Wiper Problems of Hyundai Santa Fe - part 1

On Saturday morning (August 9th), I was driving this car with my family on I-495 heading to the shopping mall. The sunroof glass broke suddenly without any impact from outside. I was so alarmed and exited the road and checked it. There was a crack in the front side glass. I drove back home and found that they had exploded and scattered. I drove a car to the Hyundai car service center to claim it, but they ignored me. I claimed this on the Hyundai America site, but the answer is that they won't fix this under the warranty. This is a panoramic sunroof, and it should support our family in the car accident. But it is easily exploded without any impact from outside. It is a safety-critical issue, but Hyundai doesn't take care of this issue.

See all problems of the 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe 🔎.

I am writing to formally file a complaint regarding a sudden and unexplained crack that appeared on the windshield of my vehicle, which was parked in my driveway overnight. The vehicle was stationary, had not been involved in any accidents or incidents, and was not subjected to any apparent external impact upon discovering the damage, I conducted thorough research and found that more than one owner of the same vehicle or same type of model have experienced an identical issue — a crack that originates at the very top edge of the windshield starting from the top and travels downward through the middle of the glass. The consistency in the location and pattern of the damage strongly suggests a potential manufacturing defect or a design flaw. This issue raises serious concerns not only about product quality but also about driver safety. Windshield integrity is a crucial component of vehicle safety systems, and such defects can compromise visibility and the structural strength of the car in the event of a collision.

See all problems of the 2024 Hyundai Santa Fe 🔎.

The windshield wiper fluid is designed to only hit the bottom of the windshield. This does not allow for the windshield to be properly cleaned while the vehicle is in motion. Creates a safety hazard if you cannot wash debris or an excess of bugs from the field of view of the driver. There are multiple complaints regarding the spray location onto the windshield.

Windshield washer nozzles spray so low on the windshield that the center and top won’t clean which makes driving unsafe.

My wife was parking the car at carport, all of sudden unintended acceleration happened and hit through the wall. The damage on the car was $12478. 57 and damaged the wall and storage on both sides of carport. My wife is scared to drive this car.

This was a certified vehicle I purchased. I dont believe it was certified because after returning it after -3- weeks because the windshield wipers werent working properly. After they looked at it the dealership told me that whoever put the windshield in it broke part of the windshield wiper connections and also ruined the calibration on certain safety features, and broke the windshield itself. This was not caught on their certification process and just put out on the lot to sell. They expected me to pay 1/2 of the expense for which I refused.

See all problems of the 2022 Hyundai Santa Fe 🔎.

Windshield was broken by a rock on the highway.

See all problems of the 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe 🔎.

While driving west in I-70 near frisco, CO. The sunroof randomly exploded, throwing glass throughout the vehicle. I was driving the car with my wife and dog, all of us got covered in glass and the exploding glass was extremely loud. We were lucky the sound didn’t cause me to drive off the road or that any of falling glass severely cut us.

See all problems of the 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe 🔎.

Wipers are in the office position, but suddenly go up and down 2 inches, while off, and won't turn on. It snowed the day before, but wasn't while I was driving. Also, my hood is peeling. I have white paint.

Washer nozzles are non adjustable, and spray too low on windshield to effectively clean glass, especially at highway speeds. Severe visibility issue. I have reported the problem to Hyundai corporate customer service, who are escalating the issue to upper management. I have also brought the vehicle to my local dealer where it was purchased and made them aware of the issue. Dealer agreed with me, and has heard same complaint from many other owners of this model. This should be a simple fix by swapping in an adjustable nozzle.

Rear reverse camera stopped working. Image became grainy, then flickered, then went to a blue screen. Can't see anything behind the vehicle when backing up is a big safety hazard.

See all problems of the 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe 🔎.

Front wiper blades randomly fail during use. Risk of crashing increased due to reduced visibility when raining. No warning lamps or other messages. First time happened, 01/01/2025.

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.

I have owned my vehicle since July 29th 2024 and have now replaced two windshields on my car. It has less than 6000 miles on it. I have looked online and many other people have had the same issues with Hyundai windshields. Something is not right with the glass itself, these tiny rocks should not be basically shattering my windshield while I’m driving.

Vehicle sun/moon roof exploded/shattered while driving on the highway with no apparent external cause. Sunroof was closed, driving middle lane, slightly below speed limit. Fortunately the material blind was closed otherwise the glass could have struck the occupants. Drove to manufacturer dealership who insisted it was a stone and not a manufacturer defect and to claim through insurance, which means a $1000 excess. I know this happens on various vehicles, noted on many forums.

