I have a 2007 Santa Fe and since November of last year it has developed a front end vibration. I have had it back to the dealer five times and they balanced the tires four times before replacing all four tires. On the fifth time, they balanced and rotated again. The vibration is still there. I experience it mainly at 65-70 mph. It is a constant vibration that will numb your hands on a long drive. I am at my wits end on this one. I am wondering if anyone else has had this problem.

Here is a post from another Hyundai Forum. It should help you out.
Gord
http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/WebX/.f0f...eindex=.f0fbfec

gllund and lrquandt,

I made that post about the Bridgestone tire vibration over at the Edmunds forum. I copied and pasted it below this reply so we don't have to go the Edmunds site to read it. Since lrquandt has had all 4 tires replaced, the problem is in all likelyhood not with the tires. It is possible, however, that there is a problem with one or more of the rims and the RFV test would certainly find that. But it could also be caused by other things - a sharp mechanic should be able to figure it out rather quickly given that there is enough vibration to "numb your hands."

lrquandt, good luck on solving your problem and let us know what you find out.


== Edmunds Post ========================================

2008 SF Tire Vibration - Bridgestone Dueler HT

Just thought I would pass this along (there have been other related posts by others as well):

I have a new 2008 Santa Fe Limited with about 1,000 miles on it. It has always had a vibration between 50 and 60 mph. Not real bad, but enough so you could notice. I took it back to the dealer and they rebalanced all 4 wheels. No dice - the vibration was still there.

Took it back again and this time the did a RFV (Road Force Variance) test on all 4 wheels using a Hunter GSP 9700 balance machine. From what I can gather, this machine runs the tire against a roller under a load comparable to what the tire would have when running on the vehicle. It then measures the variance in pressure as the wheel rotates. This can spot out of round tires, defective rims, or tires with belt problems. A good tire should have a fairly uniform pressure (not air pressure, but the pressure it exerts agains the roller) as it rotates.

They said the variance limit on my tires should be about 19 lbs. They found one tire that had a variance of 47 lbs! They replaced that wheel with one from another vehicle (they tested it before they put it on and its variance was 10 lbs.). This completely solved the problem and it is now vibration free.

However, they apparently did not register or reset the TPMS system for the new wheel and now my TPMS malfunction light stays on. I can stop back up and get that reset, so it is not a big deal. I am just glad the vibration is gone.

If you are having a vibration problem that a standard wheel balance does not solve, I would suggest you push the dealer for a road force variance test. Now that I had it done on my SF, I can see why dealers don't use it more often - it took around 30 minutes a wheel to run them on the Hunter machine. They will want to do regular wheel balance and send you on your way - which may or may not solve your problem. If it doesn't, the RFV test is the way to go.

==============================================

I have filed a case with Hyundai and they are getting invoved. I will keep you posted on the issue.

I filed the case with Hyundai Customer Service and it was a very pleasant experience, with good follow-up. The Regional Rep in Chicago that has been assigned my case is a complete idiot. He is worthless and I am now back to dealing with the dealership. So much for Hyundai helping me out. This has been a complete waste of my time.

Same problem here. I bought my SF in January 2008 with snow tires. I installed the summer tires last week and had vibration. Just came back from the dealer this morning and they will change the 4 tires...

Yes... I have an '07 with the same issue. After 5 trys I still have a slight vibration at 70+ mph. They changed the tires, wheels (18"), did a road-force balanace and put in nitrogen. A Serv. Mgr. told me off-the-record that the '08s had the same prob!

Where do we go from here?

This post has been edited by TT3: Jun 3 2008, 09:24 PM

I had a 1999 Chrysler 300M, $30K. From the day off the lot the steering wheel would shake. All Chryslers that year with the NEW 16" tires had that problem. After many attempts, and a new set of tires from Goodyear, no solution. After some 3K the vibration would come back. Finally, 2 years later Goodyear sent me a check for $900 and stated "Goodyear tires, for some reason, do not work on your Chrysler". Please purchase tires from another company.
Drove it another year and got an Audi.
No problem with mine at 12K. I had a Jeep that had a vibrations. After getting all the tires balanced. That fixed it.
I would also suspect the drive shaft.
The 1999 Chrysler 300m, all the cars had the problem. This is the first post I have seen on that problem. I would suspect an out of round rim or drive shaft.
Is the steering wheel vibrating or the car ?

I test drove a brand new 2008 Santa Fe and the vibration is worse than my 2007. I now have developed a loud clunk noise coming from the left front end when I take a sharp turn. If this was any other brand than a Hyundai, I would take it in to the dealer. After having this vehicle back to the dealer six times, they have assured me nothing is wrong with it.

