Three problems related to automatic transmission have been reported for the 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe based on all problems reported for the 2004 Santa Fe.
We were behind a car going approximately 5 mph in a parking lot waiting for the car ahead of us to turn into a lane and into a parking spot when our car - a Hyundai 2004 Santa Fe - suddenly accelerated once and then again hitting the car in front of us, twice. After we hit the car the first time we tried to brake but even though he had his foot on the brake the car accelerated again. We reported the accident to the insurance companies - took the SUV to the Hyundai dealership - reporting the incident to them - they did some kind of a test and told us there was nothing wrong with the car. When the car is in neutral the rpms race high - and since that accident I had the car in reverse and it started to accelerate forward again. We looked on the in internet and there are many of these same complaints so why is Hyundai denying this happens to the car?.
The night I took delivery of the vehical I had electrical problems this was to be fix by dealership, well now 8/15/2004 there are more elec. Problems the fuses are blowing and the brakes are not stopping as should be. Also the trasmission when appling the gas pulls to the right, and between 40/60 mph jecksing sensation to the vehicle.
We bought this vehicle 4/04 and ever since we drove it off the lot, brand new, it has had the problem of hesitation upon acceleration. We have taken it to our "service department" numerous times and they say that there isn't anything they can do to fix it as no code registers on their diagnostic machine. After reading about all of the other people with the same problem I am amazed that no one has done anything to force Hyundai into resolving this issue. If no one has been injured in an accident because of a serious lack of power upon acceleration then it's only a matter of time. Hopefully it won't be anything worse than an injury. This vehicle now has 26,000 miles on it and it has the same problem every day. It would also appear that it is common practice for employees in the "service dept. " to deny any problem that can't be seen easily. This is my second Santa Fe and will definitely be the last.