2016 Hyundai Santa Fe

Component: SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC:ANTILOCK/TRACTION CONTROL/ELECTRONIC LIMITED SLIP:CONTROL UNIT/MODULE

Hyundai Motor America (Hyundai) is recalling certain 2016-2018 Santa Fe, 2017-2018 Santa Fe Sport, 2019 Santa Fe XL, and 2014-2015 Tucson vehicles. The Anti-Lock Brake System (ABS) module could malfunction and cause an electrical short, which could result in an engine compartment fire.

Consequence: An engine compartment fire while parked or driving can increase the risk of injury.

Remedy: Owners are advised to park outside and away from structures until the recall repair is complete. Dealers will replace the ABS multi-fuse, as necessary, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed May 31, 2022. Owners may contact Hyundai customer service at 1-855-371-9460. Hyundai's number for this recall is 218.

Full recall detail →

The contact owns a 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe. The contact stated that while driving 60 MPH and attempting to depress the accelerator pedal, the vehicle decelerated and failed to respond as intended. The contact coasted to the right side of the road, turned off the vehicle, and the vehicle failed to start. Neither an independent mechanic nor a dealer was contacted. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic; however, the vehicle was not diagnosed. The contact was informed that the vehicle was scheduled to be diagnosed. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact stated that the failure had occurred on four occasions. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 150,000.

My engine failed at 113,000 miles. It just sounded like a diesel truck when I started it one day. There were no warning messages at all. It did not have any power above 45 mph. I took it to a Hyundai dealer and showed him the extended warranty letter I received from Hyundai. The letter said my specific engine should qualify for an extended warranty. However, the dealer (Castle Hyundai of Downers Grove, IL) said because my engine failed due to timing chain failure and not connecting rod failure, Hyundai would not honor the extended warranty. That infuriates me! Hyundai should honor the extended warranty because their engine failed and it wasn't my fault. They know they have an engine problem but because my engine didn't fail exactly the way they projected it would fail, I'm [XXX] of using my car. It also meant I had to purchase a new car which obviously wasn't a Hyundai. I hope you can push Hyundai to provide me financial relief or at least expand the engine warranty for others. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

My 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe lost all power, shutting off and stopping abruptly in the middle of the road with no warning lights or “limp mode” being set off requiring my partner and I to push it into someone’s driveway with our two children in the car to get them to safety. We took the vehicle to a mechanic shop where we were told that to engine was seized and needed to be fully replaced with an initial quote starting at 8 thousand dollars for a replacement engine. I contacted my local Hyundai dealership and was told over the phone that the vehicle would be covered under Hyundai service bulletin TXX8 that was issued last year due to ongoing issues with this engine (3.3l V6 Lambda II). We paid to have the vehicle towed to this dealership only to be told that the warranty would not be honored due to a lack of maintenance records. I was able to provide Hyundai with all maintenance records from my ownership as well as records on the CarFax report. They rejected the claim again stating that due to a lack of records not from my ownership they won’t cover it. After looking at the records I had access to again in critical detail I was able to find records that Hyundai missed, but they are unwilling to reevaluate the claim without me providing what they call additional records. I have contacted Hyundai, to try and resolve the issue and have gotten no resolution. The Prior Authorization team has stated that I have “adequate records” but still insist on denying the claim. The dealer has quoted me $12,000 for the repair that the warranty should be covering due to the engine not being manufactured in full anymore due to the issues that have come from it. The dealership (and private mechanic) would have to order individual pieces of the engine to build it themselves on site. If this engine is a big enough problem that Hyundai cannot provide a full engine replacement at market value then it should not be operating on the road at all.

The contact owns a 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the contact stated that the brake pedal was inoperable. The contact stated that the vehicle vibrated while depressing the brake pedal. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was restarted. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, where it was diagnosed and determined that the ABS module had failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The dealer was contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 119,000.

Engine oil runs out quickly

The contact owns a 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle lost motive power with the check engine warning light illuminated. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic, where it was diagnosed that the engine had failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The vehicle was towed to the dealer, where the same diagnostic information was provided. The contact was informed that the engine needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 145,322. The VIN was not available.

This is my 2nd engine on my 2016 Santa Fe Sport. My car has 190,000 miles and had a catastrophic engine failure, it’s been at the dealership for 2 months. Hyundai said my lifetime warranty on my engine is not covered cause I had a misfire in the #4 cylinder with less than 2,000 miles on the spark plugs. Hyundai warranty department only spoke to the dealership directly and had me speak to a case manager (which did nothing, they never even talked to the warranty department only the dealership) So in December I dropped my car off, it took over 2 weeks to take pictures and send them in to Hyundai warranty department, a week later Hyundai asked the dealership to further take the engine apart and get pictures of the rocker’s. The dealership is down to 2 technicians and said they will get to it when they can (remember I’m without a car and waiting for approval for my engine so they can get me in a rental car while my engine gets replaced). Over 3 week later the dealership finally sends the pictures in of the rocker’s, I know cause I called and asked the dealership. I then asked why does the warranty department need pictures of the rockers for my engine failure (misfire in 4th cylinder) and they said to check for sludge. They also pointed out my engine isn’t bad and don’t have sludge so the warranty department should approve my engine replacement. A week later my case manager called and said that they will only approve 50% and I said NO there a lifetime warranty and I’m the original owner, so they went up to 65%. I feel betrayed by the dealership, case manager and Hyundai warranty department for NOT honoring the engine replacement knowing there’s a class action law suit due for failing rod bearings which they said wasn’t the issue. How would they know? The rod bearings are on the bottom of the motor and if they took it apart they would see THAT WAS the cause, but they say they don’t warranty misfire’s yet tens of thousands of Hyundai buyers are having same problems. Help

