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Anyone experience Sudden Unintended Acceleration in a Santa Fe?

143 messages,  Last post on Apr 14, 2013 at 1:20 PM

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What is this discussion about? Hyundai Santa Fe, SUV

Messages Page 8 of 15

#64 of 143 Re: 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe Sudden Acceleration [creightontompa] by madasheck1

Jun 04, 2010 (7:23 am)

Replying to: creightontompa (Mar 29, 2010 7:42 am)
January 2010 we purchased a new 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe from Herrnstein Hyundai of Chillicothe, Ohio. I drive this vehicle every day to work, athletic events, etc. In March of 2010 while driving my son to school I accelerated to pass a vehicle. I passed the car and and merged back into the driving lane and attempted to slow down. However, instead of slowing down it accelerated, I could hear the engine it sounded like I was in a high speed race. I became very panicked when I attempted to apply the breaks and they did not work properly they only slowed it down a little. I even lost the ability to steer the vehicle. I threw it into neutral and was able to get off the road a little. When the vehicle coasted to a stop the engine sounded like it would blow up. Again I was panicked I didn't know what to do to make it stop. I looked over at my 11 year old son he said mommy turn the key off. Duh!!! I turned it off, sat there a minute, restarted the vehicle and drove on to school and work. My husband took it to Herrnsteins who said they had never heard of this happening before in this area. They looked at the vehicle and reported they couldn't find anything wrong with it, it didn't show a code. I didn't have another incident until June 1st. On that day I drove to Columbus, Ohio and was in pretty heavy traffic on 315. I had to merge quickly and so I accelerated. Again after I had merged into the appropriate lane the vehicle sped up, I braked with little success, I again heard the engine roaring, I continued to hold the break down, it slowed then sped up again and finally slowed back to normal. I do not use cruise and did not have the cruise on either time. I called Herrnsteins while in Columbus and told them what had happened. This was a Tuesday they said they couldn't give me an appointment until Friday.lol They also asked if any dash lights came on, yeah I was paying attention to dash lights while trying not to hit the school bus beside me or the truck in front of me, God knows what was behind me. I told him that what I do remember vividly is the big yellow and black bus beside me!!! Needless to say we weren't happy with this response so my husband met me in Chillicothe and we took the vehicle to the dealership that afternoon. We arrived at approximately 5:30 and was told all rental agencies were closed and they could not provide us with a rental until the next day at 9:00 am. The salesman who sold us the car evidently heard what was going down and he called their regional manager. To make a long story short we were provided a car that night and left the Santa Fe. On Thursday the service manager phoned me at work and said they couldn't find anything wrong with it and it didn't show a code and that their regional manager looked at the vehicle. Their answer was.....the regional manager took the floor mat out and said tell them not to be using this again. I was also told that he opened the door and immediately was able to get the accelerator to stick under the floor mat. Oh, and they have pictures. Funny, my husband checked that out the first time it over acclerated. We went up to Herrnsteins to talk with them. The service manager had already gone for the day so we spoke with our salesman who tried to make us a trade in deal on a 2011 Sonata. The picture we were shown was on a digital cammera and showed only a picture of the floor mat. Upon seeing this "picture" my husband took the salesman to the vehicle and attempted every way possible to get the accelerator to stick. It did not. The service manager supposedly drove the vehicle before the regional big shot looked at it and he could not get it to over accelerate. HMMM that floor mat was there when he drove it. After the salesperson saw the way the accelerator was made and that it wouldn't stick. He backed off his story that he saw the regional manager get it to stick and said that he only saw the man taking pics. My husband then told the salesman he would be back tomorrow and that the regional manager and service manager can show him just how they get the accelerator to stick. So today is Friday, my husband took off work AGAIN, and is on his way back to the dealership. If anyone out there would like to help us a little Herrnsteins toll free number is 1-800-343-0133. The drama continues.......

#65 of 143 Re: 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe Sudden Acceleration [madasheck1] by madasheck1

Jun 04, 2010 (11:25 am)

Replying to: madasheck1 (Jun 04, 2010 7:23 am)
Update: Husband visited Herrnsteins, they are now 100% in support of us. Floor mat test FAILED!!! Now working our way through the Hyundai Corp. We are currently driving a rental provided to us by Herrnsteins. Kudos to Herrnsteins at Chillicothe, Ohio for standing up for their customers.

