Rear Suspension problems of the 2001 Hyundai Santa Fe

Tl the contact owns a 2001 Hyundai Santa Fe. While driving 35 mph, the vehicle began to swerve left to right rapidly. There was no warning indicator illuminated. The contact coasted the vehicle to the side of the road and powered off the engine. The vehicle was restarted, but the failure recurred. The contact noticed that the rear driver's side wheel was almost touching the inside of the rear fender. The contact was able to drive the vehicle to a nearby independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the rear trailing arm was corroded and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was later towed to the contact's residence. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer because it was eighty miles away. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 175,000.

I was entering my apartment complex when my car made a noise. It felt like we had a flat tire and I lost control of the vehicle. I parked the car and then saw that the rear trailing arm was fractured. I looked in the internet and saw campaign id number 09v123000. This campaign mentions all cars manufactured from 2001-2003. My car was manufactured in 2001 and was sold in the state of new york. I called the Hyundai and they say my VIN does not fall onto this campaign yet it has all the symptoms and characteristics to be included. Please help!.

I have a 2001 Hyundai Santa Fe that had a recall under campaign # 09v123000 . The recall started in August 2009, however, I was never notified. In December, 2010 I noticed extreme pulling in my vehicle when I almost drove into a ditch. I immediately stopped driving my vehicle. I contacted the dealership, and was then informed of the recall. I had my car brought in for repairs, but during repairs, where my trailing arms were not only corroded but also bent, it was noted that my tires which were all at half life (which leaves about 40k miles on them) were abnormally worn on the inside of the rear tires. With the type of abnormal wear, this is most often because of misalignment, which is noted as something that will happen if repairs are not made to the vehicle per the recall. I asked Hyundai to replace the tires as this was their negligence in notification of the recall, they denied it. I spoke to the head of the dealership, who set up a meeting with a representative from Hyundai, who made it very clear they Hyundai, under no circumstances, warranties tires. This "under no circumstances" does not fit, since their recall and rear suspension problems caused the issue and I had to replace my tires long before would have been necessary because they did not inform me of the recall. They also had put a note of the recall on a previous work order in 2009, but had not made note of this to me when I checked out with them, nor did they take care of the repairs that day while my vehicle was already in the shop.

On June 30, 2010 at approx 9:50 am cdt, I suddenly lost control of my 2001 Hyundai Santa Fe while driving approximately 65 mph on the highway in oklahoma city, ok. My vehicle began to swerve as if on a sheet of ice. Road conditions were actually optimal with no water, ice or other adverse road conditions. I was able to wrestle my vehicle off the highway onto an exit while gently applying my brakes to gradually reduce speed. The vehicle was canted on the roadway (rear end significantly displaced to right) as I drove it to a nearby repair shop. I was basically dragging the rear end behind me. A friend confirmed this appearance and that the passenger-side rear tire was also deviated toward the right and that both tires were angled inward as he followed me to the repair shop. At this time, I was unaware of a safety recall (NHTSA action # ea08023, recall campaign # 09v123000) that applied to my vehicle. The rear trailing arms are susceptible to corrosion and failure. Unfortunately, only owners who had purchased that vehicle in a salt-belt state, or were registered in a salt-belt state at the time of the recall (April 2009) were notified of the danger. My vehicle had been purchased in oregon and I have resided in oklahoma for the 4 years. I did spend 4 years driving this vehicle in 2 salt-belt states, however, exposed to the conditions that accelerated the corrosion of the flawed parts. After I discovered this recall on my own on 7/8/2010, I got the vehicle towed to edmond Hyundai in edmond, ok and began trying to get this recall work done. The service manager agreed that both rear trailing arms had failed and had significant corrosion. Hyundai agreed to replace the rear trailing arms, but has refused to pay for towing and other vehicle damages that resulted from this component failure. They also refused to provide a vehicle while mine is in the shop or pay for a comparable rental vehicle. I have escalated this to Hyundai's national office.

At about 11:00am on Saturday, January 16, 2010, I was driving my 2001 Hyundai Santa Fe outbound on roosevelt bridge in washington, DC. Speed was about 30-40 mph when, without warning, I lost control of vehicle, which began to fishtail first left then right. Miraculously hit nothing and was able to regain steering control and bring vehicle to a stop after about 3/10 of a mile. I later learned that this event was caused by a total fracture of the driver side rear trailing arm of the vehicle. It had fractured as the result of excessive corrosion of the part. Vehicle was carrying no load but me as driver and did not hit a pothole or other obstruction. Could have been extremely serious at a higher speed with traffic on either side of vehicle. I have 50 years of driving experience, much of it in snow and ice in new england, and never experienced totally sudden and unexpected loss of control like this. I understand that NHTSA has studied this situation and that Hyundai has a recall in "salt belt" states only (includes DC and maryland but remarkably not northern virginia which is the area of virginia in which I live). Seems ridiculous that DC and MD are included, but not northern virginia despite the fact that so many northern virginians drive in DC and maryland every day. I have retained the fractured part which I had replaced. Hyundai is now telling me that passenger side rear trailing arm has no rust. This seems strange and is hard to believe given what happened to the part that is about 6 feet away on the other side of the car and given that both are original parts.

