2017 Hyundai Santa fe sport

Started car to reverse out of parking space and it started jerking as I accelerated. Drove jerkily the few blocks I had to go to make it home. Did not drive again but upon starting it the check engine light came on. Contacted Hyundai customer care who told me my car was covered under two extended warranties for a well documented engine failure on this exact vehicle - Hyundai Santa Fe Sport 2017. I’ve been researching and Hyundai knows about this problem and it had been through the courts after group legal action was taken. Hyundai refuses to pay for the car they know is a failure to be diagnosed. I cannot afford to have the car diagnosed especially not for a problem that Hyundai and half the world know (and have documented) is Hyundai’s fault. Vehicle can not be driven.

After we had the Hyundai 9C2 recall completed a few weeks ago, we immediately had rough shifting in our Hyundai Santa Fe Sport driving off the lot. Problem has continued since, and is most notable after cold start/once the car has sat for an extended period of time. Hyundai has released a Drivability Information on 5/18/26 regarding the known issue, but our Dealership was unaware. The Dealership recommended replacement of the Transmission, despite my explanation that the issue began after the installation of the recall fix.

This is in reference to the Hyundai 9C2 ECU software update for Theta II engines that have caused my 2017 Santa Fe Sport to hesitate, surge and run poorly the first few minutes after a cold start! I contacted my dealership but they have not offered any resolution as of yet even though Hyundai Corporate is well aware of the problems caused by the 9C2 software upgrade!

I was driving my car and it showed no signs of any issue but the engine light came on and started blinking so I pulled over and got it towed to a mechanic. He told me that I would need a new engine that would cost me $8000. I looked into it and found that there was a defect with my vehicles engine and that if I took it to a dealership, I could possibly get it covered 100% so I did that and then they covered it and when I got the vehicle back, it had an issue every time I drove it where it was kind of speeding up and jerking when I drove it, I took it back after I told them what happened and then they told me that my catalytic converter was bad and needed to be replaced. I ended up paying $1500 to get that replaced and when I got the car back again it’s still jerking and doing the same exact thing even worse. I contacted them. They told me to bring it back which I did and they told me that it needed a software update that was not available so that I would just have to be patient. They told me that anytime I wanted to drive it I had to let it warm up for 5 to 10 minutes and that it wouldn’t do that. I’ve had my vehicle back for over two weeks and it doesn’t matter if I warm it up or not it’s still doing the same thing. I do not feel safe driving this vehicle and I have not been giving any resolution by either the dealership or by the consumer affairs case manager that I have been working with on this. This has been an ongoing issue for three months now. It’s costed me hundreds of dollars in Ubers because I don’t feel it’s safe to drive.

harsh engagement or hesitation between gears 1 through 3 specifically during cold starts before the powertrain warms up. But also during driving in the highway.

Service Campaigh 9C2 Following completion of Service Campaign 9C2 (Theta II Emissions Improvement), certain vehicles may exhibit a brief hesitation or rough shifting condition during cold start operation. My 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe sport has severe loss of power and rough jerky transmission after the update. This condition will definately cause unsafe driving and vehicle engine and transmission damage. Hyundai corporate and local dealerships indicate no remedy for this situation. Dealer also indicated that Hyundai corporate may not release a new software update to fix the issue. This is unacceptable.

My 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe was brought to a local Hyundai dealership for routine maintenance on July 1, 2026. The 9C2 software update was installed, without my knowledge or consent, during this service. Immediately after getting my car back, I noticed a problem starting the car (though no warning lights or alerts populated). The car seems to stall and then jerk during the first few minutes of driving, particularly after a cold start (car has been sitting for a few hours before starting). This has been a KNOWN issue by Hyundai for several months, yet this update continues to be installed. There is currently no fix, and Hyundai simply suggests letting the car "warm up" for 3-5 minutes before ever driving it. I have reported this to Hyundai corporate and have no other resolutions or timeline on a fix. Many other individuals are affected. This is particularly dangerous due to drivers not always having the ability to wait 3-5 minutes to let their car warm up, and the car is quite difficult to control with all the initial jerking and stalling. I live in a residential neighborhood and continue to be nervous about lack of control over the car when leaving my home. I firmly believe Hyundai should be held responsible for fixing this issue urgently.

Campaign /Service Update 9C2 / TSB-25-01-087H broke my Hyundai. The car hesitates idling and on acceleration. Hyundai have no solution to this failed software update or acknowledging other issues it may be causing.