#66 of 143 Re: 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe Sudden Acceleration [madasheck1] by madasheck1

Sep 12, 2011 (8:25 am)

Replying to: madasheck1 (Jun 04, 2010 11:25 am)
Update to earlier message. Hyundai Corp. has taken the stance that SUA is not a problem with their vehicles. In other words I did not wreck the ******** or get killed so I can't prove it happened. They say the vehicle is safe for us to drive. We are still dealing with Herrnsteins and hope they'll make it right. Oh and Hyundai has put a safety feature on their new models. On the new models they won't allow you to break and accelerate at the same time. Wonder what brought them to the conclusion they needed to add that safety feature?

#67 of 143 Re: 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe Sudden Acceleration [madasheck1] by stannards

Jun 11, 2010 (9:08 am)

Replying to: madasheck1 (Sep 12, 2011 8:25 am)
This is the same arrogant attitude they have shown to everyone - now about 30 incidents recorded just on this one forum about this one model in a relatively short period of time so that would seem to speak for itself. Please please report it to the safety authorities and maybe soon there will be enough ammunition to get them and the motoring press on to it.

#68 of 143 Just happened to me yesterday by atlantamom

Jun 15, 2010 (10:46 am)

My 2008 Sante Fe started accelerating on its own while I was on the interstate driving approx 65 in Georgia I had been using the cruise control off and on during the trip so thought of that first. Hit the cancel button and then the off button, but it would not turn off. The green "cruise" light stayed on. I thought of the Toyota issues and tried to put it in neutral, BUT the gear shift would NOT move into "N" instead it made a loud horrible grinding sound and just wouldn't shift in. Long story short..... by pressing super hard on the brake with both feet I slowed the car and pulled onto the rough shoulder of an exit ramp and turned the key off. The car did a really hard jerk and stopped. Service guy at the dealer said that he had never had a Hyundae come in with that complaint. Some deacceleration, but he had never heard of an SUA issue with the Hyunadais Fortunately I had printed off a few pages from this very forum to get his attention that this isn't an isolated insident . . . or I'm not some ditsy female driver who did something wrong . . . and to give him a direction of where to find the defects and possible fixes. To his credit, I saw him starting to carefully read some of the entries and seem to look concerned. He even stapled the pages to the back of my "service request form" . . . I guess for the service manager. I wish I had printed more pages because some of the later pages are even more on target to my situtation. I just randomly printed two. But now I'm just waiting to see what they say and do. I'm still very, very shaken up thinking that my daughter and I could have been killed or seriously hurt if it had happened in a heavier or different traffic situation! And everyone would have probably thought that I fell asleep driving or was using the phone or something distracting . . . which is irritating to consider that I would have been blamed for my own and daughter's death/serious injury because nobody seems to know that there is this SUA issue on a car other than a Toyota. Even when I called my husband from the roadside, his comment was that "there haven't been any reports of sudden acceleration on Hyundai's so it must be something else" Anyway, thank you for this helpful forum.

#69 of 143 Re: Anyone experience Sudden Unintended Acceleration in a Hyundai Santa Fe? [bryancos] by luxor5

Jul 01, 2010 (2:54 pm)

Replying to: bryancos (Dec 16, 2009 1:26 pm)
I have an Altima Hybrid 2009 that while parking just accelerated and my foot was on the brake It was not on the accelrator at all? I was only about a foot from the railing when my car just "jumped" broke through the railing before stopping?
 
I would be interesed if anyone knows if they are recalling any sudden acceleration problems on vehicles? I called Nissan and they did not have my car on a recall but I heard there can be problems with chips ?

#70 of 143 Re: 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe Sudden Acceleration [madasheck1] by bryancos

Jul 07, 2010 (7:44 am)

Replying to: madasheck1 (Jun 04, 2010 7:23 am)
madasheck, (and anyone else who has experienced an SUA problem)
 
If you have not already done so, DROP WHAT YOU ARE DOING, AND LOG A FORMALIZED COMPLAINT WITH THE NHTSA (National Highway Safety Traffic Administration)
EITHER VIA THEIR WEBSITE:
  
Direct link to the online complaint form:
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/index.cfm
  
OR BY CALLING THEM BY PHONE: Call the Hotline, Monday-Friday 8am to 8pm at
(888) 327-4236 , TTY: (800) 424-9153.
  
