to get this figured out otherwise what would be the reason in keeping it. I will update everyone once I get this figured out.

- jouleses, Toronto, ON, Canada

problem #3

Oct 212016

Tucson Sport

  • Automatic transmission
  • 7,303 miles

Brand new car purchased just under 6 months ago, Started to feel very warm within 10 minutes of 45 minute drive when I realized that A/C was not working. I thought maybe I had not set controls properly and checked but all was in correct position, no cold air.

Took car to dealer to have checked while also in for recall letter I received. I was given a rental car and told to expect 5-6 days to correct problems.

I am trying hard to remain calm and hopeful, in light of the fact that I have had 2 recall issues and now no a/c in a brand new car with only 7,000 miles on it. .

Will post again after I get car back.

- Gwendolyn B., OFallon, MO, US

problem #2

Jun 262016

Tucson Limited 1.6t

  • Automatic transmission
  • 6,817 miles

My air conditioner randomly stopped blowing cold air and started blowing hot air. This is a brand new vehicle and I have not even had it for 8 months, how does the air conditioner compressor just break? Also at the same time I experienced mechanical, primarily power train problems which I am writing about under power train problems.

- tucsontroubles, Pittsburgh, PA, US

problem #1

Jul 042016

Tucson Limited 1.6t

  • Automatic transmission
  • 7,700 miles

Driving home, about 10 miles the A/C stopped working and was still not working all the way to work this morning which is a 23 mile drive. No cool air. When I left work tonight it was blowing some cool air but shouldn't have this issue with a new car! Going to dealership tomorrow.

- greertx, Fort Worth, TX, US

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