2022 Hyundai Santa Fe Plug-In Hybrid Driver assistance Problems

I have taken my Hyundai Santa Fe 2022 PHEV under warranty for a fix of being in reverse, the function not working, the car revs aggressively not in gear and then put it in park and the car aggressively jolts forward in park like a hard gear change. Hyundai replaced pcm and said it was fine. I took car and immediately noticed grinding noises and straight back to Hyundai. They claim it's fine. Today same issue with reversing and aggressive car jolting. Hyundai is going to take it back tomorrow. I do not feel safe in this vehicle. It felt like the transmission was going to give out on the freeway. The rpm are maxing out at 5-20 mph and sometimes don't want to engage in drive. Extremely unsafe for freeway driving. There is something terribly wrong with this cars engine or transmission. Unsafe for Hyundai to release for use.

NHTSA ID

11674817

Incident

Jul 20, 2025

The steering wheeled locked up and the dash showed error messages of check hybrid system and refill inverter coolant and car seemed to go into limp mode as I could barely accelerate forcing me to pull over. The messages and issue would go away upon turning off car and turning it back on, however the issue would eventually happen again. This has happened while driving on the highway and other various road situations without warning and making the vehicle very unsafe. I have taken my vehicle to Hyundai Ourisman in Bowie, Maryland (the dealership where I purchased the vehicle) three times over two years and they have failed to fix the problem. They have even replaced the battery in the car.

NHTSA ID

11663947

Incident

Apr 28, 2025

Driving along, merging onto Interstate, various warnings such as check lane keeping assist, and warnings to stop vehicle and check brake systems. Driving approximately 50mph, the warning started to flash and speedometer dropped to zero then went back to full speed. Automatic braking was attempting to slow the car. Attached photo shows an indicated speed of 0mph, however was travelling approximately 50mph at this time. I also have video of the errors occurring, but there is not a way to upload video.

NHTSA ID

11634183

Incident

Jan 2, 2025

While driving on the freeway, another vehicle passed me in the lane to the right of me. Right before it passed me, my car triggered automatic emergency braking for no reason. It was very terrifying. The other car was in its own lane the entire time. This has happened multiple times.

NHTSA ID

11563385

Incident

Nov 1, 2023

I was driving on a road approaching a right turn to enter into my neighborhood that has a 3 way intersection where only cars exiting the neighborhood have a stop sign. I turned my right turn signal on as I began to slow down and approach the turn (without stopping as there is no stop sign for my path). As I was about 1/4 way into the turn, an alert for either lane keep assist or driver assistance warning appeared and the steering wheel suddenly could not turn and I was forced to drive straight. Luckily, there was no car waiting at the stop sign or I would have hit them. I hit the brakes and was on the wrong side of the road pointed towards the curb. I saw multiple error messages for lane keep assist and drivers assisted warning but could still not turn the wheel. I slowly drove the car forward, wrestling the wheel to turn enough so I could park on the wrong side of the road. I tried putting the car in park and then drive again but it did not help. I turned the car off and on and the errors cleared and I could turn the wheels again. I then proceeded to slowly start driving home and less than 1/4 mile later as I was rounding a gentle curve (I did not use any turn signals), the same error occurred and I suddenly could not turn the wheel so I slammed the brakes and stopped in the middle of the road. I again turned the car off and on to reset and proceeded to drive the remaining 1/4 mile home and park in my driveway. I immediately contacted the Hyundai dealer and was recommended to have the car towed to the local dealer as it was unsafe to drive. Upon towing the car to the closest dealer, I was able to back the car off the tow truck and park it. While parking, the steering locked up again and I took the attached pictures of the error messages and showed the technician. The dealers in the area all indicated they were so backed up they could not diagnose the car immediately. I called Hyundai to open a case. It has been 2 weeks and they still have not diagnosed the car.

