2017 Hyundai Santa Fe: sudden unintended acceleration

Filed Jun 15, 2026 · Engine · IL

vehicle serviced on 5/7/2026 for Hyundai service campaign 9C2 immediately after noticed car was not driving as it had been prior to this update, sluggish acceleration on start, chugging and then rapid sudden acceleration. returned to service dept May19. Diagnostics revealed no issues, problem persisted. returned to service dept. May22. Informed Hyundai was looking into this issue related to the 9C2 update and awaiting a new update to fix the problem. As of todayJune15 there has been no action to remedy the problem. Do not feel safe driving a vehicle that hesitates when starting to drive and then accelerates roughly. this has happened consistently upon cold start up thus far but concerned it may happen while in traffic or at other times and result in an accident.

Filed May 19, 2026 · Acceleration, Engine · KY

After the installation of the Service Campaign 9C2 engine update, the car now seems to surge or rev up briefly at lower speeds like it can't find the right gear or is trying to briefly accelerate. It doesn't seem to be as noticeable at highway speeds, but in residential or low speeds, it's very noticeable and a little unsettling as the car feels like it wants to briefly lunge forward. No lights are on the dash and there is no indication of any malfunction, but it did not behave this way prior to the 9C2 engine program update. I waited for a couple weeks before contacting Hyundai Corporate about this issue because I was hoping maybe the transmission or engine was relearning after a battery disconnection, but it has not gone away.

Filed May 23, 2017 · Engine · 3,000 miles · NY

Car leased in feb. 2017. Just after finalized, noticed this serious problem: the acceleration after a turn is extremely slow and takes an unreasonable amount of time causing danger of vehicle behind slamming into back end. Upon accelerating after a turn there is so much hesitation that it caused driver and passengers to lunge forward once the engine kicks in. The light indicating slipping usually comes on when this happens as well. My son drove it today with my younger boy and they were almost rear ended. I've talked to dealer twice about this.

Filed Mar 10, 2017 · Engine · 5,500 miles · WI

The santa fe sport turbo engine severely hesitates to accelerate when coming out of turns or roundabouts to the point where I was almost rear ended! When the engine catches up, it jerks your head back. The other day was the worst when I entered a parking garage with an incline. Upon acceleration, the engine hesitated to the point I almost started rolling backwards. When it finally kicked in, the car surged forward as if the acceleration pedal was floored. A pedestrian literally jumped out of the way thinking my car was going to hit him. This engine is a safety issue!

Filed Dec 27, 2016 · Acceleration · 1,100 miles · MA · crash

Pulled into parking space in a parking lot very slowly. Vehicle was almost parked.steering wheel was turned to the left. Vehicle suddenly accelerated, continued to rev and would not stop right away with multiple applications of the brake. It rode up onto a cement handicap ramp and its railing at the head of the space .not injured, no airbag deployment, car sustained damage to front and undercarriage. Vehicle had less than 1200 miles on it. No one I told was convinced that I didn't step on the gas and assumed that my foot must have slipped off the brake and onto the gas pedal. I was ready to believe it myself and owned that it must have been completely my fault. After stumbling (and I mean stumbling-wasn't looking for anything like this) across reviews and comments that describe exactly what happened to me, I feel vindicated.

Filed Jul 1, 2016 · Acceleration, Airbags · 2,583 miles · NJ · crash

On april 15, our brand new santa fe was involved in an accident. While driving in low speed traffic suddenly, while my fiance rear ended someone. To this day she cannot figure out what happened. She is a careful driver, does not speed and knows that the area were she was driving is high traffic and was coming up to a red light. Both of her hands were on the wheel and she wasn't on a phone or anything. She believes she hit the breaks, and as stated before still does not know what happened. After reading these complaints we are wondering if we had the same issue as someone else who reported and is the cause of the accident. We figured we would report this. We are also wondering if other people are having similar accidents since there has been a major issue getting parts to repair said car (car has now been off the road for 11 weeks most parts required for repair have been externally backordered and hyundai has been extremely unhelpful to help us get our car repaired). The consumer stated the vehicle lunged forward, while slowly depressing the breaks. The manufacturer was notified. Updated 11/2/2017