My car suddenly broke down on the side of a busy highway halfway through my workday. When attempting to restart it, all warning lights came on on the dashboard and I could see white smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe while the car shook. I had it towed to the nearest Hyundai dealership and they confirmed it was broken fuel injector(s). I do not have the broken piece to show as it is with the dealership. It has not been examined by police or insurance. No warning lights came on until after the car had suddenly slowed to a stop and I attempted to restart it.
2022 Hyundai Tucson: fire, smoke or burning smell
17 of the 389 complaints about the 2022 Hyundai Tucson describe fire, smoke or burning smell.
- owner complaints
- 17
- of this car's complaints
- 4%
- recalls
- 1
Fire, smoke or burning smell by model year
What owners say
This vehicle has a considerate amount of oil dilution problems. I have had this vehicle taken in for service several times due to gasoline mixed into the engine oil. Again on March 6 2026 for the 4th time now the vehicle has a check engine light extreme hesitation with an almost stopping jerking motion due to dilution problems. Multiple dealerships claim there is nothing wrong with the car.. there is a distinct gasoline smell in the engine oil. The vehicle at times is almost unsafe to drive due to the hesitation and halting it does on its own. Every time a dealership is contacted my problem is dismissed. There is a burning smell due to the oil gas dilution issue. The car reaches higher temperatures than it should. And now the Hyundai dealership is making me wait almost a month again to have the problem looked at again which then puts me as the driver in an unsafe situation to drive a vehicle with such hesitation and fire risk. If they dismiss this oil and gas mix again and do not repair the car it could seize my engine or maybe possibly even cause fire damage.
The contact owned a 2022 Hyundai Tucson. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked, the contact's neighbor knocked on the contact's residential door and informed the contact that the contact's vehicle was on fire. The contact stated that when she went outside, the contact noticed that the entire front of the vehicle was on fire. The fire department was called, and the fire department extinguished the fire. A fire report was filed. The contact stated that the vehicle was burned all the way to the rear seat of the vehicle. The fire burned another vehicle that was parked in the contractor's yard. In addition, the contact stated that the fire burned a good portion of the contact's residential yard. The vehicle was towed to a local tow yard. The vehicle was condemned a total loss by the insurance company. The fire inspector informed the contact that the fire started in the engine near the battery. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 76,500.
During the early morning of December 23, 2024, at 2am, the vehicle caught fire in the carport of my house. Upon waking up to the noise, I proceeded to evacuate my family from the house due to the amount of smoke inside. The fire damaged approximately one-third of the house. Prior to this incident, the vehicle showed no defects, and all its services were performed by the same Hyundai dealership workshop where I bought the vehicle.
September 15, 2024 while driving with cruise control set at 65mpg, the 2022 Hyundai Tucson began shaking and experienced an abrupt loss of power. I released the cruise control, and the vehicle wouldn't accelerate over 45 mph without shaking severely. September 16, 2024 car was inspected by a dealership and determined it was the 4th cylinder fuel injector; mileage on the vehicle was 45,314. Repairs were made per a TSB P030X. January 27, 2025, while driving with cruise control at 60mph, the same thing happened again. Managed to get the car to another dealership, only to find out all 4 fuel injectors needed to be replaced; this time with a TSB 25-FL-001H kit; mileage was 50181. Approximately March 11, 2025 car started the same issue, only this time there was no abrupt shaking or loss of power, however very strong smell of fumes. I refused to park the car in my garage, and immediately called Hyundai USA with all of this information from the start of these issues until current. The car was then taken to another dealership with mileage at 51332, only a difference of 1151 miles since last issue. This time all of the fuel injector seals are melted. Hyundai USA refuses to do anything about it. It was verified with the service technician this last time, that raw fuel was leaking onto the hot engine and could have resulted in the car catching on fire. The first two times this happened, I was out of state while being broken down.
Within the first year of purchase, my power train system has beeb throwing codes. I took it to the dealership where they assured me nothing was wrong. My fuel injectors then gave out. The dealership replaced them and told me “yes these things are faulty and we see it a lot”. After replacing it, they did not seal the fuel injectors, causing gas to gush out and set my car to smoke. I was ill from inhaling gas fumes for days. They took accountability and said that the injectors were defective in the vehicles and that they would once again fix it. I am not experiencing further engine issues which they do not know how to diagnose. My car is a 2022 purchase from the lot. The engine is defective and Hyundai is negligent. They admitted they were aware of the injector issue but didn’t do much to correct this. After corrected, they almost had my car set on fire from fuel pouring on the engine.