Ac evaporator drain design problem June, 2024 approx. 3500 miles under warranty, ac evaporator drain line backed up into the passenger front right. Brought it to service - they unclogged and drained the line at no charge. June 2025 approx. 12,k miles under warranty, ac drain backed up again. The excess water drained onto my feet as a passenger and collected under the front seat, saturating the rug area, potentially causing additional mildew and respiratory causing irritation. Service required an appointment. Drained it charged $88. Filed a complaint incl Hyundai motors ; was told the $88 charge was irreversible - cause was weather. The car health hazard seems to stem from a major design flaw the air intake is in the windshield wiper cowl resulting in wet tree and leaf debris , bird droppings, etc collect even when the car is not in use. Thus, when heat or air conditioning is activated, air comes in through the air intake and then through the difficult to acces filter recessed behind the glove box , then into the passenger area when the ac drain hose is plugged, it backs up through the dirty filter and then out, to accumulate under the passenger seat allowing more mildew. Re:my 2024 mile blockage, the water was drained, but the filter was not mentioned. In 2025 with the $88 bill, the water was drained no mention the filter. Draining the water does not correct the problem. It should be required at every service the l drain hose is checked, water drained. And filter changed at no charge until a design correction to cover the cowling or an interim solution is installed we lnotice that we have sporadic respiratory problems in the first of miles of riding in all the car from Hyundai motor America - we expect reimbursement for the $88 service charge. Warranty draining the water and new filter annually. And an nhtsb approved fix of the problem and an nhtsb approved redesign of future models.

On the afternoon of 2 Mar 2024, the front panel of my sunroof exploded suddenly while driving at freeway speed, without warning or provocation. No one was injured. After the initial shock, I pulled over and inspected the damage. Fortunately, the inner upholstery was intact and kept all of the shattered glass out of the passenger areas. I had to drive almost 30 miles to the nearest gas station / auto parts store in order to perform makeshift repairs with duct tape and plastic. I took digital pictures of the exploded sunroof. I contacted my Hyundai dealership and have plans to take the car in for inspection and repairs this coming week.

The panoramic sunroof spontaneously shattered while driving under normal conditions. It sounded like a loud gunshot and then shards of the glass fell into the car - luckily the liner caught the majority of the shattered glass. The vehicle is currently at a dealership to fix the damage. I am fortunate that no other cars were around me when the spontaneous shattering happened. The loud noise caused me to slow down considerably, and some glass shards fell backward. If the glass shards had fallen into the vehicle it could have cut me. The dealership has no idea why my sunroof spontaneously combusted, but after doing some research, I saw that Hyundai has had this happen to many other of their vehicles with panoramic sunroofs, and they have gone through a handful of class action lawsuits over the damage. As it is the holidays, I have yet to hear back from my insurance company, but I have started the process of filing a claim online - however, the online form said I would need to call since the damage is on the sunroof which fell under a specialty circumstance. There were no warnings, messages, or other symptoms before the failure. The shattered glass came out of nowhere and without warning.

Windshield started to crack after 150 miles on the car from driver side spreading across whole line of sight. No visible or audible rock hit the windshield.

About three weeks after we bought the SUV, a small rock hit the windshield while we were driving on the freeway, causing a quarter-sized crack. We had it repaired. A week later, two more tiny chips appeared on the windshield. We didn't even notice anything hitting the windshield, and we only drove it on city roads with normal road conditions. The windshield seems to have very soft glass and gets cracked or chipped very easily in regular driving conditions. We've never encountered windshields this weak in our 20 years of driving experience. We feel it poses a potential visibility hazard for the drivers.

On November 2nd of 2023, I was driving approximately 5 miles away from home when all of a sudden the sunroof glass shattered. It sounded like an explosion of glass. I was driving at 45 miles per hour which is the speed limit in the area. It was very alarming when the sunroof glass shattered, I was nervous and thought that someone threw a rock at the car. I wasn't sure whether to stop the car or keep on driving. Thank god there was no traffic, otherwise it would have been a very dangerous situation. I safely pulled over into a gas station to check what had happened. There was nothing other than broken glass on top of the car. The sunroof looks like it had pressure from the bottom up.

The blue link on all older models is not being supported which cause the screen to become stuck on loading screen. This is a visibility and safety issue because it cause blue link to reload and bright lights to flash as you are driving at night every time it reloads. It is a distraction from the road if you shut it off completely you have no access to radio or sound. The issue it cannot be fixed unless you pay for manual update but you have to it working to actually get the update to run. There are many forums discussing the issue.

See all problems of the 2015 Hyundai Santa Fe 🔎.

I had been driving my vehicle for about 5 minutes when I heard what sounded like a loud bang or gunshot followed by the sound debris falling. I realized the front piece of my panoramic sun roof had literally exploded. When I got out to look at it the glass around the hole was pointed upwards so it looked like it exploded from the inside out. The glass had no prior damage and nothing hit it before the explosion. I was on a paved road by myself.

See all problems of the 2020 Hyundai Santa Fe 🔎.

This is the second time my windshield has received a small chip and it spreads to the nearest end of the windshield then within 24 hours spreads across windshield.

Windshield cracks.

Panoramic sun roof glass exploded and shattered as I was driving down the highway on a 50 degree f cloudy day. There was no known object that struck the roof nor did we hit a bump in the road or anything. The sound was like that of a shotgun blast. I've seen other posts and settlements for earlier Hyundai vehicle makes and models where warranty was extended to cover a defect causing this. But my 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe damage is not being covered under warranty since it is a couple thousand miles over the 60,000 mile warranty. Hyundai service reported there was no object or damage found to indicate it was caused by something impacting the vehicle. My concern is what will prevent the replacement glass from breaking again if the defect causing it to happen is not fixed.