I took my SUV to get the 9C2 recall on 8/7/2026 performed and took it home. The next morning when I cranked it and left my driveway it acted as if the vehicle didn't recognize that I was pressing my accelerator. It sputtered and hesitated acceleration for about five minutes. It also acted as if it was not going to change from first to second gear. After about five min. of playing with the gas pedal it straightened out. Twice I was almost hit by other cars expecting me to pull away from a stop sign. I took it back the next day telling the service agent what was happening and he kept it overnight. I received a text saying the technician was unable to find a cold start problem and it was ready to pick up. I was so mad I could barely hold my temper. I took it home and for the next week every single day it acted like this when cold started in the morning. I took it back to Premiere Hyundai of Harvey and was treated rudely this time. They acted as if they never had a single other complaint and told me I might have to leave it for several days so they could cold start test it for several days. This was on a Wednesday morning 8/19. I was never updated or called and when I texted my service rep on Monday 8/24 I was told the tech was not able to duplicate the complaint and to come pick it up. I will not ever buy another Hyundai because of the way I was treated and lied to. PLEASE create a recall for this badly handled recall 9C2. My Sante Fe Sport ran beautifully before this recall messed up my SUV. Now I have found if I let it idle for five minutes in the morning and accelerate slowly until it changes gears, most mornings it will run well, but if I crank it and pull into the street on a cold start it does the sputtering HELP US HYUNDAI OWNERS

My 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport exhibits a documented mechanical failure under active code P0420 (Catalytic Converter Efficiency Below Threshold). This failure is the direct proximate consequence of a severe, long term manufacturing defect in the Theta II engine block, which has caused excessive oil consumption. Following the official 1,000 - mile diagnostic driving protocol completed on XXX, Keffer Hyundai (a Hyundai dealer located in [XXX]) service department officially confirmed the active code P0420 catalytic converter failure. They issued a formal written recommendation to replace the entire engine assembly but generated an out-of-pocket consumer estimate of 10,035. This case falls under the the terms of the Theta II Class Action Settlement which requires Hyundai to cover the defective engine block under the Lifetime Warranty Extension, along with any subsequent component damage (the Catalytic Converter) destroyed as a direct result of the engine's oil burning defect under the Lifetime Warranty Extension. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Brought my 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport into the dealer on July 25, 2026 for the ECU and Theta II software update (Hyundai Service Campaign 9C2). Before the recall service my car drove perfectly with no issues. After the recall service my car is extremely jerky when shifting at low speeds and has long delays when trying to accelerate. This problem is particularly apparent on cold start, and less so once the vehicle has been driving. The issue is not as noticeable if the vehicle has been driven, is turned off, and then turned on again before fully cooled down. The jerky shifting has been getting worse over the past month. Vehicle was taken back to the dealer that conducted the software update on August 26, 2026 and they charged me for throttle body cleaning and EFI service which they performed for carbon build up as they cited this as the cause for the issues. The issue was not resolved from this service despite the dealers claims and the vehicle still has the same jerky shifting and delayed acceleration on cold start. There are no warning messages. Issue is becoming more widely documented among users after this particular service campaign so it is not an individual isolated problem.

In June 2026 I took my vehicle to Hyundai for a recall to the ECM module. After that my vehicle would lose power and hesitate to shift gears, and overall does not feel safe. Took vehicle back to dealer and they have told me that I have to wait for them to issue a recall fix for this now .

On February 24, 2026, I had the 9C2 software update. My vehicle was being checked for oil consumption. Since then I have had issues with it hard shifting when first starting to drive and sometimes after I've been driving a while. This has continued miles down the road, sometimes over thirty minutes after driving. It also just feels continuously like it is not driving smooth. This only started after the update. I contacted HMA. The first person on my case (Gurvinder) told me I needed to return my car, not to drive it. I had bronchitis, so I did not immediately do that. The next person "Rainey" told me it is a KNOWN issue and they are telling people to warm their cars up for around 3 minutes, and it will be fine. I'd done that, and even driven longer than that. I told him that. I took my mother-in-law home from church miles from there after collecting her at the church door, etc... Getting to the hill at to her home, I didn't think it was going to get up it. Often I don't think I'm going to get out of my driveway, a dangerous driveway in a curve. He wanted Krause Hyundai to contact HMA Engineer. When I was at Krause, they didn't know how to get ahold of HMA Engineer. Dalton also said they can't back the update out. I'm on my third HMA Case Manager. She keeps changing what I've told her is wrong in the emails, I don't think she knows anything about cars. She won't listen when I say I spoke to Dalton at Krause; she keeps speaking to John. [XXX] said they can do diagnostic, but it will cost me. I refuse to pay as [XXX] and Gurvinder had months before wanted me to take it back to get fixed, and Rainey wanted Krause to contact the engineer. It is a known issue with a letter written by Hyundai. Getting a diagnostic code reading performed is not going to help. I'm afraid my vehicle will lose power on the road and I will be struck. I tried uploading both pdf and jpg, but it wouldn't let me. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

After the recent "important service campaign" involving the THETA II Emissions Logic Improvement my vehicle no longer safety shifts into the lower gears. It will not shift into gear. I am unable to safely get up to a normal speed and the engine and vehicle start shaking. This is isolated to the initial start of the vehicle and any low speed driving after. The issue is resolved after restarting the car, suggesting it is a software issue. This issue immediately began after the ECU update for the THETA II emissions logic improvement on 5/12/2026.

