I have a 2021 Limited,with DCT. Have not had any problems you have described. This is the first experience with a DCT, and I love it. Took some getting used to, but if you've driven manual transmissions, you will really appreciate this DCT.
Sometimes it may do something you are not used to, but really just chalk that up to, being new to this kind of transmission.

 

😅 Yes, I am used to driving manual (I miss it to be honest, although my legs don't), so I might actually love it! Thanks for your feedback 😁

 

The only time we have a what I would call a studder is when the car is in the auto stop/start mode. If you move your foot from the brake the gas too fast when in the stop mode there seems to be what I will call a studder as it takes the engine/transmission a second or so to catch up with each other. My wife hates the stop/start mode and turns it off every time she drives the car. I just remove my foot from the brake and then step on the gas. The engine has started and there is no studder. For the most part I don't even feel the shifting of gears, very smooth.

 

Thanks! Yeah I've heard about the stop-start, we already determined we're shutting THAT off LOL

 

I had a 5 speed manual gear in my Hyundai Eon (mated to a small 3 cylinder, 1L engine, Petrol) and then later, a 6 speed manual gear in my Hyundai accent (sedan version) mated to 1.6L Diesel, now on Santa Fe with 8-Speed wDCT, this gear box is smooth! Since you have driven a manual gear box before, I think you will really enjoy the 8-Speed Wet DCT. I test drove all of SF drive train, from 8 Speed Auto, to 6 Speed Auto and 8 Speed wDCT, and I felt 8 Speed wDCT is most engaging compared to the other two. In my experience, it is somewhat jerky in beginning (when its new) but eventually after 3k~4k KM, it smoothen out. My SF 2.5T is about 5 month now, no issues with 8-Speed wDCT - touchwood!

 

Thanks! Yes, we've heard it "learns" your driving style over time and adjusts to you. Shame it's 2 of us, though, he has more of an aggressive style to me, so I might have to drive it for a while so it (re)learns me instead to bug him LOL

 

The DCT has a computerized learning curve that over the 1st couple thousand miles will learn how you drive and adapt. With two clutches, it has to predict what the next gear should be (higher or lower) so it can preselect it. If you are a stop/start/speedup/slowdown type of driver then the prediction of the next gear might not be right and there could be a slight pause as it has to move the gears in the 2nd power train the other direction. But if you drive predictably, except for emergency or urgent braking of course but in that case if you use the brake the DCT will pick the next lowest gear as it knows it's slowing down, the DCT will be as smooth as butter after a couple thousand miles.

As for other issues, they are pretty much all in the past, there was a bad batch that were built between Jan-Mar of 2021 that had some internal issues. But nothing reported for any DCT's after March of 21.

So the people or dealers saying that the jerking is normal, really don't have a DCT that the TCM has broken itself in yet. Mine is buttery smooth and I have to really listen to feel it shift when I accelerate.

 

The DCT has a computerized learning curve that over the 1st couple thousand miles will learn how you drive and adapt. With two clutches, it has to predict what the next gear should be (higher or lower) so it can preselect it. If you are a stop/start/speedup/slowdown type of driver then the prediction of the next gear might not be right and there could be a slight pause as it has to move the gears in the 2nd power train the other direction. But if you drive predictably, except for emergency or urgent braking of course but in that case if you use the brake the DCT will pick the next lowest gear as it knows it's slowing down, the DCT will be as smooth as butter after a couple thousand miles.

As for other issues, they are pretty much all in the past, there was a bad batch that were built between Jan-Mar of 2021 that had some internal issues. But nothing reported for any DCT's after March of 21.

So the people or dealers saying that the jerking is normal, really don't have a DCT that the TCM has broken itself in yet. Mine is buttery smooth and I have to really listen to feel it shift when I accelerate.

Oh! Thanks! Good to know about the date timeline, will need to be sure whatever we end up getting is AFTER March 2021. But get this! The Ultimate offered here still has the old transmission? But that's a question for another thread. We have some feelers to with another dealer about the reality of that, but maybe just in the Canadian market (we were waiting to see what happened with the DCT in the US?!). Weird.

