2003 Hyundai Santa Fe: sudden unintended acceleration

Filed Oct 11, 2016 · Acceleration · 67,000 miles · MD

Tl* the contact owns a 2003 hyundai santa fe. While at a completed stop, the vehicle independently accelerated without warning. The contact had to depress the brake pedal to stop the vehicle. The failure occurred on multiple occasions. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for diagnostic testing;, however, the failure could not be duplicated. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 67,000.

Filed Nov 28, 2011 · Acceleration · 99,714 miles · AR

Tl* the contact owns a 2003 hyundai santa fe. The contact stated that while driving 25 MPH, the vehicle suddenly accelerated without warning. The vehicle was taken to a local mechanic who diagnosed that the failure was caused by a fractured cruise control cable. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure and the vehicle was repaired. The failure and the current mileage was 99,714.

Filed Nov 1, 2011 · Acceleration · 84,500 miles · AZ

My vehicle experienced unintended acceleration while traveling down a busy road traveling at a speed of 55 MPH. The vehicle did not slow down while applying the brakes at full force. The vehicle did eventually slow down to a speed of about 40-45 MPH at which point I was able to successfully make a right hand turn at that speed! Once off the main highway, I was able to shift the car into neutral and turn it off to a complete stop! The vehicle was towed to the nearest hyundai dealership. A diagnosis was made that the accelerator cable assembly was damaged and needed to be replaced. At this time, the repair has not been completed as the dealership cannot have the part there until thursday, which is 3 days after the incident occurred! I cannot stress enough how dangerous and scary this situation was! Luckily, this time, no one was injured or killed, but the potential for that outcome was definitely there. I have seen other reports of this occurring with this model vehicle. I hope hyundai takes responsibility to permanently correct this potentially live threatening issue!

Filed Sep 6, 2011 · Acceleration · MN

Please reference the original complaint that was filed in june 2010. The ref. No. Is 10351059. The above vehicle is still exhibiting "unintended acceleration" and hyundai refuses to acknowledge that there is a problem with this vehicle and other like vehicles. Since the original complaint the vehicle has had "unintended acceleration" about 10 times. Whoever drives the vehicle always keeps their hand on the shift control and shifts into neutral when coming to a stop at an intersection. We may be contacted by phone for more information concerning this problem.

Filed Aug 21, 2010 · Acceleration · 136,000 miles · MN

I have experienced my 4th incident of sudden unintended acceleration on my 2003 hyundai santa fe. I have reported this to you three times before. I am concerned that I may injure myself or another person when this happens. I now drive with my hand on the shift lever and put the car into neutral when nearing any possible situation where I could hit another car or a pedestrian. I am becoming so adept at this maneuver that last time it happened I put it in neutral automatically. I was badly shaken, but nothing serious happened. I have reported this to hyundai america and they are not concerned. They have inspected the problem and claim that the car is safe to drive. The consumer stated she had already been driving for a few hours, so the engine was warm. The cruise control was on and she was headed up a mountain highway, when suddenly the vehicle lunged forward, increasing in speed as she was cresting the hill. As she headed down, braking, the tachometer continued to widely go up and down and the engine was revving up . Once she pulled over, the vehicle stalled. The vehicle was towed to the dealer. They downloaded a computer upgrade and over the next 4-5 weeks on occasion, the vehicle would stall at low speeds. According to the invoice, the throttle position sensor was replaced. Updated ivoq 11/03/10

Filed Feb 12, 2010 · Transmission · 28,546 miles · NY

Tl*the contact owns a 2003 hyundai santa fe. The contact stated that when the vehicle was parked and he attempted to accelerate, the transmission malfunctioned and the vehicle lunged forward; the duplicate failure occurred when he shifts to reverse gear. The failure occurred intermittently after the vehicle was parked and then restarted. The dealer stated that the diagnostic test did not indicate any error codes. He called the manufacturer three times and was instructed to take the vehicle to the dealer and if there were no codes, he would have to pay the repair expense. The current mileage was approximately 32,100. The failure mileage was 28,546.

Filed Dec 21, 2006 · Acceleration, Transmission · 47,896 miles · FL

At approximately 47,000 miles, check engine light came on. In addition, vehicle experienced a sudden occasional jump in idle to 3000 RPM+ while in park and drive after three minutes or so of operation. While in drive, vehicle lunges dangerously forward. When this occurs, ignition is turned off, and restart takes several attempts. After restarting, the vehicle will sputter and refuse to accelerate normally for 30-60 seconds. Vehicle also stalls occasionally after 3 minutes or so of use when accelerating from a full stop. Vehicle was brought to napelton hyundai, west palm beach, fl on nov 30. Crankshaft position sensor and camshaft sensor were replaced. Before leaving dealership with service manager present and automatic transmission in park, vehicle idle suddenly spiked to 4,200 RPM. I was told dealer was closed, and to drive it home. On december 5, vehicle again stalled again in traffic at intersection almost causing a collision. After restarting, it refused to accelerate normally for 30-60 seconds. Vehicle was towed to back to napelton hyundai because both the stalling and sudden acceleration are serious concerns that make this santa fe unsafe to operate. The service manager agreed fully that the vehicle was unsafe to drive. On dec 20 I was advised that the vehicle was not repaired because attempts to duplicate the problems were unsuccessful. I was told to pick it up and drive it. I refused to do so. Napelton had over 20 days to detect and correct these major safety issues, and I will not drive hyundai's failure into an accident. A review of the federal safety agency defects reported for this santa fe for 2003-2005 model years reveals over 40 similar incidents, some involving collision and injury. These are categorized under several different components including vehicle speed control, electrical system, vehicle speed control: accelerator pedal, other, power train: automatic transmission, and equipment. Perhaps the santa fe's can be recalled before deaths result.

Filed Aug 19, 2004 · Brakes, Electrical · OH

Santa fe has problems with the location of the gas pedal and the brake pedal and the sonata has problems with the engine operation. *mr the consumer experienced problems with the santa fe (SUV) VIN#[xxx] and a sonata gls VIN#[xxx]. These were both new vehicles. The sante fe displayed extended stopping distance and the vehicle surged forward intermittently. The brake pedal and accelerator pedal were similar in height. The sonata gls displayed problems, the first to second month with a backfire and or explosive noise upon the starting the vehicle. The vehicle would stumble when speeding, and felt as if the A/C compressor was turned on. *sc *jb information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).