2016 Hyundai Santa Fe

Beginning about a month ago, I noticed a rattle upon the engine start up that lasted for a 1-2 seconds then stopped and everything sounded normal. I thought it could be b/c of the cold weather. I went in to get a routine oil change on 03/11/2026 and they said the oil looked fine, but it was about a quart low, indicating it was burning some oil somehere. They said to check in in a few months and they would top it up if needed. I asked them about the rattle and they thought is might be from a bad (timing chain tensioner) but said I should get it checked out. I called on Friday 03/13/26 to schedule an appt at my local Hyundai Dealership on 03/17 . The night before(03/16), I was driving my vehicle and suddenly on the road, I heard a loud noise in the engine, and the power shut off, the Engine and oil light came on and I just had enough time to pull off the busy state route. My car would not start or turn over. I had it towed to the dealership and they did determine that it was a "Rod Bearing Failure" that caused the engine to sieze. I provided them evidence of my oil changes which from 10k-93k miles on my car since I have owned it. I have had the oil changed 10 times. They are saying they only allow 8k between oil changes to honor the warranty and have initially denied my claim. The service associate at the dealership said my valvetrain was 'somewhat' dirty, but nothing to where it was the cause for this issue. And since it was the Rod bearing that failed, the exact part that was recalled, he was surprised they were not even offering any good-will offer, to split the cost of the engine replacement. I have reached out to Hyundai Consumer Affairs and am waiting to hear back to see if they will be fair and work with me on this to honor the warranty issue or at least share the cost burden for this "well-known" failure in their engine.

The motor began to making a knocking noise and started smoking like a fire was starting. We immediately turned off the vehicle preventing from a full fledge fire. We had children in the car as well which posed a safety concern for them. We had no prior warning lights or issues. It has yet to be inspected by anyone.

The contact owns a 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe. The contact stated that while driving 60 MPH and attempting to depress the accelerator pedal, the vehicle decelerated and failed to respond as intended. The contact coasted to the right side of the road, turned off the vehicle, and the vehicle failed to start. Neither an independent mechanic nor a dealer was contacted. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic; however, the vehicle was not diagnosed. The contact was informed that the vehicle was scheduled to be diagnosed. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact stated that the failure had occurred on four occasions. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 150,000.

My engine failed at 113,000 miles. It just sounded like a diesel truck when I started it one day. There were no warning messages at all. It did not have any power above 45 mph. I took it to a Hyundai dealer and showed him the extended warranty letter I received from Hyundai. The letter said my specific engine should qualify for an extended warranty. However, the dealer (Castle Hyundai of Downers Grove, IL) said because my engine failed due to timing chain failure and not connecting rod failure, Hyundai would not honor the extended warranty. That infuriates me! Hyundai should honor the extended warranty because their engine failed and it wasn't my fault. They know they have an engine problem but because my engine didn't fail exactly the way they projected it would fail, I'm [XXX] of using my car. It also meant I had to purchase a new car which obviously wasn't a Hyundai. I hope you can push Hyundai to provide me financial relief or at least expand the engine warranty for others. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

My 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe lost all power, shutting off and stopping abruptly in the middle of the road with no warning lights or “limp mode” being set off requiring my partner and I to push it into someone’s driveway with our two children in the car to get them to safety. We took the vehicle to a mechanic shop where we were told that to engine was seized and needed to be fully replaced with an initial quote starting at 8 thousand dollars for a replacement engine. I contacted my local Hyundai dealership and was told over the phone that the vehicle would be covered under Hyundai service bulletin TXX8 that was issued last year due to ongoing issues with this engine (3.3l V6 Lambda II). We paid to have the vehicle towed to this dealership only to be told that the warranty would not be honored due to a lack of maintenance records. I was able to provide Hyundai with all maintenance records from my ownership as well as records on the CarFax report. They rejected the claim again stating that due to a lack of records not from my ownership they won’t cover it. After looking at the records I had access to again in critical detail I was able to find records that Hyundai missed, but they are unwilling to reevaluate the claim without me providing what they call additional records. I have contacted Hyundai, to try and resolve the issue and have gotten no resolution. The Prior Authorization team has stated that I have “adequate records” but still insist on denying the claim. The dealer has quoted me $12,000 for the repair that the warranty should be covering due to the engine not being manufactured in full anymore due to the issues that have come from it. The dealership (and private mechanic) would have to order individual pieces of the engine to build it themselves on site. If this engine is a big enough problem that Hyundai cannot provide a full engine replacement at market value then it should not be operating on the road at all.

