general problems of the 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe - part 1

During on driving, engine stopped 3 or 4times since Jan/2025 last time engine stopped yesterday around 6:30pm on 3/30/2026 at [xxx] between [xxx] and [xxx] in los angeles information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

Needed to use horn in an emergency situation and that's when I found out my horn no longer works. 20,000 miles on 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe.

What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? horn how was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? my horn stopped working - cannot use it when driving to warn other drivers - safety issue has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center? not reproduced, but dealership has confirmed the horn stopped working on three separate occasions. Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others? dealership - three times were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear? no. Hyundai dealership said my fuse blown on three separate occasions causing the horn to stop working. My horn stopped working a few months ago, then about a month ago and again last week - all due to blown fuses to which the dealership has no explanation.

Horn stopped working at 47,474 miles check tire pressure system light is on, poor sensor at 45,650.

Horn completely out, yes available. I was unable to warn another driver from entering my lane several times. Warn a pedestrian from stepping out into traffic. Confirmed by the dealer. The horn was inspected replaced at my own cost on March 2025 by December 2025 the part is no longer operational. I asked the dealer to honor the warranty they declined saying the mileage was passed the warranty terms.

Both horns on my 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe have failed 3 times. The first set was covered under warranty (3/24), the second set cost $499. 64 (3/25). Now both horns are nonfunctional after just being replaced this spring. After reviewing many complaints on the Hyundai community form, it is very obvious there is a major issue with their horns ( and not just the Santa Fe model). Twice this week I was in need of my horn to alert other drivers but instead had to make quick maneuvers to avoid an incident. My vehicle currently cannot pass a state inspection.

While driving after dark, a different car traveling in opposite direction almost caused head on collision while driving in the wrong lane. Driver of the Santa Fe attempted to activate horn on vehicle to alert other vehicle that they were traveling in the wrong lane/direction, but horn failed to sound. Driver was narrowly able to avoid physical collision as a result. Driver took vehicle to dealership and it was determined both high and low horns had failed again (total horn system failure), and the dealership replaced under warranty. This is the second time in less than 2 years of ownership the horns have failed and needed to be replaced. Dealership stated horn failure is common in the 2023 Santa Fe, but is only covered under the 5 year/60000 mile warranty despite being a known defective part. Hyundai should offer a voluntary recall to repair affected vehicles with redesigned parts as the horns failing is a known issue and failure can result in severe safety risk while driving.

On a clear road a sencor comes on detect comes on says detection collision. The breaks come on when you are traveling on interstate or two lane roads. When you are traveling 75 mph and breaks come on all of a sudden on the highway. We are lucky we never got hit in the back of the car going that fast. We will stop 75 to 35 mph in 10 seconds.

At stop sign and car with auto start stop on and at the time of releasing the brake, car was not able to start engine. Car had to be shifted to parking position to start engine.

Horn has failed 4 times.

Component/system: automatic emergency braking / forward collision-avoidance (aeb/fca) system and/or electronic parking brake (epb). The vehicle is available for inspection upon request. What happened: while driving my 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe (VIN: xxx) at highway speeds, the vehicle suddenly and aggressively applied the emergency braking system on two separate occasions within the same day (approximately 45–60 minutes apart). In both instances, the red emergency braking warning lights illuminated on the dashboard, and a warning sound activated. There were no vehicles, obstacles, or hazards in front of me either time. The braking was forceful and abrupt, causing rapid deceleration at highway speed. Both events occurred under normal, clear driving conditions. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6) safety risk: my safety and the safety of other drivers were put at significant risk. Sudden unintended braking at highway speeds can easily lead to a rear-end collision since the deceleration was not caused by driver input and gave no warning. Reproduction / dealer confirmation: the dealer has not been able to reproduce the issue, and no diagnostic trouble codes have been found so far. The vehicle is currently at the dealership for inspection. Inspection: the vehicle has been inspected by the Hyundai dealership, but the cause has not been identified. No manufacturer field engineer, police, or insurance inspection has taken place yet. Warning lamps / prior symptoms: during the failures, the red emergency braking indicator and audible warning activated immediately when the brakes engaged. There were no warning lights or symptoms prior to either event. Assessment: cause unknown. The problem appears to be an intermittent malfunction of the automatic emergency braking system, forward collision sensors, or related braking components. No diagnostic codes were stored. This is a serious safety issue that occurred twice within one hour and could easily result in a collision.

The horn stops working which is a safety hazard in case someone is backing into you, etc. This horn has stop working 4 times and had to be replaced.