 

You can tell the build date. It's stamped on the mfg's sticker on the B pillar. All the SF's are/were manufactured in Alabama anyway so they all came from the same place.

And if you are getting a '22 you are definitely out of the problem dates. Not saying that things can't happen with any car, but there was definitely a cluster around Jan-March of 21. Since then, no reported DCT failures and I've been tracking as I have a May build date.

The Cali is a fabulous vehicle, you will absolutely love it. Just make sure you follow, religiously, the engine break-in procedure detailed in the manual for the 1st 600 miles. To seat all the cylinder rings, bearings. No hot rodding and keep the RPM between 2000-4000 using the paddle shifters as much as possible. To manually control the RPM, take it out of comfort or smart mode and put it into sport mode. That overrides the transmission auto-downshift.

 

Throwing in my two cents. The DCT in the Santa Fe is much better than the DCT I had in my previous Kia Seltos. The Kia definitely experienced a lot of what you described but I regularly think to myself about how I can't even tell when the Santa Fe shifts. The wet clutch in the Santa Fe is miles ahead of the dry clutch in the Kia.

My one annoyance is that you do need to be more aware of what you are intending to do because it does try to guess what you are going to do next. If you suddenly do something unanticipated it will lag a bit. For example, if I am applying the brakes the Santa Fe expects me to continue slowing down and is anticipating a downshift. If I suddenly need to press the accelerator harder than normal it will hesitate but only slightly.

I have about 1100 miles on the car so far and I have zero complaints about the DCT.

 

I think it operates smoothly most of the time. Every once in awhile it will feel a little janky, but you sort of learn how to drive it and avoid the awkward situations. The only real issue I have had is that sometimes if I accelerate really hard from a stop, the shift to second or third gear is really slippy. I also do not like the integration of the paddle shifters, so I mostly only use them to control descent speeds. If you've ever driven a Ford Focus with a DCT (the ones that they had the lawsuits over), this one will feel buttery in comparison...lol! All in all, I think the complaints about it not operating smoothly are highly exaggerated. Mine was built in the questionable time frame, but only has 6,000 miles on it, so we'll see how that goes...

 

For me it is smooth most of the time. The first 1000-1500 miles were a bit weird and lurchy but then it broke in and became rather nice. I think a lot of the reviewers got one to drive for a weekend, the DCT wasn't broken in on their test vehicles, and they concluded that it sucked. Mine became very smooth right around 1500 miles. I have about 5300 miles on it now and it's really good. As someone mentioned above, every once in a while it sort of doesn't anticipate your next move properly and can end up in not quite the right gear, but it doesn't happen to me often. Most of the time, I'm very happy with it. It's MUCH quicker to react to input than a standard, lazy AT.

My only two complaints are: sometimes it kind of gets locked in a super high gear for a given situation. Most often this means like 1100 RPM at 38 mph - something along those lines. Medium speed local driving and I just have to really floor it to get it out of its funk. No biggie. Once it reboots with a good hard push, it finds its way. The other complaint is a bit more of a problem. I find sometimes at low highway speeds, like 55 or 60, that it does not provide a snappy downshift when I need to pass a car - it lumbers in too high a gear and I have to really floor it to get the Fe moving - at which point it lurches forward hard-core, in one too low a gear than appropriate. This doesn't happen too often but it does happen.

Overall, I give the DCT a B+

 

I have had some issues with very rough initial shifts. It went away at about 2k miles. Now it's very responsive and smooth.

 

No issues or problems here. The DCT has been a delight and one of the primary reasons I traded the 2019 for the 2022.

 

No issues with a '21 Limited. I am also a devoted ex-manual driver, but my wife is not, and she has had no complaints either through the first 15,000 miles on the DCT.

 

I have a 2022 with the 2.5T, DCT, and AWD. I have owned manual cars for the last 20 years, but also regularly drive automatics. I was concerned about the DCT before getting my Santa Fe, but I immediately was very impressed with it. It went from being something that I thought would be a negative to being one of the strong points of the car so far. It’s extremely smooth. I think that knowing how a manual works helps you understand what the DCT is doing.