While driving down the highway at 65mph my 2016 Santafe Sport experienced engine failure. We sat on the side of the highway, next to an on ramp with high traffic beside a cement wall. When the tow truck arrived the driver was nearly ran over! There was no way to get the car to a safer location. After being towed to the dealership they said the engine failure would be submitted under warranty due to an issue with the connection rod bearing damage causing the engine to fail. It was denied because I was not the initial owner. A week later I received information about a class action suit against Hyundai for this very problem. As part of the suit they had extended the warranty. The dealership resubmitted my information and it was turned down again, this time for high mileage. Several months later the dealership wanted my car removed from their property, I asked them to submit it again. This time turned down because the KSDS was not updated prior to the engine failure. I now have a like new vehicle that I owe $9,000 on with a known defect that was never corrected because the required KSDS update was listed as a service campaign rather than a recall and so went unnoticed by the dealership I bought it from, or the NY inspection centers during my annual inspection and unknown to myself because when I checked for recalls there were none. Recently I found a Hyundai best practice document that states the KSDS update is no longer a prerequisite. I had my car towed once again to the dealership, where it was again denied for not having the update done prior to engine failure. Hyundai customer service says they can’t help change the denial even though the company is at fault for producing a bad product.

The contact's husband owns a 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle failed to accelerate upon depression of the accelerator pedal. The check engine warning light appeared on the instrument panel during the failure. Despite the vehicle operating in LIMP Mode, the vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where an oil change was performed. The mechanic warned after the service was performed that there may be an ongoing failure with the engine. Several days later, the contact stated that while in stop and go traffic, the vehicle stalled with the check engine warning light illuminated. Due to the failure, the vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic where a diagnostic test was performed; and the contact was informed that the failure might be related to the cam shaft. The contact had the vehicle towed to a dealer and informed that the failure was probably related to the high-pressure fuel pump. The high-pressure fuel pump was replaced; however, the failure persisted. The contact was then informed by the dealer that the engine needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle remained with the dealer unrepaired. The failure mileage was approximately 200,000.

Car started to present problems at around 100k miles when it would start to hard shift any time it shifted in to 2nd gear. On several occasions it would fail to accelerate beyond 25 mph one of these instances happened while driving at speed on the interstate where pressing the gas pedal to the floor did not accelerate the car. Resently the engine would not turn over instead all of the display and indicator lights would flicker on and off rapidly. In all of these instances the car never through any codes with the exception of one time i May 2024 and were inconsistent enough that it was difficult to replicate issues when brought in for inspection. All of the above symptoms were alleviated by adding about a quart of oil every 1,000 miles or so. Again when asking about these issues the repair shops could never give a reason for why it was going through so much oil.

Four weeks ago, I noticed my 2016 Santa Fe was not blowing any heated air into the cabin. A/C would come out fine, but room temperature air at best even when thermostat set to max. I took it in for diagnosis at a local mechanic who informed me that coolant was leaking out of the engine block and into the exhaust. I took the car to the dealership who informed me that the engline block itself had somehow gotten a tear in its side. No telling how the damage occurred, yet the warranty company (Costguard) in acquisition of my powertrain policy rejected the claim because (without ever personally inspecting the vehicle) there "was no discrepency as to how the damage occurred." Every mechanic at the dealership who has seen my car disputes their answer. I have been up to date on all maintenance on my vehicle throughout my ownership and have receipts, but cannot add them as they are all in my glovebox and the car is still at the shop. While I find it personally ridiculous that a warranty company would deny this, it is important for me as well to add to the list of engine complaints about this car. Likely the damage to the engine block has also been the cause of reduced mileage I have experienced lately.

Hard Shift occurs between gear 1 and gear 2. The hard shift lurches the entire car. It occurs on both upshift and downshift. The hard shift occurs on cold starts. The problem goes away when you turn the vehicle off and then back on. There are no check engine lights. The dealer can't replicate the problem.

What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? Engine failure due to oil consumption How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? Car attempted to die on a highway, this could have been dangerous had I been in the outside 'fast' lane when it struggled. Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center? Yes, the dealer has confirmed the engine needs a full replacement Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others? No, only the dealers service center has inspected the vehicle Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear? Yes. There was a blink engine light shortly before the car engine died. However, there was no indication the oil was low in the engine. The oil light did not come on.