NHTSA ID

11527845

Incident

Jun 6, 2023

The accident took place on February 13 at approximately 7:40 a.m. My wife (the primary driver of the vehicle) had just dropped my son off at school and was pulling the vehicle into our garage as she has done at least four times a day since we purchased it in February 2022 for use as our primary family vehicle. She pulled into the garage, came to a complete stop, pressed the “Park” button and confirmed that the vehicle was in park, and removed her foot from the brake. The vehicle then lurched forward and collided with a storage cube adjacent to our garage wall, causing extensive damage to both the front end of the vehicle and the garage/dining room wall. Within minutes of the accident, I contacted Temecula Hyundai (our local dealership and service center), informed the Service Manager of what had just happened, and asked them how they wanted me to proceed given the fact that the malfunction was a warranty issue. They directed me to handle the accident through my insurance company. I specifically asked whether the vehicle needed to be preserved in place and not driven in order to maintain the scene and/or vehicle for investigation, and they said no. Nevertheless, we brought the vehicle to Hyundai that day to have it inspected and computer diagnostics run, since I suspected both might be necessary. They said the computer likely wouldn't capture this type of issue. We waited several weeks for our assigned Hyundai Case Manage (Tracy) to contact us with further instructions (which never happened, despite several requests for her and/or a supervisor to contact me), but eventually followed our insurance company’s instructions to take the vehicle to Caliber Collision to proceed with repairs, which were completed on March 30. We are still waiting for Hyundai corporate to address the issue.

NHTSA ID

11515777

Incident

Feb 13, 2023

When Lane Follow Assist(LFA) is engaged, the vehicle is expected to steer itself following lane markings. eg: in freeways. Even when engaged, at certain times, the vehicle disengages this feature possibly to due to failure to detect lanes or due to any other issues. This disengagement happens without any audible notice to the driver. All that happens is a very small icon in the console turning white from green. This can be easily missed as it can be easily hidden behind the steering wheel. Moreover, it's not safe to keep looking into the console when the driver is supposed to watch the road ahead. As heard, this issue is present in many Hyundai vehicles. An audible warning and bigger icon notification are most important for these safety critical situations. A driver may never know that the LFA is disengaged and probably can be in a collision before the driver realizes it. This is an important safety issue.

NHTSA ID

11509902

Incident

Nov 22, 2022

Car's power steering has suddenly stopped working twice while I was driving. -- First time occurred on 7/24/2022. I was driving approximately 30 mph at the time. I was able to retain control of car and safely park. When steering stopped working, steering light illuminated red. I also got warnings about lane-keeping assist and blind spot detection features. According to Hyundai customer portal, car recorded the following DTCs (diagnostic trouble codes): -- * C168886 (System: CHASSIS; Sub-System: LKAS) * C240162 (System: CHASSIS; Sub-System: EPS) -- After I turned car off and back on twice, warnings cleared and power steering started working again. -- I had car transported to nearest dealership. -- Dealership's service department investigated and indicated the following: -- SCANNED SYSTEM FOR CODES FOUND HISTORY CODES C240162 MOTOR CIRUIT C16886 MDPS C168881 MDPS SIGNAL C168808 MDPS SIGNAL HISTORY. -- Their corrective action was as follows: -- CHECKED GROUND CONNECTION FOR MDPS. GOOD. FOUND LOOSE CONNECTION AT DRIVER'S LEFT FOOT KICK PANEL LOOSE. CLEARED CODES AND TEST DROVE VEHICLE 3 MILES OPERATING NORMALLY -- However, when I picked up car on 7/29/2022, immediately after exiting dealership's parking lot (while driving at low speed), power steering suddenly stopped working a second time. There were similar warnings (probably about lane-keeping assist and blind spot detection features again), but Hyundai customer portal shows no DTCs this time. -- I returned car to dealership's service department for them to investigate further. -- Sidebar: A coolant line in car's engine compartment was replaced in June 2022 due to rodent damage. When dealership was first looking at this steering issue, I reminded them of that occurrence and requested that they consider possible rodent damage to electrical system as a cause of the steering issue. They did not notice any such damage.

NHTSA ID

11476627

Incident

Jul 24, 2022