While driving my 2001 hyundai santa fe in the evening on the southern state parkway (55 MPH, left lane, pkwy traffic heavy but moving well), steering suddenly began to shimmy, followed by grinding noise emanating from right front wheel. Assumed a flat, pulled foot off gas pedal, put hazard lights on and began to pull over to right lane. Steering almost impossible to control as steering wheel was whipping from right to left, grinding noise increased - as I slowed enough to pull onto dirt shoulder, right front of car collapsed, right front wheel broke off and bounced across 3 lanes of traffic before landing on opposite shoulder of parkway. That the wheel didn't fly off while driving at full 55 MPH and when it did fail, that it bounced between oncoming cars, and did not hit one of them and cause an accident, was astounding. This occurred without any prior hint of a problem, my car is well maintained and serviced on a regular basis. According to my mechanic, the wheel literally rusted off - he has never seen anything like this. Mechanic states 3 other wheels have more rust than he has ever seen on a vehicle, however, he didn't feel there was danger of an immediate failure.
2001 Hyundai Santa Fe body complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 19 of 19, newest first, as owners wrote them.
The rear trailing arms rotted and one broke as I was driving. Ii took the vehicle to my mechanic, who was told by his parts contact that this is a frequent occurrence with hyundai santa fe's. Both the rear trailing arms needed replacing. I contacted hyundai and they refuse to look into it. They told me that because I didn't take the vehicle to a hyundai service center, they couldn't confirm it and they don't feel the need to investigate it. I don't understand why it makes any difference as to which service place I took the vehicle to. The bottom line is - the vehicle needed repair. I am disappointed with hyundai for not standing behind their product. Clearly, stating that it needed to go to a hyundai service center is just an excuse for them to deny there is a problem with the design of the vehicle or the part. I feel there is a public safety risk. There was no warning that this could happen with the vehicle. I could have been in a serious accident - or worse. My teenage son could have been driving the vehicle when this occurred. I wonder how many other vehicles are driving around with the same defect. I would like an investigation to be sure that other's don't experience what I experienced or worse. If the part had broken when I was driving on the highway, it could have harmed others. Please investigate and help protect others.
While driving my 2001 hyundai santa fe I noticed that my vehicle would sway to the right and I had to compensate by steering the vehicle to the left. A preliminary inspection showed that I needed a wheel alignment and new tires due to the excessive wear to the tires caused by the vehicle not being aligned properly. The vehicle was brought to a local tire shop for tire replacement and wheel alignment. Upon inspection by the mechanic it was discovered that the sub frame of the passenger side of the vehicle where the lower control arm is attached has a rust hole where the right bolt attaches to the sub frame. In fact the lower control arm of the passenger side of the vehicle is only attached with one bolt. As a result the vehicle needed a tie rod replacement and wheel bearing replacement caused by the lower control arm not being properly attached to the sub frame. I was also informed by the mechanic that he was unable to align the vehicle or change the wheel bearings due to this condition. The mechanic informed me that the sub frame needs to be replaced as the vehicle is not safe to drive in this condition. Damage resulting = I am unable to use this vehicle as it is unsafe to drive. Cost to replace the sub frame is approximately $2000.00 dollars.
After driving over a pot hole the vehicle continued to pull to the right as it was driven. The next day I took it to a repair shop for wheel alignment. The shop said they could not repair it as there was a fist size hole in the frame where it had rusted through where the control attaches to the frame. While researching the internet I learned of many similar defects reported to the federal safety agency I believe some hyundai models share the frame.
My 2001 sante fe was making " creaking" noise by the passenger side rear tire. I made an appointment for it, but before the appointment I heard a loud thud and lost control of the vehicle. Fortunately I was only going 35 MPH and was able to skid into a driveway. The rear control arm snapped off due to an excessive amount of rust. The other side is almost rusted through. The repair shop had never seen anything like it before.
For a few days prior to the incident, I thought I needed to have the brakes replaced on this vehicle. Everytime I applied the brakes, the car would swerve a little; then there would be a "thump" at the rear of the car. On the day of the incident, there was a significant noise at the rear of the car, so I looked in the back storage area thinking something was rolling around-found nothing. I continued driving a few miles, hearing the thumping noise again, I stopped and looked underneath the the rear of the vehicle thinking the spare tire bracket was broken--saw nothing. Later in the day, as I turned right there was a loud noise at the rear. I told myself to drive slowly--and then the right rear tire broke causing me to lose control of the car. Fortunately for myself, other drivers and hyundai I was driving slow. The car was flatbedded to the hyundai dealer, who told me that the rear trailering arm "snapped" off due to an impact. The service manager stated that he had never seen anything like that and wanted to wait for the company rep before deciding what to do. The rep insisted that rust had nothing to do with the part breaking and that I needed to pay 1100.00 for the repair (which included a new brake line and shock due to the faulty part) the dealership then did not want to give me the part because it was "too rusty" to put in the car. This seems to be the 4th vehicle reporting the same problem. I do have the part and will be going to the local news media to complain about the safety issue not being addressed by the company.
The paint fades very badly on this vehicle, depreciates the value of the vehicle tremendously. Also the driver seat does not click in place, it moves around a small amount.
Vehicle rattles and shakes when driving in city. Noise appears to come under the carriage. Taken several times to the dealer and they are unable to locate the source of the problem. Have a written complain with hyundai.
The door locks are all ativated together. You can not unlock the drivers door without all four doors and the back gate being unlocked. I do not know of any car that a single door can not be unlocked without opening all the doors. I feel this is a very serious safety proble. My wife can not go to the mall and exit or enter her truck without the possiblity of someone enterning her truck using a door that she did not won,t to unlock. There will be injury and possible death involved with this factory defect. Please address this complaint post-haste. Thanks; charles walsingham.
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