Regular interstate driving, I then suddenly lost control, and crossed three lanes, darting back and forth across traffic and got it under control to the side of the road. There is where I discovered the rear right wheel was hanging off.

While driving our 2001 Santa Fe, my stepson experienced driving difficulty when he could not easily control the direction of the vehicle. Upon investigation I found that the right rear wheel was bent outward approximately 30 degrees laterally. When the wheel was removed I noticed that the right, rear trailing arm had rusted through and collapsed. The left, rear trailing arm is also showing signs of rust-through. I have deemed this vehicle unsafe to drive and am thankful that nobody was hurt.

Left rear of vehicle dropped causing lane change , left rear tire rubbing on strut-shock , trailing arm broke left rear.

In April 2008, the right trailing arm of my 2001hyundai Santa Fe rusted through causing the rear of the vehicle to drop. Replacement was $712. Lat week (November 2008) the left trailing arm rusted through causing the rear of the car to drop, crashing through the strut, wheel balancing against side. This replacement cost $762. Hyundai never allowed for drainage in the trailing arms from 2001 to 2004. No recall as it happens in high salt states. I believe they are being investigated for this now. Very dangerous. We were lucky both times, but this has caused other vehicles to flip over and caused deaths.

My daughter was pulling out of a parking lot and the right rear trailing arm failed because it had rusted and broke causing the rear tire to turn out and there was no control of the vehicle, she just got off the interstate running 70 miles per hour, this could have had a real sad out come. We are having both trailing arms replaced.

Vehicle: 2001 Hyundai Santa Fe I am concerned about the safety and reliability of a key suspension component: the right rear bearing arm. This component, which attaches the right rear wheel axle to the chassis completely failed during a drive on a secondary road at speeds under 55 mph on April 9, 2008. The steering wheel jerked to the right a quarter of a turn, and the vehicle almost flipped over. The vehicle was towed. My mechanic informs me that this component should last the life of the vehicle. In my case, it is completely corroded to the point where it could no longer support the weight of the vehicle and caused a structural failure. I have owned many cars, and have never seen a weight bearing suspension component fail under normal driving conditions. Had this failure happened on the freeway, I am sure the right rear wheel would have completed departed the vehicle resulting in a complete lack of control and probable disaster. We consider ourselves very fortunate that no one was hurt. However, the damage to the car was expensive. The cost of the repair was nearly $1,000. The cost of the suspension component alone was $567. 79. I consider this failure not a normal circumstance and would like someone to inspect the part and vehicle for complete analysis. I have the old part as well as digital photos of the failed component for your review as well as repair documentation. I would like Hyundai to cover the cost of this expensive repair. In my opinion, this component should never fail under normal driving conditions and certainly never fail in a vehicle that has never been involved in an accident. This failure has really shaken my confidence in Hyundai's design and engineering quality. If we had been on the highway, I am certain that an accident would have been inevitable.

A-frame of the driver side rear rusted through and my tire and wheel fell off.

For a few days prior to the incident, I thought I needed to have the brakes replaced on this vehicle. Everytime I applied the brakes, the car would swerve a little; then there would be a "thump" at the rear of the car. On the day of the incident, there was a significant noise at the rear of the car, so I looked in the back storage area thinking something was rolling around-found nothing. I continued driving a few miles, hearing the thumping noise again, I stopped and looked underneath the the rear of the vehicle thinking the spare tire bracket was broken--saw nothing. Later in the day, as I turned right there was a loud noise at the rear. I told myself to drive slowly--and then the right rear tire broke causing me to lose control of the car. Fortunately for myself, other drivers and Hyundai I was driving slow. The car was flatbedded to the Hyundai dealer, who told me that the rear trailering arm "snapped" off due to an impact. The service manager stated that he had never seen anything like that and wanted to wait for the company rep before deciding what to do. The rep insisted that rust had nothing to do with the part breaking and that I needed to pay 1100. 00 for the repair (which included a new brake line and shock due to the faulty part) the dealership then did not want to give me the part because it was "too rusty" to put in the car. This seems to be the 4th vehicle reporting the same problem. I do have the part and will be going to the local news media to complain about the safety issue not being addressed by the company.