My experience with Hyundai and associated dealerships has been a nightmare I relive everytime I drive my Santa Fe. the only saving grace is I leased this vehicle. In less than a year this nightmare will be over and I can get a real car.

Anyone for a class action lawsuit? Count me in!!!!!

Yeah, I've noticed this on mine as well since I've been doing more time on the highway recently. Starts just before 75 mph and seems to be intermittent. Sometimes it's smooth as glass, sometimes the steering wheel vibrates so bad you can watch your hand and arm shaking. The rest of the car is smooth and steady - it's 100% in the steering wheel. I've had the tires balanced and rotated multiple times and it's always the same. It's going into the dealership next Friday but I have zero confidence that they'll be able to find and address the issue. I'm thinking it has nothing to do with the tires/wheels and might be something in the steering/suspension...

Anybody found any resolution to this yet?

This post has been edited by saraph: Jul 12 2008, 07:27 AM

UPDATE... after having the tires replaced with another brand and new (18") wheels put on it SEEMS to be lessened. The rebalancing, nitrogen, etc, only moved the viabration around - first it was at 40mph, then it was 55, then it was 65. Now, it's very slight sometimes at 75+. I'm beginning to believe the road surface comes into play as well since it's not always viabratiing now. The biggest change for the better was when the wheels were replaced... they avoided that like the plague!

Yes. I think there is definitely some type of interaction with the road surface. I've noticed there are certain stretches of road that I commonly drive on that almost always cause the vibrations. It's strange, however, because it seems that some of the smoothest roads (like freshly paved blacktop) cause the worst steering wheel vibrations. The rest of the chassis is smooth and vibration free on these stretches of road - it's nearly all in the steering wheel when it happens.

I hope they can address this. I really like this truck aside from this issue, but this is a major annoyance that I cannot tolerate.

FOR THE RECORD, here's what was tried (by 2 different dealers) which did lessen the vibration on my '07 Santa Fe SE:

1) Static balance and tire pressure correction (no change)

2) Defective tire check and road-force balance (no change)

3) Re-road force balance and inflated with nitrogen (no change)

4) Bridgestone tires replaced with Khumo (some improvement)

5) Wheels replaced (biggest improvement)

It's much better now BUT not perfect... and it should be!

That is awesome information! I was actually considering changing to a different brand of tire myself and couldn't decide between the stock size Kumhos or going up to 255 Yokohamas. Since the Kumho's helped your vibration issue a bit, maybe I'll give them a try. Did the dealer foot the bill for all of this? I was thinking they would try to push the cost of the replacement tires back on us (so we could try to collect directly from Bridgestone).

All of these attempts were under warranty coverage AFTER I got Customer Care involved - at one point the dealer tried to tell me that *I* damaged the wheels.

That's an ignorant tactic on the dealer's part but easy to refute. If the tire on the out-of-round wheel wasn't apparently damaged, there's no way you could have caused it. If you had hit a pothole hard enough to bend the rim, the tire would definitely show significant signs of damage (broken belts, etc..).

Mine goes in this coming Friday, I'll update everyone on the results - or lack of results - as the case may be.

This post has been edited by saraph: Jul 13 2008, 06:10 PM

Well... I dropped the Santa Fe off at the dealer this morning - we'll see if anything comes of it. Just an interesting side note: The v-6 Sonata that they gave me as a loaner car has a vibration in the steering wheel that's at least as bad if not worse than my Santa Fe. I believe the Santa Fe and Sonata have similar chassis and suspension geometries - so it looks like this steering wheel vibration issue may be a "design feature" instead of a "defect" for Hyundai's...

So I got my Santa Fe back Friday and I will say that it is 100% better than it was. The dealership claims that all they did was rebalance the front tires agian. That seems extremely odd to me since those tires had been balanced and re-balanced three times in the past three months by several different shops (including this same dealership once before) and the results were always the same - vibrations in the steering wheel. Whatever they did, it's better than it was when it was new! I've been driving it all weekend on the highway and even took a couple of runs up to some fairly high speeds and it's smoother than it's ever been.

Anyhow, my hat's off to my dealership for taking care of it. If anyone in the northeast Ohio area is looking for a great Hyundai dealership (for sales or service), PM me and I'll point you in the right direction.

:beer:

This post has been edited by saraph: Jul 20 2008, 07:02 PM

Hey... good work, good luck or whatever... glad it's OK for you!

Thanks. The only thing I really fear now is that they actually did do something in addition to just balancing the tires - perhaps without even knowing it themselves (i.e. torquing the lug-nuts to spec... nobody does that anymore!!) - and next time this comes up, I'll be right back in the same boat.

I do still plan on buying new tires this fall. Hopefully I won't have to re-live this whole episode again.