 

We're currently looking to trade in our 2018 Santa Fe 2.4L Sport for a 2022 Santa Fe Ultimate Calligraphy 2.5L Turbo with the 8-speed Dual Clutch Transmission.

We've come across a lot of complaints about this DCT in online forums regarding the 2021 with jerking, clunking and odd behavior that dealers have simply said "that's normal" to. It seems to happen mostly during city (stop and go) traffic. We live in a smaller city so not Toronto or anything like that, but I still wonder if this "normal" behaviour might well still drive me nuts when driving it in regular traffic. We would be driving a lot of highway trips as well. Husband has asked around at a few shops locally and near Toronto about any feedback they might have about the Hyundai DCT but my concern is that anyone who has an issue in this relatively new transmission in their Hyundai will be bringing it back to Hyundai and not their local Joe Mechanic so any "no I haven't heard anything"from a local shop might not be a good indication at all if it's reliable or simply worth passing on for a different vehicle altogether.

I realize that this is a subjective question, but I do want other people's opinions, thoughts or regrets about buying one now before we drop the trade-in balance on one.

Unfortunately, neither closest dealers has a 2022 in stock for us to test drive, but not surprising in this climate of any in-stock new and used cars being in such high demand these days. Otherwise, we would (duh) take one out for a test drive LOL

Thanks a bunch!

2022 Santa Fe has WDCT. The Wet Dual Clutch Transmissions don't have the temperature over heating clutch problems that Dry Dual Clutch Transmissions can have. Go on Youtube and search for john cadogan / dual clutch transmission - torture test. This video should answer your questions.

 

That test isn't really a good indicator of the transmissions ability to avoid overheating. During off road tests of the Sorento, the transmission overheated. During normal use on-road, there shouldn't be any concerns, but it is well known DCTs don't do well in off-roading.

 

This is my first time driving with a DCT. My question is if I stop on an incline the car would go backwards if I let go off brake because it has no torque creep, so to minimize chance of hitting the car behind me should I switch my foot from brake to gas quicker or use the AUTO HOLD function? What do you guys do?

 

I typically use Auto Hold but regardless, the vehicle should not roll backward on a hill more than maybe a couple inches.

 

The auto stop/start mode is on my default. It is kinda useless here in SW Florida as the air conditioning is almost always running. Usually, can't make it through a traffic signal without the engine starting as the A/C compressor kicks in and the engine starts. I wish the default was off or have a setting in the User profile as to which one you want. Now, it just gets turned off as a startup routine.

 

I bought a 2022 Caligraphy in Dec 2021. This is the VIN:5NMS5DAL1NH403129 I've had no issues with it until 7500 miles. I drove about 2 miles for dinner. I pulled into a parking spot and upon leaving in reverse and shifting into drive, the problems began without any prior warning. The MIL (check engine light) illuminated. I turned off the ignition for a while, then restarted. The MIL was still illuminated, but the white drive indicator lights were flashing. The car went into creep mode, but I made it back home after a couple more similar issues. I did note that auto engine stop or just stopping seemed to be connected to initiating this issue. I let the car sit at my home for a couple days without use as my wife was out of town. She came home, so I test drove the car without issues other than the check engine was on and no blinking lights. The dealership was called and advised it would be okay to drive to them. My wife followed me, the the check engine light turned off. There were no issues going to the dealership as we did not stop. Two days later, I get a call from the Hyundai dealership informing me that I would be getting a new transmission in 2 weeks. Any ideas of what is going on? Thank you, Peele Dunn peeledunn@hotmail.com

 

I bought a 2022 Caligraphy in Dec 2021. This is the VIN:5NMS5DAL1NH403129 I've had no issues with it until 7500 miles. I drove about 2 miles for dinner. I pulled into a parking spot and upon leaving in reverse and shifting into drive, the problems began without any prior warning. The MIL (check engine light) illuminated. I turned off the ignition for a while, then restarted. The MIL was still illuminated, but the white drive indicator lights were flashing. The car went into creep mode, but I made it back home after a couple more similar issues. I did note that auto engine stop or just stopping seemed to be connected to initiating this issue. I let the car sit at my home for a couple days without use as my wife was out of town. She came home, so I test drove the car without issues other than the check engine was on and no blinking lights. The dealership was called and advised it would be okay to drive to them. My wife followed me, the the check engine light turned off. There were no issues going to the dealership as we did not stop. Two days later, I get a call from the Hyundai dealership informing me that I would be getting a new transmission in 2 weeks. Any ideas of what is going on? Thank you, Peele Dunn peeledunn@hotmail.com