The front windshield wiper mechanism failed to work twice during a build up of snow/ice on the windshield. The first incident was while starting up the car in my driveway. I had to scoop out and scrape the snow from around the bottom of the arm of the wipers. After working on it for a couple of minutes, the wipers started working. The second time they completely stopped working was while I was driving on a 45 mph road. Heavy, wet snow from the roof had slid down onto my windshield. I could not see because the wipers stopped working. I had to pull over to the side and physically scoop out the snow with my hand that was around the wiper arms at the bottom of the windshield, half under the hood. It was extremely difficult to get to it. I had to do this twice to get the wipers to start working again. I saw yesterday that there is a recall for this exact issue on 100,000+ palisades. I am reporting this to the Hyundai dealership from which we bought the vehicle last year. There were no warnings, lights, signs to indicate the wiper failure.

I purchased this SUV new and noticed an issue with the automatic intermittent wipers. The dealership has replaced the windshield sensor and issue is now unreliable at best. Service department told me to simply wipe the sensor off or pour water onto the sensor to get the wipers to work. That seems to work for about 3 wipes and then stops again. Also, the driver seat changes position by itself while driving, and the advanced cruise control failed to provide any braking and almost caused me to rear end a stopped car in freeway traffic. Additionally the advanced braking system does not work at all. . . I had the salesman check the settings and they are turned on, but do not provide any braking function. The alert system does provide a warning if a car turns a corner in front of me, but fails to take any action.

Windshield cracked and webbed.

Paint is peeling/delaminating off the car in chunks - from the roof and the hood. Paint peeled off of the hood in a large chunk while I was driving, and got stuck on the windshield & caught up on the wipers while in use. This damaged the wipers and created a dangerous situation, as it blocked my vision while driving. The paint peels off and flies off the car in chunks and can land on another car windshield as well and block their view. I brought the car to the dealer years ago when the paint first starting peeling, and was told it was just past the warranty and there was nothing they could do. I read online that there was a class action suit on this exact issue and it has been a problem for many, many years and Hyundai continues to manufacture this paint despite being aware of the problem. I contacted Hyundai corporate to report this issue, and they said there is nothing they can do. So I have decided to report the issue to warn other drivers, as the last chunk that peeled off became a safety hazard. Note: car was only used occasionally, has very low mileage, and is garaged for a portion of the year. The paint should not be in this condition - it is defective. I paid extra for this particular pearl white paint when I purchased the car new - it was an upgrade, presented as self-healing paint.

See all problems of the 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe 🔎.

The sunvisors for passenger and driver are defective. I have had the car since 2013 and have had to replace both visors at least once a year, if not more frequently. The visor will suddenly break, swing down, impairing vision of the driver while the car is in motion, including highway speeds. I have been hit in the head several times when it breaks & swings while driving -- I am going to have a wreck eventually if huydai does not address this defect in their visors & it is clearly a defect (check youtube for all the hacks in how to attempt to fix it).

See all problems of the 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe 🔎.

The windshield cracked without anything striking it. The windshield is being replaced at my expense. There is wind noise coming from the area below the crack where it is attached to the vehicle.

The windshield has waves through it causing parts of the windshield to be blurry.

See all problems of the 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe 🔎.

The driver's side sun visor randomly falls out of the connection in the ceiling and then dangles from the electrical cord that operates the light in the visor above the mirror. When this happens it completely obstructs the driver's view of the roadway as the visor is now swaying back and forth in front of the driver's face & the driver must take one hand off the steering wheel to move the visor out of the way to see the roadway. It takes two hands to actually shove the electrical wire and visor arm back up into the ceiling. This issue not only happens when the visor is in the down (in use) position & when it is down and swung to the side to block the side window but it also happens when the visor in not in use and is just clipped up. The ceiling connection piece falls down on the left side then too. . . Thankfully because the visor is not in use, the right hand clip secures that side in place so only half of the driver's view is obstructed. This happens without any warning - you're driving along and suddenly the visor has fallen in front of your face. It is manufacturer defect in the small plastic piece that goes from the arm of the visor up into the ceiling. There is a very small plastic tip that is broken - that tip is the only thing that keeps the visor post secured in the ceiling. When you unscrew the visor attachment that goes into the ceiling the broken piece is right there. The electrical wires go thru it so it's still in there. I have replaced my visor once already and the same piece broke off of the new visor after a couple years. My vehicle has not been inspected by anyone but there are many reports on the Hyundai forum about this visor issue. Hyundai is aware of this cheap plastic defect as they issued recalls on the sun visors on other models but not on the sante fe. They have also changed to a newer visor connection piece on their newer model cars. A recall should be issued for the sante fe so that the visors can be replaced w/ an updated version.

The sun visor does not meet the a pillar. There is a large gap there. This gap frequently allows the sun glare to impact the driver.