The contact owns a 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the contact stated that the brake pedal was inoperable. The contact stated that the vehicle vibrated while depressing the brake pedal. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was restarted. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, where it was diagnosed and determined that the ABS module had failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The dealer was contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 119,000.

Engine oil runs out quickly

The contact owns a 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle lost motive power with the check engine warning light illuminated. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic, where it was diagnosed that the engine had failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The vehicle was towed to the dealer, where the same diagnostic information was provided. The contact was informed that the engine needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 145,322. The VIN was not available.

This is my 2nd engine on my 2016 Santa Fe Sport. My car has 190,000 miles and had a catastrophic engine failure, it’s been at the dealership for 2 months. Hyundai said my lifetime warranty on my engine is not covered cause I had a misfire in the #4 cylinder with less than 2,000 miles on the spark plugs. Hyundai warranty department only spoke to the dealership directly and had me speak to a case manager (which did nothing, they never even talked to the warranty department only the dealership) So in December I dropped my car off, it took over 2 weeks to take pictures and send them in to Hyundai warranty department, a week later Hyundai asked the dealership to further take the engine apart and get pictures of the rocker’s. The dealership is down to 2 technicians and said they will get to it when they can (remember I’m without a car and waiting for approval for my engine so they can get me in a rental car while my engine gets replaced). Over 3 week later the dealership finally sends the pictures in of the rocker’s, I know cause I called and asked the dealership. I then asked why does the warranty department need pictures of the rockers for my engine failure (misfire in 4th cylinder) and they said to check for sludge. They also pointed out my engine isn’t bad and don’t have sludge so the warranty department should approve my engine replacement. A week later my case manager called and said that they will only approve 50% and I said NO there a lifetime warranty and I’m the original owner, so they went up to 65%. I feel betrayed by the dealership, case manager and Hyundai warranty department for NOT honoring the engine replacement knowing there’s a class action law suit due for failing rod bearings which they said wasn’t the issue. How would they know? The rod bearings are on the bottom of the motor and if they took it apart they would see THAT WAS the cause, but they say they don’t warranty misfire’s yet tens of thousands of Hyundai buyers are having same problems. Help

The contact's husband owns a 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle failed to accelerate upon depression of the accelerator pedal. The check engine warning light appeared on the instrument panel during the failure. Despite the vehicle operating in LIMP Mode, the vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where an oil change was performed. The mechanic warned after the service was performed that there may be an ongoing failure with the engine. Several days later, the contact stated that while in stop and go traffic, the vehicle stalled with the check engine warning light illuminated. Due to the failure, the vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic where a diagnostic test was performed; and the contact was informed that the failure might be related to the cam shaft. The contact had the vehicle towed to a dealer and informed that the failure was probably related to the high-pressure fuel pump. The high-pressure fuel pump was replaced; however, the failure persisted. The contact was then informed by the dealer that the engine needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle remained with the dealer unrepaired. The failure mileage was approximately 200,000.

Hard Shift occurs between gear 1 and gear 2. The hard shift lurches the entire car. It occurs on both upshift and downshift. The hard shift occurs on cold starts. The problem goes away when you turn the vehicle off and then back on. There are no check engine lights. The dealer can't replicate the problem.