If a problem isn't documented with them, it doesn't really help the rest of us to force the manufacturer to take responsiblity... so speak up and ensure you get the problem in their database!

#71 of 143 Acceleration surge caused me to hit another car by cc7incanada

Oct 02, 2010 (10:21 pm)

No one has posted here for about 6 months, but I was happy to find this thread. I was pulling my 2009 Santa Fe into a parking space in the mall, when I took my foot off the accelerator and touched the brake, the car surged, speeding up quickly and not stopping until I hit the parked car in front of me. I had my two kids in the car with me. A very scary event for all of us. A hard impact, but the bumpers took the brunt, so not much damage (a bit on mine, none on his). I called Hyundai from the car, and left a message for the service centre, asking that my car be given priority for a check-up. As it was a Saturday, I have to wait to hear back.
 
Nice to see that I'm not alone in this problem. Hopefully the dealership will address the problem quickly. We'll see. For now, I'm a bit hesitant to use the car, and may have to get a rental.
 
I'm not sure where I send the safety information/report here in Canada, but I will follow up.

#72 of 143 good luck - here is some advice by atlantamom

Oct 03, 2010 (6:47 pm)

I want to give you a little advice. Print out the reports that you find here and elsewhere on the web . . . and take them with you to the dealership. When I took my car in, the service mgr said that he had never heard of any sudden acceleration issues with the Hyundais. He said, "I've been here for a lotta years and we once had a sudden DEacceleration, but I haven't heard of any sudden acceleration problems If there were, I would have heard about it." After picking my jaw up off the floor, I happened to have in the car 6 or 7 pages of printouts from the internet about people's testimonies with this problem in Sante Fe's. Frankly, I could have printed more, but didn't think that I would need to. SO, it was very satisfying to be able to immediately hand him the stack of papers and basically tell him that if he is a Hyundai service manager and hadn't heard of it, then he has been living under a rock because it didn't take me long to find these testimonies online . . . and that given time . . I could find alot more. ALL OF A SUDDEN, they took me a little more seriously, paid for a rental car for me for ten days because I considered this a warranty issue. .. while they contacted the mfr to look into it. Well, that turned out to be a little of a joke. Long story short, they sent a dude out to drive my car for several hours and since the car didn't malfunction for him, they still claim that they don't believe that the incident ever happened. I'm must be mistaken or lying. Said they ran tests on the car per the Mfr instructions and found no problem. I insisted that they change the Throttle Pressure Control anyway . . . and at a minumum, I'd pay the dealer cost (300ish I think) on the part and no labor . . .or I'd have no choice than to trade the car in immediately because I couldn't put my kids in that car ever again. The incident scared tha pants off me, and given different driving conditions, could have killed us. (and the irritating thing is that maybe people would have thought I was distracted driving or fell asleep or something. geeeesh) Finally, the owner of the dealership, out of respect for a good customer who was very unhappy, paid to replace the TPS himself. Although he had to tell me that the mother company, Hyundai, would not allow him to admit that there was anything wrong or even acknowledge that the incident happened ("people lie about this kind of stuff to get free service or try to set us up for a lawsuit")
 
So, my advice to you in to walk in with documented information in-hand. And don't expect them to be co-operative or sympathetic.
 
Also, I typed out in second by second detail what happened, how I reacted, how the car reacted and sounded, etc. . . and asked them to staple it to the back of the service order. Otherwise, they just write on the little line something like "check accelerator" or something lame like that. Then the service technicians won't know the extent of seriousness of the problem When I typed out my incident in detail, I did it that same day while it was very fresh on my mind because I thought that maybe in some of the details, the service people could see clues about what went wrong mechanically. I never occured to me that they would not believe me or take the incident seriously!. . . . and when I saw them write "check accelerator" on the service intake form as if that's the only problem, that's when I insisted that they staple the detailed incident report to the back and instead write, "see attached" on the service report form.
 
Let us know what happens. And I'm so glad that you and your family didn't get hurt.

#73 of 143 Thanks Atlantamom by cc7incanada

Oct 04, 2010 (2:10 pm)

Replying to: atlantamom (Oct 03, 2010 6:47 pm)
My dealership hasn't called back yet, but I'm taking your advice. I've copied all the posts on this Forum, and will write up a synopsis of the event. Hopefully the Service Manager will call me soon (I've just left another message).
 
I'll keep you posted on my outcome.

Messages Page 8 of 15

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