← NHTSA complaints

2017 HYUNDAI SANTA FE — ENGINE

fire · 1766464 · 2021-09-03

Vehicle

Make
HYUNDAI
Model
SANTA FE
Year
2017
Manufacturer
Hyundai Motor America
Component
ENGINE
Miles at failure
112,000
Speed
60 mph

Severity

Deaths
0
Injured
0
Fire
Yes
Crash
No
Police report
No
Medical attention
No
Vehicle towed
No

Narrative

The engine in our 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe SE 3.3L V6 has always had problems with lag/ hesitation when accelerating from a stop from the very beginning of ownership (first owner). This was always dismissed by Hyundai's mechanics as not actually existing, although it did lag constantly. I know many other have reported similar issues so, I include this only that it could potentially be an early sign of a manufacturers defect leading to larger problems later? Now, we regularly change the oil in our Santa Fe and have never seen a single warning light outside of tire pressure warnings. But on 7/29/21, with our vehicle just out of warranty at 112k miles, while accelerating to freeway speed from an on ramp at 60 mph multiple warning lights came and at the same time there was a very large bang from the engine and a large amount of smoke came from under the hood, enough to seriously affect the vision of drivers behind me. There was a very rapid lose of speed and I also observed things falling from the vehicle in the rearview. I luckily managed the vehicle to the shoulder and quickly got out. I thought vehicle was on fire, it may have been, the smoke kept up for 5-10 minutes. At this point the car would not start or run and a large pool of oil and or coolant formed underneath. It was towed to a Hyundai dealer and the prognosis was a broken connecting rod that had blew a large maybe 5" diameter hole through the bottom of the engine. And now, despite providing proof of recent oil changes,

Source

Authoritative
NHTSA ODI Flat-File Downloads
ODI Number
11431571
Machine
JSON-LD · Markdown