2017 Hyundai Santa Fe Visibility Problems

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.

NHTSA ID

11561644

Incident

Dec 22, 2023

While driving down a California freeway, the sunroof of my wife's 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport exploded without warning. Glass rained down on my niece and nephew in the backseat and caused my wife to swerve a bit in surprise. Luckily there was no one else on the road and no one was hurt by the glass. She was not near anyone or anything, plus nothing fell into the backseat so we know that it wasn't anything that impacted the glass causing it to break. Upon further review, this is a problem with Hyundai vehicles and it looks like they are the subject of multiple class-action lawsuits for it. This is the second time something like this has happened. In 2016, my wife was leasing a Sonata and the sunroof exploded unprovoked. The dealership took responsibility that time and one of the mechanics stated that it was "a known issue".

NHTSA ID

11530812

Incident

Jun 23, 2023

The panoramic sunroof on our 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe unexpectedly and without warning, exploded during a leisurely drive through our town this morning. At a speed not exceeding 40 mph, we were suddenly met with a loud, gunshot like sound that instantly frightened us. We immediately put our hazards on and pulled off to the side of the road to find that the sunroof had completely shattered. Thank goodness we had just closed the sun shade or else our three year old and family pet would have been covered in glass shards, shards that would have most definitely caused serious injuries had that sun shade not been closed. We were on a paved road where no other vehicles were present, leaving no chance for a rock or any sort of debris to have impacted the vehicle. There has been no prior glass work done on the sunroof and we have not experienced any sort of major temperature differential in our area recently. There were no chips or hairline cracks present prior to this incident. We have contacted our insurance company but are waiting to file a claim until we reach out to the dealership (it is currently a Sunday and all dealerships are closed here). Had we been on a major highway or road, this could have most definitely caused an accident as the noise was incredibly loud and shocking. Again, what is most concerning is the fact that had we not just closed the sun shade, our toddler could have been seriously injured by the glass shards.

NHTSA ID

11509168

Incident

Feb 26, 2023

We were driving on a highway at normal highway speeds around 10:15pm. There was some light rain and some lightning in the area. Out of nowhere our panoramic sunroof on our 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe just exploded. There were no cars/trucks in front of us that kicked up any debris that could have caused this. It just shattered and the sound was deafening, it sounded like an explosion and for a quick second I thought we were getting shot at until I observed that no other glass in the car was broken so at that point I knew it was the panoramic sunroof.

NHTSA ID

11426116

Incident

Jul 22, 2021

TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2017 HYUNDAI SANTA FE. THE CONTACT STATED WHILE DRIVING 45 MPH, THE PANORAMIC SUN ROOF SHATTERED WITHOUT WARNING OR IMPACT. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO MCCARTHY OLATHE HYUNDAI (681 N RAWHIDE, OLATHE, KS 66061, (913) 324-7200) TO BE DIAGNOSED. THE CONTACT WAS INFORMED THAT THE SUN ROOF GLASS NEEDED TO BE REPLACED. THE VEHICLE WAS REPAIRED HOWEVER, SUN ROOF FAILED TO CLOSE ONCE THE GLASS WAS REPLACED. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE SAME DEALER WHERE THE CONTACT WAS INFORMED THAT THE TILT LEVEL AND FRAME NEEDED TO BE REPLACED. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT REPAIRED. THE MANUFACTURER WAS CONTACTED HOWEVER, NO FURTHER ASSISTANCE WAS PROVIDED. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 100,000.

NHTSA ID

11377936

Incident

Sep 1, 2019

Mileage

100,000 mi

TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2017 HYUNDAI SANTA FE. THE CONTACT STATED WHILE DRIVING 65 MPH, THE CONTACT BECAME AWARE THAT THE WINDSHIELD WAS CRACKED VERTICALLY AND HORIZONTALLY IN THE CENTER OF THE WINDSHIELD. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE WINDSHIELD WAS REPLACED TWICE DUE TO BEING DAMAGED BY ROCKS. THE REPAIR WAS COMPLETED AT HER RESIDENCE BY SAFELITE AUTO GLASS. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT DIAGNOSED. A DEALER WAS NOT CONTACTED. THE MANUFACTURER HAD NOT BEEN INFORMED OF FAILURE. THE VEHICLE HAD NOT BEEN REPAIRED. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 19,271.

NHTSA ID

11362774

Incident

Oct 3, 2020

Mileage

19,271 mi

WHILE BACKING OUT OF MY GARAGE I HEARD A POP AND LOOKED AT MY REARVIEW MIRROR, MY REAR WINDOW HAD EXPLODED OUT. NOTHING WAS NEAR TO HIT IT FROM INSIDE.

NHTSA ID

11302639

Incident

Jan 23, 2020

Mileage

30,000 mi

TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2017 HYUNDAI SANTA FE. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE DRIVER'S SEAT MADE AN ABNORMAL SQUEAKING SOUND. THE SEAT LEANED TOWARDS THE CONSOLE AND SQUEAKED NONSTOP WHILE DRIVING. IN ADDITION, THE REAR WINDSHIELD WIPER DETACHED FROM THE VEHICLE. THERE WERE NO WARNING INDICATORS ILLUMINATED. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO NAPLETON HYUNDAI (649 DUNN RD, HAZELWOOD, MO 63042, (314) 548-0956) WHERE IT WAS DIAGNOSED THAT THE VEHICLE'S COMPUTER NEEDED TO BE UPDATED. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT REPAIRED; HOWEVER, AN APPOINTMENT WAS MADE TO SERVICE THE VEHICLE. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOT NOTIFIED. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 2,747.

NHTSA ID

11191434

Incident

Feb 12, 2019

Mileage

2,747 mi