Car Accelerates On Its Own problems of the 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe

While at a stop in a construction zone, my foot was on the brake, when the vehicle suddenly accelerated into the vehicle in front of me. Although my foot was planted hard on the brake, the engine continued racing, and it felt like my car was going to push his car down the street! I shifted into park and turned the car off. Luckily there was only $4,000 worth of damage to my car, and no one was hurt. I refused to drive it, and had it towed to the dealer. They said the computer showed no malfunction, and it had to be driver error. Three months later, it did it again to a lesser degree, in an open area. I turned the car off again, and it was fine until yesterday. It has been 4 months since that last incident, but this one even was worse than the first. Only thing is, now I know to put all my weight on the brake, shift to neutral and turn the car off as fast as I can. This one frightened me so badly, I will not drive it again. It is going to sit at the dealer until they find out what to do. I cannot in good conscience drive it, sell it or even trade it in until I know it is safe! every time it happened, the car was on a city street, stationary, and heading straight. The engine revs up so loud, it sounds like an airplane! yesterday I could tell the people in the car stopped next to me heard it and looked at me! I have owned this Santa Fe since it was brand new, and people tell me it looks like a new car. I keep up with the recommended maintenance and always take it to the dealer for service. Until last July, it has been an excellent car. The accident I had with it was the only accident I have had in 50 years of driving! please give me some ideas on what to tell the dealer to replace, repair or disconnect. Thanks for your help!.

The vehicle so far has had two instances of uncontrolled acceleration, not just sudden but while driving and performing a passing maneuver or need to accelerate quickly the transmission will get stuck on a gear, pressing the brake or shifting to manual mode, attempting to shift up or down or back to d or n will not stop the acceleration. I just kept my foot on the brake, put hazards on, turned off the engine (left key in accessories) and then coasted to the shoulder. The minute I turned the engine off I gained stop control, prior, mashing on the brake wasn't stopping the car. Once I coasted to the side of the road, I waited a minute or so, carefully restarted the car and things were back to normal. The first time this happened the transmission seemed be stuck on 5th gear, but when I shifted from d to manual and back the acceleration returned to normal. The second time this has happened, the transmission seemed to be stuck on 3rd, the initial description above is about the 2nd instance. Taking the vehicle to dealer and will avoid rabbit starts or initiating any rapid acceleration, which seems to be where the transmission or some sensor is getting bad data. My guess it's the throttle body positioning sensor. Although I would assume that if the computer/transmission experience a bad signal or loss of signal from a sensor that the default action would be to shut off. . . Not lock in a gear with no means to stop other than shutting off the engine.

I was moving my car in front of my carport. With my foot on the brake, the car suddenly accelerated. The brakes had no effect, there was only a few seconds to react. The car was stopped by the poll. Is it safe to drive it again?.

The contact owns a 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe. The contact stated that while driving at an unknown speed, the engine rpms increased excessively as the vehicle suddenly accelerated without warning. The contact stated that the brakes failed to respond and the vehicle was placed in neutral in order to stop the failure. The vehicle was towed to the dealer where the failure was unable to be replicated. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure and current mileage was 95,000.

I was backing up and as I turned the wheel the car engaged in a sudden acceleration as the motor started to rev. I applied the brakes, but the car would not stop until it plowed through a brick wall at my school.

Was driving on a 2 lane road approximatly 20 mph following a backhoe. As backhoe moved to berm and I was considering passing, the vehicle suddenly accelerated. I removed my foot from the gas pedal but the vehicle continued to accelerate. I placed all of my weight on the brakes and was eventually able to bring the vehicle to a halt and forcible put in park. As I turned off the ignition, the engine was revving at a very fast rate. I checked the floor mat and gas pedal and there was no problems noted. I do not believe the floor mat was a factor in this. I believe there is a problem with this vehicle that needs investigated. The vehicle is with the dealer now.

While driving on the freeway I accelrated and my car continued to accelerate rapidly by itself. I was going approx. 65mph, and within a few seconds my car was accelerating on its own to 80 or more mph. I applied my brakes but they couldn't counteract the acceleraton very well. I was able to pull over to the side of the freeway and put the car into neutral. When the car eventually slowed down, the gas pedal made a loud sound like it had released itself. This is the second time I have had this very scary event in two months, both on the freeway. The first time I was so shaken and shocked that I felt I hadn't had time to observe what was happening at the time. This last time I was able to pay close attention to what was happening. There was no interference with my floor mat. It was pure and simple: my gas pedal was dangerously accelerating by itself. I took my sante fe into the dealership and gave them a copy of many complaints from other sante fe owners that have experienced the exact incident, some resulting in accidents. In all cases the problen could not be duplicated by the dealership and could not be repaired nor explained. Sure enough, in my case the dealership could neither duplicate, explain, nor repair the problem. I am now fearful to drive my car, and I will sell it soon.

Sudden unintended acceleration. Occurred twice within two months.

The contact owns a 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe. The contact stated that while driving approximately 50 mph the vehicle suddenly accelerated to 67 mph. She was trying to decelerate by applying extreme pressure to the brake pedal and the vehicle would not stop. The vehicle eventually stopped by constantly pumping the brake. After she got the vehicle to stop she then contacted the nearest dealer and they advised her to bring the vehicle in for diagnostic testing. Upon inspection of the vehicle they were unable to replicate the failure that she experienced. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 22,000.

Twice I have experienced sudden unintended acceleration (sua) in the past few weeks. The first time I was traveling on a primary road going the speed limit 45 mph. While my foot was steady on the accelerator, the car just suddenly accelerated without me pushing down on the accelerator pedal. I tried putting on the brake and that didn't seem to help any. I thought it could be my sandal stuck under the accelerator. . . . . After moving my right foot around, that did nothing; then attempted to move the mat with my right hand, that did nothing, and I put on the brake and that slowed the car down and I continued to drive as if nothing had happened. Fortunately, there were no cars near me to crash into. The second time I experienced sua, I was traveling on a major highway at the start of rush hour traffic traveling at approx 65 mph (the speed limit) when again the car just suddenly accelerated. I put on the brake which did nothing, then tried the brake a second time, which did nothing, and then I was able to gradually depress the emergency brake and get the car to come to a stop on the right shoulder of the highway after crossing two lanes. Again, I was fortunate to be able to make these maneuvers without causing an accident. Since this was the second time the car had sua, I didn't think it was a good idea to drive it anymore until I could have the Hyundai dealer take a look and find out what why this was occurring. After two days at the service center at the dealership, they have been running diagnostic tests as well as trying to reproduce the sua without any success and have deemed the car acceptable to drive with nothing showing out of the ordinary.