Airbag light illuminates on the dash and the seatbelt light illuminates intermittently as the seat electrical harness under the seat only connects in certain positions of the seat. My issue is associated with the passenger seat. This airbag light is associated with the airbag not firing or improperly firing. To avoid a recall, Hyundai has extended the warranty for vehicles for this issue but refuses to fix mine without payment.

Odometer Fraud. The contact purchased a 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport. The vehicle was a dealer sale. The contact stated that while attempting to trade the vehicle, the contact was informed by the dealer that the odometer had been rolled back prior to the purchase. The contact had purchased the vehicle in March 2022. A Carfax report indicated that the odometer was reported at approximately 75,585 miles on January 28th, 2022, and 55,710 miles on February 11, 2022, reflecting a 20,000 miles difference. The contact stated that the mileage at the time of purchase was unknown. The vehicle currently had approximately 132,064 miles. The issue was reported to the Pennsylvania State Police and the Pennsylvania Attorney General.

After a recall repair (Campaign 9C2) was performed on my vehicle, it developed a hesitation and lack of acceleration issue that did not exist before the repair. The vehicle exhibits rough or delayed gear shifting, a noticeable lack of power/acceleration, and behavior that feels like the engine is not receiving adequate fuel. This occurs both during cold start and after the vehicle has been driven and is fully warm

We have a 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport with a refurbished engine due to a past class act settlement, we were notified by Hyundai to bring in the vehicle for Service campaign 9C2 to update the Engine Control Module (ECM) Software for vehicles equipped with the (2.4 GDI) Theta II refurbished engine, which we have. The morning after we updated the 9C2 software, after starting our car cold for the first time in the am, our car went into limp mode, shaking very badly, it would not accelerate above 20 MPH, it had a lot of trouble shifting from 1st to 3rd gear and acted like it was going to stall out and then die in the middle of the road while I was in the car with my 2 children. The dealership we took it to was not able to duplicate the limp mode, but has documented that they did witness hesitation and sluggishness while test driving it. I cannot validate that it was test driven cold immediately as requested as all their test drives were done without me. Due to the vehicle not accelerating as it should normally, I feel the vehicle is very unsafe and unreliable as well. I’m willing to provide more documentation, and our car is available for further inspection. I did request the help of a Hyundai customer relations case manager who stated Hyundai is aware of all of the drive-ability issues I have stated and he said they are hoping to provide another software update, but that time frame is unknown. Dealership mechanic stated the same thing and believes our issue is related to the 9C2 update. The manufacture has not inspected the vehicle, but we would absolutely love them to if they would. There have been no check engine lights come on before or after this update, only misfire codes came up after the update which dealership has those, and since the dealership was unable to witness it going into limp mode while driving it, they could not gain the much needed data that pinpoints the exact problem. We were advised to warm up car and rev up the RPM to above 2,000 before driving.

After a recall repair (Campaign 9C2) was performed on my vehicle, it developed a hesitation and lack of acceleration issue that did not exist before the repair. The vehicle exhibits rough or delayed gear shifting, a noticeable lack of power/acceleration, and behavior that feels like the engine is not receiving adequate fuel. This occurs both during cold start and after the vehicle has been driven and is fully warm. I returned the vehicle to the dealership (Wallace Hyundai), where the service advisor personally test drove the car with me and confirmed he could feel the hesitation firsthand. Despite this, the dealership stated no issue was found and advised warming the car up for 1-3 minutes before driving as a workaround. I tested this exact recommendation, and the issue returned even after the vehicle was fully warmed and had already been driven. Hyundai Motor America's National Consumer Affairs department has stated this is "under review" but has also described the hesitation as "normal" cold-start behavior related to catalyst warm-up. This does not match what I am experiencing, since the issue also occurs when the vehicle is already warm, and their own dealership's advisor confirmed the problem exists. I have also noticed a decrease in fuel efficiency (MPG) since the software update associated with this recall. This issue directly affects the safe operation of the vehicle — specifically the ability to accelerate reliably, including in situations like merging onto highways or pulling into traffic, where a lack of power could result in a collision. I do not consider the vehicle safe to drive in its current condition.

Campaign 9C2 was installed on this vehicle and the now the vehicle is a danger to drive. My wife refuses to drive it as it bucks and jerks as well as the gas mileage has decreased from 35 highway to 28 highway. The fuel trims are way off on cold starts and the transmission now searches for the correct gear. Shifting back and forth. Just a slight touch of the accelerator and the car seems to jump forward which makes stop and go driving almost impossible.