My Hyundai Santa Fe Sport AWD (currently at ~34000 mil) is unstable while driving on the highway. It wanders more frequently to the right and tend to skid off its lane. I have to try so hard to keep it straight making me so scared that i may hit an oncoming vehicle. I had the alignment checked and was told nothing is wrong with it.
Please does anyone has answers on how to resolve this unsafe situation ???
2 things , are these original tires and has a mechanic driven this thing ?
Yes, they are original tires and a mechanic has done a test drive on it. I also browse through this website (see link below) and found out some other owners of same vehicle had similar problems.
I will appreciate if anyone can tell me how they had theirs resolved.
Suggest new tires and what did the mechanic say ? Frankly , others may not agree with me but I am not to impressed with the Carcomplaints web site .
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Thanks for feedback. The tyres are actually new.
The mechanic is suggesting he suspends the vehicle in order to drop the beam and do some thorough checks on the wheels, studs, and probably the whole steering wheel systems. I’m afraid to let him go that extent.
I want to try some other options first:
(1) Check to confirm if pressure Of all four tyres are set at 32 psi
(2) Do wheel balance and probably rotate the tyres (cross rotation: Front left with Rear right; Front right with Rear left)
What do you think?
I think you should check with dealer . This vehicle may still be under warranty but at least try a different mechanic. You still have not told us what the mechanic said after he drove it.
The mechanic did observe the unstable & wandering behavior of the car and said he can hear a sound when he steps on the brakes. He also said he can hear a sound while driving, suspecting to be coming from the right leg.
This is one of the reason he suggested he drops the beam of the car to do a thorough check.
I’m still trying to understand what this beam is all about
Tire balance is not going to cause you to skid. Sure check tire pressure but I doubt if thet is your problem. I don’t understand why you took it to a mechanic and wouldn’t let him check the steering and suspension.
As to “beam”, I think we must be having a translation problem.
As far as car complaints website, what you posted shows only 1 complaint besides yours for this issue. Maybe from previous owner of the same car?
If you navigate the link you will see more compliant of similar issues. i have reattached the link below.
The mechanic did mention sometime about checking the entire suspension system when he made reference to dropping of the beam - i guess that’s what he meant by beam. But i told him to hold on that until we have ruled out other possibilities, and i also wanted to engage this forum for more advice and understanding before taking a decision with the mechanic
so please take your time to read through all 24 NHTSA complaints of similar situation i am experiencing; I also included an additional site. It would have been great to know if any of these complaints were actually resolved.
Thanks and i look forward to more suggestions or solution in resolving my car problem
http://www.carproblemzoo.com/hyundai/santafe/steering-problems2.php
I’m not familiar with the Santa Fe but my 2010 Kia Forte has a “Torsion Beam” rear suspension. A 2014 Hyundai with 34,000 miles should be covered by their 60 month/60,000 mile warranty unless this is a salvage title vehicle which could explain the control problems.
I can understand a vehicle pulling to one side or the other, or not keeping to the line a person is trying to hold but skidding out of it’s lane . Unless there is snow, ice or standing water I think not.
Vehicle is driven on normal road; no ice, no snow, no water on the road. The skidding is not so obvious but the pulling to one side is more significant.
I am as surprised as you are. But if you look up the links i posted on this group chat, you will realize that this same issue has been experienced by several Hyundai users, hence mine is not peculiar.
The questions running through my head now are:
(1) Is this actually a flaw in the Hyundai Santa Fe
(2) How did these other Hyundai Santa Fe user resolved these mysterious behavior.
Thanks
It appears you have not contacted the Hyundai dealer or the corporate office . Several of us think this vehicle might still be under warranty. If it is and you have a mechanic work on it and still have a problem they do not have to cover it. It seems that the dealer will have more information about this than other shops. Even if you have to pay would it not be better to deal with a place that might know what to do.
Edit: I suggest that you tell whoever you talk to that you feel that the vehicle is not maintaining a stable path and not say it is skidding out of the lane .
Thanks “Volvo_V70”.
Yes it’s actually in my mind to contact a Hyundai service center; that is one of the reason i also did not jump in quickly to accept the offer from my mechanic to temper with the Suspension and Steering systems.
And you are correct about my choice of words in describing the problem i am observing; skidding is a bit too harsh.
Thanks for all your suggestions. But if you do come up with any information as regard similar issues, especially how it was resolved, i will be glad if you do keep me informed.
Cheers!!
After reading the complaints you posted, you have my sympathy. When I got my 2012 Camry , it was the first car I had with electric steering and I was not happy with it. I went back to the dealer and complained. They offered to do an alignment and I said ok but I would like to talk briefly to whoever is going to do the alignment. The specs for my car call for the front wheels pointing straight ahead plus or minus .01. I asked the tech to see if he could hit a little toe in I would be happy.
He did and it helped some but it is still a little fussy at high speed but I have gotten used to it…
Goth the electric steering and straight ahead toe settings are an attempt to get better fuel mileage,
It sounds like your car has something else going on. Do you have adjustable settings for the steering on your model?
I would also be persistant with complaints to the dealer and further up the chain if necessary.
I can totally imagine that, and I think mechanic is on the right track to check the elements holding suspension/steering geometry.
A recent example repaired by a friend of mine: late-90s Nissan Maxima, around 110K miles, similar symptoms, but also a good correlation to using brakes, where while vehicle is accelerating it would go straight, but upon application of brakes driver would have trouble keeping it going straight, especially on highway speed, it had a noticeable pull to the right, even when brakes would be released.
Brakes were in OK state, the root cause was a loose bushing in the back side of the bottom front control arm on right side: it would let it “play” and would change front suspension geometry causing symptoms. Applying brakes provided enough force to move the arm in a deteriorating bushing.
I do also agree that warranty might still be covering the issue, so it would be interesting to know what dealer finds, but we might never know.
Thanks Oldtimer_11 for your response.
Yeah my 2014 Hyundai is indeed an electric steering and i can actually adjust the steering forward (and closer to me) or backward (and away from me).
i am currently away from the vehicle (i travelled) and i plan to take it to a Hyundai service center as soon as i return. But yesterday i instructed my wife to drive to a nearby gas station to fuel the car and she told me while she was driving below 40 mph, the vehicle pulled her to the right and immediately the Traction Control warning sign came up for a few seconds. This made the vehicle to reduce acceleration for a while and then gradually picked up acceleration again. She also said she experienced a slight pull to the left (never experienced this before) on her way back to the house.
I guess the situation is getting worse !!!
Regards
That sounds more like you might have a problem with the ABS/Traction control components.
Just for testing purposes, every time you start the car, and before you drive, turn off the traction control to see if problem goes away.
Which is it? The tires on the 2014 are either original or new.
I recommend that before you go to the dealer- which needs to be your next step- you get your facts in line and in order. Giving confusing messages like this will only delay anyone’s efforts to solve this serious issue.
+1
Additionally, using terminology like “skids out of its lane”, rather than saying something like, “the car drifts…”, or “the car veers…” would be much more relevant–and ultimately, more helpful–than telling the mechanic that the car is “skidding”.
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