Our 2022 SF Limited purchased 11/01/2021, DCT died at 5660 miles 08/02/2022. Still at the towed-to-dealership awaiting a new transmission. I used Alabama Lemon Law and Hyundai agreed to buy it back. We have already purchased a 2023 SF SEL.

 

Hey Peele, any new info on the tranny issue? But glad to read it didn't crap out suddenly, so you had a chance to both drive it home, and then to the dealer. I just came back from a 5K-mile long trip, and was a bit concerned about getting stranded almost 2K miles away from home. And also stressed when I had to 'abuse' the tranny with the awful Seattle downtown traffic with insane hills, and then when I got the surprise a freaking national park road was freaking dirt, and also with very steep inclines, and lots of pot holes and ruts, so had to 'abuse' the tranny/clutch more than I wanted to. And on the way down, beat the crap out of the SF due to hardly any engine braking at all, so had to go quicker than I wanted, as not to exceed 4K rpm with engine braking. Felt a little fade on the brakes once, but hope I didn't severely wore them down. They had squealing, but it's gone now, and no pulsing, so hopefully all is well with the rotors and pads. Anyway, I'm trusting it more, but with less than 6K miles, and lots of issues below 10K, I'm still a bit nervous about long trips on this thing. But will continue monitoring tranny issues. The potential good news is that my 2022 is a late build (Apr 09, 2022), so it's possible Hyundai fixed whatever could be the issue plaguing SFs now (and many other 1.6T DCT vehicles). We'll see, because I don't want to get rid of it. I'd probably buy a Subaru Outback Touring XT instead, but they're hideous, and don't want to settle for a freaking CVT. Ha ha. But reliability is my #1 priority on my travel vehicle, so I'd reluctantly make that switch. The Highlander could be another possibility, but I've never liked Toyota's rental car interiors. Plus ventilated front seats are a deal-breaker, and I don't think it still has any. The SF drives great with the DCT IMO, but it's quirky, and I'm a manual guy. It honestly should have come with a regular TC tranny, for better reliability and smoothness, plus it's more robust. But we'll see what happens with this thing. I'm enjoying it while it works fine. Ha ha.

 

Another? Geez. Although also an early 2022, for what I can tell. Hey, how exactly did it die? Just curious. I have not heard of any 'banging', or any other suggestion of self-destruction, so extremely curious what's happening to them. I'm almost dead on that mileage at the moment, after the end of our 5K-mile long trip, so still a bit concerned about it. But the SF performed flawlessly during the trip, even after some non-intentional abuse due to heavy traffic, some in extremely hilly Seattle streets (lots of clutch slip), and on inclined dirt (national park) roads I didn't expect as well. As a side comment, I drove my brother's Porsche Macan DCT yesterday on the highway, and it was painfully obvious how much more refined Porsche's DCT unit is compared to ours. Oh well. At least ours has 8 gears, vs 7. Ha ha.

 

I have a 2022 Calligraphy and have had a ton of issues that seemed to coincide with a software update. It constantly overheats according to the temp gauge. I noticed this happens during acceleration but it feels like the car isn’t increasing in speed. It’s like the transmission is slipping. I don’t quite have 12k miles on my car. I also notice that when the car is in Park while idling, it bumps forward. It’s hard to describe but it almost feels like someone tapped the bumper from behind. The first time it happened, I thought I was crazy! But it happens almost every day when I turn the car on while parked in my garage. Performance wise, I’ve been very happy with the car compared to the 2020 2.0T I bought….when it functions properly. That **** auto off function has almost caused me two accidents because I go to cross traffic expecting a response and the **** car doesn’t start after I take my foot off the brake. It’s rather annoying. The earliest appointment I could get at my local dealership is May 1st. Hopefully they fix the issues.