Horn no longer works in vehicle - a major safety issue.

On [xxx] in rehoboth, DE, my 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe experienced a sudden and complete power failure while reversing out of a parking spot. All electrical systems shut down—including propulsion, dashboard lights, and emergency brake—causing the vehicle to roll backward into oncoming traffic. No warning lights appeared beforehand. After about an hour, power returned on its own. A passing police officer witnessed the situation and a report was filed with the rehoboth beach police department. On September 6th, Hyundai service performed a diagnostic scan of the engine and transmission systems. No fault codes were found, and the issue could not be replicated. After sitting overnight, the vehicle restarted normally and passed a road test. The dealership documented the incident but returned the vehicle without repair, stating: “cannot duplicate concern at this time. ” I was advised to tow the vehicle in if the issue recurs and, if rolling occurs again, to use a wheel chock. I purchased this vehicle new in 2023. It has only 40,000 miles and is covered under a 10-year bumper-to-bumper warranty. A failure of this magnitude—especially during a basic maneuver like reversing—poses a serious safety risk. Despite the dealership’s inability to replicate the issue, I do not feel safe operating the vehicle until the root cause is identified and resolved. I am currently in the process of escalating to Hyundai corporate for further investigation, including a buyback review, replacement evaluation, or extended diagnostic protocol. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

Horn has stopped working. Seems to be a systemic issue when looking online in forums etc. . . I have scheduled the problem to be fixed and it is not a fuse issue. It will be a month before the dealership is able to get me in to assess the problem. This is a safety related issue and this needs to be addressed with the manufacturer.

Horn has stopped working twice. Had it replaced under warranty in January of 2024. Same incident happened where horn of vehicle does not work. Seems to be a systemic issue. This is a safety related issue and this needs to be addressed with the manufacturer.

I am reporting a serious and recurring safety defect with my 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe hybrid, purchased new in January 2024. The vehicle has suffered from over 30–40 sudden hybrid system failures, including loss of acceleration, “stop vehicle” warnings, and check engine lights. These incidents happen without warning, including while driving at legal speeds (40–70 mph), on residential streets and highways. Most recently, the car failed twice in two days, while my teenage son was driving within all road laws, including once with a friend in the car. The vehicle simply stopped accelerating in the middle of traffic, endangering them and everyone around them. These failures have happened at legal speeds ranging from 40–70 mph, on both residential roads and highways. There is no advance warning, just abrupt loss of power and sudden warning messages. We’ve taken the vehicle to the south charlotte Hyundai dealership multiple times. Each time, they either reset the check engine light or replaced indicators: but never addressed the root hybrid system failure. We filed a lemon law case, and Hyundai responded with only a $2,000 offer including legal fees, requiring us to keep the dangerous vehicle. We rejected the offer. These failures have occurred with children and passengers in the car. We have documented as many incidents as we could, including photos, service records, and communication with Hyundai. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request. I no longer feel safe driving or allowing my family to drive this car. This is a critical hybrid system failure that continues to place lives at risk. I believe this may be part of a wider pattern affecting Hyundai hybrid vehicles, and I am pleading with the NHTSA to open an investigation before someone is seriously injured or worse.

I am reporting an urgent request immediate action regarding a serious unresolved, recurring public safety issue with my vehicle. It is potentially the fault of alexandria Hyundai's service department (in alexandria, va) who had just serviced my vehicle for what should have been a routine servicing (on may 7). My car had a catastrophic and complete failure on a high speed highway (the car quickly decelerated) which represented an incredibly danger situation for myself and other drivers on the road. My car was purchased in 2023 and has 15,241 miles. It has been perfectly maintained. On [xxx], I was returning to my home in virginia from maryland on an 8 lane highway with a 55mph speed limit when I had a very dangerous complete failure of my car. Simultaneously, the car started bucking back, the speed was decelerating regardless of my pressing the accelerator to keep my speed the same as traffic, and I received a flashing large red message that said "check hybrid system - stop safely. " fortunately I was in the far right lane and was able to veer it over to a narrow shoulder. It was 8pm and getting dark. After a short while, the car lost all power so I was on a narrow shoulder with no lights flashing anymore. I was in this dark car with a lot of traffic speeding my with my 2 dogs. I became incredibly stressed about how we were going to get home. I contacted aaa, a police officer and uber pet who worked together in this unsafe situation on the side of the highway to get myself and my dogs home into the uber vehicle with only the front door opening (no power). It was over 2 hours before I was home safely it was incredibly stressful situation. The car was towed to alexandria Hyundai and they dismissed the issue and fixed nothing. I contacted Hyundai customer service and asked for escalation and they have done nothing. I am restricted in my driving because of the severe safety risk but had to drive again on [xxx] and it occurred again on a highway information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.