Engine has serious recall that I was not made aware of during purchase. My car has been burning oil and the engine has been on. I've taken out to several local mechanics who said "these model Hyundai's burn oil once they are over 100,000 miles" and that I would just need more frequent oil changes. I was also told the engine light was either an old code being thrown, or the pump valve, but nothing to worry about because it really only effects gas milage. My engine went out and I had to get it towed to another mechanic, who upon seeing the car, knew it had an engine recall and could hear a distinctive knock in the engine due to a failing rod bearing. Upon Hyundai's request, we towed it to a dealership to have them inspect it. They agree it's the engine that's bad, but since a "knock sensor" was never installed by the previous owner, they say they are not liable to cover the repair, and that since the recall is "public knowledge", it was my responsibility to find out. If you go onto the NHTSA.gov website, and type in my VIN number, the information says "0 unrepaired recalls", therefore making it impossible for me to have known about the recall without Hyundai letting me know, which they didn't.

Four weeks ago, I noticed my 2016 Santa Fe was not blowing any heated air into the cabin. A/C would come out fine, but room temperature air at best even when thermostat set to max. I took it in for diagnosis at a local mechanic who informed me that coolant was leaking out of the engine block and into the exhaust. I took the car to the dealership who informed me that the engline block itself had somehow gotten a tear in its side. No telling how the damage occurred, yet the warranty company (Costguard) in acquisition of my powertrain policy rejected the claim because (without ever personally inspecting the vehicle) there "was no discrepency as to how the damage occurred." Every mechanic at the dealership who has seen my car disputes their answer. I have been up to date on all maintenance on my vehicle throughout my ownership and have receipts, but cannot add them as they are all in my glovebox and the car is still at the shop. While I find it personally ridiculous that a warranty company would deny this, it is important for me as well to add to the list of engine complaints about this car. Likely the damage to the engine block has also been the cause of reduced mileage I have experienced lately.

Driving on a slight upgrade, lost power and smoke started to come out of the vents and from under the hood. Had no brakes and by the time we were able to drift to a stop, the engine compartment was on fire. There was no warning lights. Witnesses saw fire under the car while we were coming to a stop. The car and all contents were totally consumed. Following some research on NHTSA vin decoder we found that this car has the same engine (GDI THETA II) that has been involved in many fires and is involved in class action suits. Even though this car has the same engine, it was never recalled. That may indicate that there are other cars out there that may have the same problem but have not been informed.

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I was rear-ended and the driver's seat did not maintain it's position and fell into the seat behind it.

What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? Engine failure due to oil consumption How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? Car attempted to die on a highway, this could have been dangerous had I been in the outside 'fast' lane when it struggled. Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center? Yes, the dealer has confirmed the engine needs a full replacement Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others? No, only the dealers service center has inspected the vehicle Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear? Yes. There was a blink engine light shortly before the car engine died. However, there was no indication the oil was low in the engine. The oil light did not come on.

We were driving through our neighborhood at about 25 mph and we heard a slight knocking noise and then the engine shut off, no warnings or lights, just engine failure. The electronics worked, but car wouldn’t start. Had it towed to a local mechanic where he said the engine is seized. We were thankful this happened at a low speed in a safe place, can’t imagine how awful it would have been if we’d been going 75 mph down the 4 lane interstate. Of note, we have always kept the vehicle current on oil changes/maintenance. Prior to this, the car drove great! Never had any issues that would point to impending trouble.

Was driving on a 5 hour car ride at 5pm on August 16th and was going up a hill, the vehicle quickly lost all power and the engine light lit. I was able to pull the car to the side of the road with the momentum that the car already had, but was not able to get the car to a safe space (its about 6 inches from an exit ramp lane), as the car would not drive. Once I got the car to the side of the road, I checked the engine and did not see any excessive heating or anything out of the ordinary. I tried to restart the car and the check engine light is lit and the battery system for the car turns on but the car will not start or try to turn over the engine. The car is currently sitting on the side of the road. My wife and my dog were in the car and we had to quickly move to a safer place away from the 70 MPH traffic. Calling a tow truck tomorrow to take it to a dealership. It was a little scary that the engine power cut out like that without giving an engine light notice in advance or giving time for me to navigate to a more safe space to park it.

Engine shuts off and slows down while driving.