'19 Hyundai Santa Fe DOWN!

I picked up the Santa Fe from the shop yesterday. The paperwork says a reman transmission was used for the replacement. It drives like new--no shifting issues, no rattles, scratches, or evidence that it was even worked on, other than the lack of banging noises coming from under the hood! I remain impressed with how quickly the dealer took care of this. The 2021 Elantra they gave me as a loaner was nicer than I thought it would be--my wife and I both thought it was fun to drive. If I was looking for a small sedan, the Elantra would be on my short list.
 
Very sensitive to different diameter tyres, so change all 4 at the same time, don't mix brands and/or models, and rotate often as the fronts will wear quicker and trouble will come. This will kill the transfer case or the rear clutch pack. Not covered under warranty if wear difference was more than 2mm, or not 4 the same tyres. This applies to manual transmissions aswell.

The splines between the tranfer case and front diff rust away, mostly the ones on the transfer case but not always. We were advised to put anti-seize in there whenever the 2 got split. You can detect this by turning the axle to the back by hand and checking for play. At some point there's no drive anymore. This also applies to manual transmissions, but the rusted differential was mostly in automatics.

Quite often, we couldn't remove one or both front driveshafts anymore, that's a pain if you need to replace the differential because of the rust. Now you are replacing a whole transmission and driveshafts aswell.

Had a few with very hard shifts from 1st to second, it banged like the engine fell out. Fluid looked dreadful but at that point a fluid change doesn't help of course. New transmission helped...
 
As per usual, the regulars are here backing up Hyundai and praising them.

OP- it sounds like your dealer is getting it taken care of rather quickly. That is an extremely quick turn around time for a transmission replacement. I hope it gives you many years of trouble free service after this.
 
We have had our Santa Fe 9 years. Great car. Only two failures we have had (knock on wood......bang bang) was the MCV motor (which was fine, but the plastic shaft broke) and the crank shaft position sensor. We did have an ABS sensor fail also. So, three failures. Everything else was just preventive maintenance stuff.

My guess is the dealer didn't ask about maintenance records because there is no maintenance on the transmission (especially at 21K.) Plus, they probably saw you had brought it in before and they missed the issue (possibly.)
 
Service advisors and service managment aren't supposed to be forthcoming to a customer regarding reliability issues.
BMW and the dealership owner wouldn't want Scotty K as a service advisor as an example.

Consumers Reports gives the 2019 Santa Fe a 4/5 on minor transmission repair and a 4/5 on major transmission repair.
The 2018 Santa Fe however only gets a 2/5 on minor transmission repair but gets the same 4/5 on major transmission repairs. So you are in a small boat of others that have had a transmission issue with a 2019 Santa Fe.
Some of us wish his rants were not mentioned on here at all.........
 
As per usual, the regulars are here backing up Hyundai and praising them.

OP- it sounds like your dealer is getting it taken care of rather quickly. That is an extremely quick turn around time for a transmission replacement. I hope it gives you many years of trouble free service after this.
I will reword that for you- "the OWNERS" of Hyundais are backing them up and praising them. There are very, very few naysayers who are owners of Hyundais on here who criticize them. VERY FEW.
 
I will reword that for you- "the OWNERS" of Hyundais are backing them up and praising them. There are very, very few naysayers who are owners of Hyundais on here who criticize them. VERY FEW.
Very true. My 15’ Sonata was a great car. I’ll back that thing up any day.

My Genesis though? I won’t trash it. I write off some issues for being a low production, and also luxury car. Could be worse.
 
I will reword that for you- "the OWNERS" of Hyundais are backing them up and praising them. There are very, very few naysayers who are owners of Hyundais on here who criticize them. VERY FEW.
No different than any other model that gets the praise here. If they were such an issue I sure wouldn't keep buying them, and I would imagine neither would the 'naysayers".
 
One day for the transmission to arrive is incredible given the current events.
I'm glad you're being taken care of. We have a couple of friends with Santa Fe's and like you, all they've needed is regular maintenance.
Not really. Pretty much every dealer, everywhere gets their parts next day. We can get a tranny or engine delivered for just about any of our cars next day. Engines and transmissions are a normally stocked item at the warehouse.
 
people are getting cars and brands that do not have reputation for durability, reliability or keeping up with residual value; yet expecting, 200K miles or more from them with no mechanical issues and no extra spending on maintenance... just crazy!
 
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From what ive observed, looked at and researched, Hyundai/Kia are good deals if you are the type that cycles new/late model cars every 2-5 years or till the lease ends, which is completely fine if thats your bag and aligns with your priority's. That is their business plan: as much features, sleek styling, for lower price, at the cost of thorough engineering and manufacturing of core components and it reflects how they design and build their cars especially since diverging from Mitsubishi designed engines. The cost savings are coming from somewhere.

Theta 2 bearing deburring fiasco, along with the myriad of other things on that engine(maybe im wrong but i have never seen a plastic water pump/thermo housing on a good engine), and now the SmartStream having piston slap and crazy oil issues from the factory and their solution is to make the dipstick indicator longer and up the oil capacity in the manual... is not a company that prioritizes robust engine design over costs any way you slice it. I get that every oem is guilty of this nowadays to some extent and especially on their workhorse 4 cylinders, but IMO hyundaiKia are at the forefront with stellantis and chevy(v8's excluded) not far behind in that order. Their more basic design V6's that have slightly more mitsubishi DNA remaining in them seem to be decent motors, however

I get that they have fans and their merits, thats fine, but I cannot call them "good" cars if we look at cars as pieces of equipment and not a gadget to cycle through every few years. I would never buy one as they do not fit my priorities when choosing a vehicle, but it fits the demo that buys cars with the same mindset as they do cell phones, which is fine.

Nice that they replaced your trans
 
Not really. Pretty much every dealer, everywhere gets their parts next day. We can get a tranny or engine delivered for just about any of our cars next day. Engines and transmissions are a normally stocked item at the warehouse.
I wouldn't say every dealer. I waited a week and a half for my F-150 when they replaced the 5.0L for the dreaded oval cylinder number 3 and most recently I waited 2 weeks for the engine to arrive for my '19 Escape 1.5L EB. In fact, most of my reports who have had 1.5L (4 cylinder) engines replaced were in a rental for 1.5/2 weeks.

A member here just indicated his inlaws Hyundai ThetaII engine just went and the engine is back ordered a month. Maybe you Canadian folks are lucky.
 
I wouldn't say every dealer. I waited a week and a half for my F-150 when they replaced the 5.0L for the dreaded oval cylinder number 3 and most recently I waited 2 weeks for the engine to arrive for my '19 Escape 1.5L EB. In fact, most of my reports who have had 1.5L (4 cylinder) engines replaced were in a rental for 1.5/2 weeks.

A member here just indicated his inlaws Hyundai ThetaII engine just went and the engine is back ordered a month. Maybe you Canadian folks are lucky.
Maybe we are just more used to replacing engines at BMW. HA HA!

Pretty normal to get it overnight, engine guy gets it replaced in about 8 hours. Well, unless it’s an N63 in the winter, then they are often back ordered.
 
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