The car loses power. The battery and key ignition light keep coming on. A message displays auto engine off. Please shift to n or p and start engine manually. After communicating and showing video proof of the incident, the dealership replaced the alternator and battery. The issues started around 5000 miles. The infotainment system lags and the car lags. Sometimes I am left on the road because the case refuses to cut on or off.

Every time it rains, one of the dual tone horns will fail. I have had the horn replaced 2 times. I am beginning to have a problem with the horn again after this last rain. It is a matter of time before it fails completely after a rain and becomes unusable. I feel this is a significant warning feature that must be reliable.

Between [xxx] am on [xxx]. I powered on my vehicle and the rear trunk door simultaneously opened. As I was driving my son to school that morning, I noticed water dripping onto my foot. I continued to drive but was distracted by beeping and warning messages but because the dashboard display was constantly switching from daytime to night lighting I could not readily see the dashboard. I tried to manually adjust the light by turning the knob off "auto" and also turning lights to "off" but it would immediately switch back. I made it to the first stop light and while stopped I was able to observe water droplets on the front panel of the interior fuse box. I pulled open the panel and water dropped out onto to floor. I replaced the panel. I continued to drive but was panicked and worried that water was in the fuse panel area. I arrived at my son's school and left the car running as he was dropped off. On the drive home, the beeping continued. This time, I saw the warning message about vehicle in my blind spot but I was on the street corner about to make a right turn and there was no vehicle next to me! the lights also kept switching as before. There was rust observed in the fuse panel area. When I got home, I called the dealership to inform them what happened. They refused to give me a loaner. I told them that water intrusion should not have occurred (we had severe weather and heavy rains the day prior) and now my car was having electrical issues and I was concerned for my safety and the safety of driving my 3 young children in car seats should there be an electrical fire. I mentioned the recall on my vehicle for water accumulation in the tow hitch and risk of electrical fire. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

Horns stopped working. Consider this to be a safety issue for obvious reasons. Checked horn fuse and it was not blown. Contacted local dealer to have it repaired. Awaiting an appointment.

"check turn signal error". This message pops up at random times. When this error does pop up, the rear turn signal ceases to operate until the error message clears itself. Dealership "cannot duplicate". I have photographed the warning many times. Hyundai corporate is of no help. Check led headlamp error issue as well.

Windshield wiper in auto mode. Sometimes wipers turn on automatically in bright sunny days with nothing on windshield. When it rains, sometimes automatic wipers will not activate until windshield is completely covered with rain, and visibility is greatly reduced. Sensitivity adjustment has zero effect.

Vehicle has gone into limp mode 2 times in the past week. Power when accelerating would not exceed 30 mph when pushing the gas pedal to the floor. Had to pull over as I was getting onto the highway and stop/ power down the car and restart.

Twice, the car refused to switch from ev mode back to gas mode. This resulted in the hybrid battery dying and the car losing power. The first time, I was merging onto the freeway and the gas pedal was all the way at the floor, but I was only maintaining speed (not accelerating). Both times, the car was driveable for approximately one mile on the hybrid battery alone. However, a warning came on the dash, “check hybrid system. Stop safely. ” the second time, I was able to pull into a parking lot before the hybrid battery died. The next day, I was able to drive the car normally. The dealership is unable to pull any codes or replicate the issue. Unfortunately, it only happens intermittently and we have not identified a common theme for the failure.

Driving down interstate at 70 mph and car started to brake while foot on gas pedal. Would not go…red brake alert came on. Luckily no other car in left lane and pulled off to side of road. Car would not drive. Called tow truck.

I was driving the car moving in reverse to exit my driveway. I placed the car in park and while the engine was running I exited the car. Upon exiting the car, the car immediately started to roll forward and crashed through my garage door leveling it to the ground. The car continued moving forward into the garage and came to a stop blocked by built in shelving at the back end of the garage. I could have been injured had the car started to roll while I was exiting the car or had some been in front of the car. No warning lamps or messages prior to the incident. The car has a safety feature if moving in drive or reverse and the driver door is opened the car shifts into park. That feature failed. The car was inspected by a Hyundai dealer and claim no error codes found and dismissed any other information as provided in this report.