While driving the car the engine died, locking up both the gas and brake pedals. The car had to come to a stop on its own, my wife could not depress the gas or brake to stop the car. She was going through an intersection and narrowly avoided a major accident! The battery light came on, the check engine light and the car started to fill up with a smell of burning plastic and gas. When trying to turn the car back on after turning it off it would start with a major shake and bang then turn back off. All warning lights stayed on. Battery was fully charged still. Autobody shop found engine issues in their pre scan before sending it to Hyundai to warranty it as it only has 6,626 miles and is 2 years old. There was a warning of low battery while we were on vacation and the car was sitting for a few days. And a sluggish start when it sat for few days like the battery was low, but it wasn’t based on the volt meter.
Vehicle suddenly unable to accelerate. Engine shuddered & produced a burning smell until we could safely pull over. Towed to dealership where diagnostics showed faulty fuel injector & they replaced 1 GDI fuel injector per TSB 23-FL-002H-1.
First incident: While driving on the highway, my vehicle began to vibrate intensely, jerking, lost acceleration and ultimately was unable to drive. Smelled burning. No warning lights came on- no indication of a problem. I only had time to exit on ramp and car stopped in the middle of traffic. Car had to be towed to dealer. Second incident: I was driving and the vehicle began jerking and vibrating with no acceleration. Smelled burning again. Only after this happened did the engine light appear. I was able to get over to the side of the road. Luckily I wasn’t far from home. Car had to be towed to dealer again Very unsafe and no recall from Hyundai.
I am writing to express my deep concerns regarding a series of ongoing safety issues with our HYUNDAI TUCSON 2022 (leased in 2022). We have encountered alarming problems that are affecting the safety and reliability of the vehicle. On July 29, 2023, my husband was driving the vehicle up a sharp incline when the car started shaking/jolting and abruptly shut off. This resulted in a highly dangerous situation as the car began to roll back. He was unable to restart the vehicle, and it had to be towed to the nearest Hyundai dealership. It took over a week for the dealership to address and rectify the issue...so we thought (see below). Also, please note that there was smoke coming out from the exhaust when the tow truck came. It looked like smoke from a flame inside. Fast forward to November 8, 2023, the vehicle was experiencing the same issue as before: continuous shaking/jolting, and the vehicle abruptly shut off once again... stalling in the middle of a highway. A police officer saw what happened and helped my husband relocate the vehicle to the shoulder of the highway to avoid oncoming traffic/collision. He waited with my husband as he kept trying to get the vehicle to turn on. After 30 min, he was able to get it back on. The "check engine" light was illuminated. My husband drove home while the car was still shaking/jolting. We plan to, once again, have it towed to the nearest Hyundai dealership today. We were told the issue had been "resolved" from the last time this happened in July. Clearly, it was not resolved and I feel this vehicle should be recalled. These recurring problems are deeply unsettling for a vehicle that is not even two years old. Given the repeated and unresolved safety issues with this vehicle, I am concerned for the safety of myself, my family, my unborn child as I am expecting and other road users. I would like to request your immediate attention and intervention to address these problems effectively.
-There are 3 problems. The 1st and most dangerous, is a combo of the engine, transmission, and fuel system. The 2nd is malfunctioning sensors. The 3rd is water leaking in under my glove box onto the floor mat. The car upon 3 different occasions has stopped accelerating in the middle of traffic. 1st: the car would not go past 30mph and it stuttered/ shook. I parked and turned the car off, but 5 minutes later it reset and ran "normal". The 2nd time in Dec 2022, I was on Annapolis Rd.(Maryland) at about 10pm while alone. It would not accelerate past 35mph, the check engine light came on, and the engine/transmission started shaking and stuttering. I was almost rear ended so I pulled over. The next day when I called the dealership, the car had once again reset itself. The dealer brushed me off, said the cars are so computerized that if they couldn't replicate it they couldn't fix it and said they were backed up on appointments. The 3rd time, the car stopped accelerating on the beltway as I was taking my exit home, almost got rear ended, as I was pulling off the exit and trying to pull over the car started producing white smoke and the smell of gas, the engine control system (1st time of these 3 instances) alerted to shut the car down. The gear shift would not work properly while trying to shut it off. It massively leaked gas out of the vehicle and into the oil/ oil filter. While broken down, multiple cars almost ran into it as it had shut down after a major intersection. The car almost exploded/ caught fire. It was towed to an autobody shop to be inspected as I did not trust the dealership. No repairs were made. Only an oil change and new oil filter. There was a random misfire code. But ran normally once reset. There was no damage that he inspected and called it a Lemon. The dealer has the car, and has yet to diagnose it or give me a loaner. All regular maintenance performed and all system checks have come back normal up to this point.