 

I own a 2022 Santa Fe Calligraphy... a great vehicle! However, I was one of the first to register a problem with the transmission. After research by the dealer along with Hyundai Corporate they determined a malfunctioning oil pump in the DCT was the issue. They replaced the entire transmission at no cost and provided a rental car at their expense while they fixed the problem. It became a nationwide recall to replace the DCT on 2022 Santa Fe's. Bottomline, if the transmission was one of the affected DCT's and it has been replaced, you will have a great vehicle because that turbo will get up and go when you need it Just make sure the DCT is good or has been replaced if one of the impacted ones.

 

We're currently looking to trade in our 2018 Santa Fe 2.4L Sport for a 2022 Santa Fe Ultimate Calligraphy 2.5L Turbo with the 8-speed Dual Clutch Transmission. We've come across a lot of complaints about this DCT in online forums regarding the 2021 with jerking, clunking and odd behavior that dealers have simply said "that's normal" to. It seems to happen mostly during city (stop and go) traffic. We live in a smaller city so not Toronto or anything like that, but I still wonder if this "normal" behaviour might well still drive me nuts when driving it in regular traffic. We would be driving a lot of highway trips as well. Husband has asked around at a few shops locally and near Toronto about any feedback they might have about the Hyundai DCT but my concern is that anyone who has an issue in this relatively new transmission in their Hyundai will be bringing it back to Hyundai and not their local Joe Mechanic so any "no I haven't heard anything" from a local shop might not be a good indication at all if it's reliable or simply worth passing on for a different vehicle altogether. I realize that this is a subjective question, but I do want other people's opinions, thoughts or regrets about buying one now before we drop the trade-in balance on one. Unfortunately, neither closest dealers has a 2022 in stock for us to test drive, but not surprising in this climate of any in-stock new and used cars being in such high demand these days. Otherwise, we would (duh) take one out for a test drive LOL Thanks a bunch!

I’m not sure I caught the actual question, but if it’s about whether or not you should buy the 2022 SantaFe Calligraphy, I would say RUN! Do not do it. I continue to have issues with mine. I’ve also noticed the last few months that the exhaust smells like paint thinner. It is a STRONG smell and today I noticed it was stronger than it has been. I tried to schedule an appointment at my local dealership for diagnostics, but the earliest appointment they have available is mid-October. If I had the chance to make the decision all over again, I would go back to my 2020 SantaFe 2.0T Limited. I hope this helps.

 

Wow...that's unfortunate. I have not had any issues but the DCT. Then again, I did not have an earlier model to compare to as you did. You might want to go back to the dealer and demand a service tech step away for a few minutes to check to see what it might be. Tell them the smell is making you nauseous (and the next visit may be to your doctor). I had to push with the transmission issue. It would only happen the first start in the morning, then did not occur again the rest of the day. So, after they thought the problem was addressed, I took it back to them and told them I am NOT turning off the vehicle and needed a tech to step away for a short drive along so they could finally see what I was experiencing. I even had him drive and he experienced the problem right away. In the meantime, I even opened a ticket with the Hyundai Corporate office and got them involved as well. Good luck.

 

I have a 2022 Santa Fe Calligraphy with 12,500 miles on it and the DCT has had to be replaced, they had it for over 3 weeks part not in stock when the part came in they replaced it and now it hesitates trying to get into gear. I need to take my car on a long trip, over 650 miles, I’m moving from the state I bought it in. I have no confidence in the Hyundai Santa Fe anymore and I afraid to drive it such a long way. This is my second Santa Fe that has crapped out on me the one previous to this one had software issues, traded it in for this Calligraphy and more money. If they can’t fix it I’m stuck in this state until something happens with this situation. I wouldn’t buy it. I can’t even sell it because of this problem and they won’t give any kind of good deal, I think I want a totally different make of car, I’m over Hyundai. Have had the Hyundai Santa Fe brand for 22 years, I’m done!!