Currently have 518 diagnostic history codes (dtc)in memory. Additionally, I have 3 active dtc’s. The codes are: dtc c160c87 dtc system chassis dtc sub system lkas, and dtc c160c87 dtc system chassis dtc sub system scc, and dtc c163881 dtc system chassis dtc sub system scc first occurrence: during actual assembly in montgomery, al plant. I have asked three Hyundai service dealers for help. All have tried. Noting noted that contributes to the issues above. At first, my dealer replaced the front camera. Was told it was a heating issue. I have contacted Hyundai bluelink service for help. An information report was filed, twice. The first report I received feedback that Hyundai’s engineers had corrected the issue. On the following day, the codes returned. A second concern was filed with Hyundai bluelink. Hyundai motor America case#: [xxx] to wit: “thank you for contacting Hyundai motor America. We are in receipt of your e-mail and one of our representatives will get back to you shortly. Sincerely, Hyundai motor America” is my vehicle going to fail and cause me injury while operating it on an interstate highway? this is quite concerning as I drive my car. All I want from Hyundai is to get this issue repaired. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

A few times recently our car has had a hard time starting even though it's only a year old. It's like it's having a hard time turning over. And then when driving, it has a hard time accelerating - it almost feels like the car is in neutral while trying to drive. It jerks and shimmies to the point where you have to pull over to see what's going on. We were on a pretty busy road and couldn't accelerate to the point of safely merging into traffic. An online forum said it was a "loose ground" that's causing the acceleration issues.

Driving up steep hill to my mom’s house car would not drive up, as it hesitated I pressed gas pedal to no avail. I turned off car, got out & nothing was blocking me. Turned car back on & accelerated, this time it went forward.

It started in April 2024. After the dealership performed an oil change we heard a strange noise whenever we accelerated. The dealership said it was either the transmission or the hybrid motor and both were on back order (usually an indicator that these parts are in great demand). After several weeks both parts arrived but they only replaced the transmission because that took care of the noise. A few days after we got the car back, we heard a clunking sound whenever we shifted. I tried to take the car to a different dealership but they said we had to return to the place that installed the transmission because bolts were missing. We went back to that dealership and they said no bolts were missing but they did need to be tightened. After that the clunking stopped, however, the next day we started experiencing other problems. The check engine and master system lights came on and the car would hesitate when accelerating. This was extremely dangerous when we were on the freeway and/or trying to accelerate from a traffic signal. Also, it had trouble shifting into reverse. The dealership said the codes were indicating the hybrid system battery needed to be replaced. The car has less than 20k miles.

While driving the blind spot safety system, driver attention warning system, and lane following system malfunction at the same time, and the vehicle loses power steering. The first time this occured was in the parking lot of an elementary school in April 2024. I was driving less than 2mph and the vehicle had less than 8,000 miles on it. The dealer said they would be unable to diagnose unless they witnessed the errors. The second time it occured was in may 2024 while driving on the interstate at around 75mph. The vehicle was driven directly to the dealership who kept it for four weeks. They said the connections to the ecu were severely corroded, sanded them down, and added a water protectant. The third time it occured was a month later. The dealership has had the vehicle for two weeks with no diagnosis. Losing power steering suddenly while driving is incredibly dangerous, especially in a vehicle of this size and weight. It is difficult to control the vehicle without power steering, and in all cases there have been other vehicles/people in the area who could have been injured.

The engine/ability to accelerate seemed to fail. It would not accelerate past 45mph and then couldn't even maintain that speed, even with the pedal to the floor. The engine sounded like it was revving at high rpms and wasn't shifting into gear, even though it had just been in drive and operating normally. Yes, it is available for inspection. My safety was put at risk by not being able to accelerate when merging onto the highway, leading me to be going much slower than the traffic around me. I have not asked the dealer to reproduce the problem. The component has not been inspected. There were no warning signs, messages, or alerts of any kind. There was no information about the status of the car whatsoever.

4 times there has been an error message with a large p symbol and a red triangle on the dash board. The large p is surrounded by a yellow circle and it says below to check p button. This is an intermittent situation and does not always do it when at the dealer, but they have witnessed it. They tried 2 fixes but neither worked. I am concerned since there is a red triangle at the bottom of the dash that this is a serious issue. Hyundai will not expedite this and will not allow me to speak to anyone about it that might be able to explain what might be causing this issue. Customer service just says we couldn not replicate the problem. I told them I understand this. I wish to know what is causing the computer to send this message and they will not tell me or look into far enough to determine what it is. I am not driving the vehicle until they can tell me if it is a safety issue or not and they will not do that.