It was around 7 in the morning and I was getting ready for work. My garage door was open. A neighbor started pounding on my front door telling me my garage was on fire. I opened the door from my kitchen to the garage and seen smoke but it didn't seem major. I grabbed my keys and ran outside to pull my car out of the garage. I started the car and put it in reverse. It didn't want to move so I floored it. Once I got it into the driveway I heard the neighbors yell, "Lady! Get out of the car! The car is on fire!" I jumped out and seen the car was fully engulfed and had spread to the roof of the house. I grabbed the waterhose. It was of no help so I ran into the house to get my children out. Our home and everything in it were a total loss. Also my daughters car. Two of our dogs ran away. The car has been inspected by State Farm. They stated that the fire started in the engine compartment; the right front drivers side. Electrical; most likely the ABS. There were no warnings lights or symptoms. We only had the car for 5 months, it had 8000 miles on it. The oil had been changed at the Hyundai dealership just 5 weeks prior. I have talked to numerous people with Hyundai's that have caught fire, but not a 2022 as of yet. We have signed releases for Hyundia to inspect the car in February but they have not. It is still at the local tow yard. They are also supposed to inspect the house. They have offered to buy the car back but we have not agreed. We believe we are entitled to more compensation than that. I also have videos taken by neighbors and ring doorbells.
Service bulletins that may apply
- Certain Tucson (NX4, NX4A), Tucson Hybrid (NX4 HEV), and Tucson Plug-in Hybrid (NX4 PHEV) vehicles may be...
- Certain Tucson (NX4, NX4A), Tucson Hybrid (NX4 HEV), and Tucson Plug-in Hybrid (NX4 PHEV) vehicles may be...
- This bulletin provides information related to the navigation and head unit software changes introduced in...
- Battery drain due to continuous operation of the cooling fan after vehicle ignition has been turned off,...
- In response to this trend, we engineered a software upgrade that addresses the social media theft method...
- This bulletin provides the service procedure for installation of a key cylinder reinforcement protector...
- In addition to the Anti-Theft software provided under Service Campaign 993 (TSB 24-01-009H-1), a zinc...
- Upon customer's request ONLY, the Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) 25-01-089H provides the service...
Related recalls
Electrical system: software
- What is wrong
- Hyundai Motor America (Hyundai) is recalling certain 2022 Tucson vehicles. The software installed in the Integrated Central Control Unit (ICU) may be incompatible with the vehicle, which could result in inoperative headlights and/or taillights.
- Risk
- Inoperative headlights or taillights can decrease visibility for both the driver and surrounding traffic, increasing the risk of a crash.
- Remedy
- Dealers updated the ICU software, free of charge. All affected vehicles have been repaired and therefore no owner notification letters will be mailed. Owners may contact Hyundai customer service at 1‑855‑371‑9460. Hyundai's number for this recall is 214.
Recall number 21V938000 · Recall details
Questions about the 2022 Hyundai Tucson fire or smoke
Is fire, smoke or burning smell a common problem on the 2022 Hyundai Tucson?
17 of 389 owner complaints about the 2022 Hyundai Tucson (4%) mention fire, smoke or burning smell. The model year with the most reports is 2017.
Is there a recall or service bulletin for this on the 2022 Hyundai Tucson?
There is 1 recall and 43 service bulletins for the same area of the car. Check them below with your VIN.
Other symptoms on the 2022 Hyundai Tucson
Check engine light 97Loss of power 51Stalling 41Misfire 39Jerking 21Collision warning 12Hesitation 11Sunroof shattered 11Engine failure 10Headlights 10No deployment 9Adaptive cruise 8Won't shift 8Sudden acceleration 8Brake failure 7Fuel smell 7Warning lights 7Won't start 7Phantom braking 5Pulling 5
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