2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz Powertrain & Transmission Problems

After starting vehicle and shifting to Drive, the vehicle does not want to shift out of 1st gear and only accelerating to 25 to 30 mph. So far the only quick fix is to stop and turn the vehicle off and then restarting.

"The 8-speed Dual Clutch Transmission and engine (Cylinder 4) failed on my 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz SEL Premium AWD with 37,780 miles. Both components are available for inspection upon request. While merging onto the highway in Sport Mode, the vehicle experienced violent shuddering and noise so severe I believed I had multiple flat tires simultaneously — specifically both front and rear passenger side tires. I immediately activated hazard lights and exited the highway. I was unable to safely operate the vehicle. Other drivers on the highway were also put at risk by my sudden need to exit. The dealer has NOT been able to reproduce or confirm the transmission issue despite multiple documented visits over the past year. However, AutoZone confirmed diagnostic code P0304 Cylinder 4 Misfire Detected on March 19, 2026 via OBD-II scan. The vehicle has been inspected multiple times by the Hyundai dealership over the past year. Hyundai Motor America has an open case on this vehicle and has escalated it to their buyback department. The Check Engine Light illuminated during the highway incident then self-cleared. Transmission slipping, shuddering at low speeds, high RPMs at low vehicle speeds, and failure to shift properly have been reported to the dealer for over one year. This vehicle contains the identical DCT transmission covered under Hyundai Recall 236 but my VIN was excluded despite identical symptoms. Backup camera has also failed twice — a federally mandated safety device."

My 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz has an ongoing powertrain/transmission malfunction that occurs during cold starts. The vehicle will not upshift out of 1st gear and becomes stuck around 25 mph with the accelerator fully pressed. There are no warning lights or messages. The only way to temporarily fix the issue is to pull over, turn the vehicle off, and restart it. This creates a serious safety risk because I am unable to accelerate to normal traffic speeds when merging or crossing intersections. The vehicle and components are available for inspection upon request. The issue has been brought to two Hyundai dealerships multiple times. One dealership replaced the entire transmission, and on a later visit they topped off the transmission fluid. Despite these repairs, the problem continues to occur. Hyundai corporate is involved and has an active case open, but the defect remains unresolved. The problem has not been consistently replicated by the dealers because it only occurs on cold starts, but it happens repeatedly in daily use.

The contact owns a 2022 Hyundai Cruz. The contact stated that while driving 70 MPH, the vehicle lost motive power but was unable to accelerate above 30 MPH. The contact was able to pull over to the shoulder of the roadway, where the failure persisted. The check engine warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was towed to the dealer, who diagnosed a failure with the transmission. The contact was informed that the transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. After investigating the failure, the contact related the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V760000 (Power Train); the VIN was included, but the vehicle was already repaired in 2022. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, a case was opened, and the contact was referred to the NHTSA Hotline for assistance. The failure mileage was 63,000.

2nd replacement DCT transmission failed Loss of power while driving on the interstate , upon acceleration no increase in speed, went from 65mph to 38mph before able to pull off the highway. Intermittently it is not shifting, shuttering, hard reverse shift, hesitation from park into drive

Loss of power transmission failure Recall issues continue

On [XXX] my new 2023 Hyundai Santa Cruz’s transmission failed while driving. Vehicle down shifted with a noticeable loss in power and speed. This was a very dangerous condition as I was in traffic when this incident occurred. The vehicle’s odometer shows ONLY 4761 total miles since purchasing this car brand new at Sheehy Hyundai in Waldorf, Maryland INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

A check engine light illuminated and the transmission system malfunctioned. Vehicle lost acceleration and would not shift until RPM was over 3k. It also would not allow manual or paddle shifting. Reviewed recalls and saw there is one for possible need of transmission replacement. I contacted the dealership and they said all recall work was addressed (transmission has never been replaced). They may have changed a part and updated a computer related to this recall but they were ADAMANT my recall had already been addressed. They made noise like I needed to pay for diagnostics. I took the car to an independent shop and paid them to diagnose as I was hesitant the dealer was being 100% honest with me. As it turn out YES. The transmission has failed and needs to be replaced. They provided me with the documentation showing this issue is recall related. (38,000 miles). My concern is that dealerships may mislead customers about this recall and cause possible dangerous conditions.

First shift issue, no warning lights present, was able to get to dealer they hooked up computer and reset/restart vehicle and told me I probably hit gas and brake at same time and it was probably in limp mode. Month later went to store just fine, got back in my vehicle and check engine light was on, shift issues, was told to keep driving for over 2 weeks till they had available appointment, during that time battery died and check engine light went off but shift issues were still there and they had to drive it I believe they said 60 miles to get light to come back on so hyundai would approve transmission replacement. After that finally got replaced and I put almost 4k miles on their rental (yeah... took a while). I was back in less than a week before service transmission immediately indicator comes on, again got to my destination fine, got back in vehicle and I'm on my way back in the dealer again. I was told I was the third transmission back in to get replaced again after a week of being on the road. but wait, battery dies again, warning lights gone and they give back the vehicle. They were nice enough to offer me 10k less than what I purchased it for 6 months ago.

On 6/22/24 I had issues with my car not picking up speed and shaking while driving a major freeway. The same day I had an issues starting the car. When it finally started the engine light came on with a notice on my screen. Dealership replaced fuel injector. Stating that was the problem. Again, on 7/27/24 the same issues happened. Another fuel injector replaced by dealship. The car is 2 and half years old, under 30,000 miles. 2 of my fuel injector have been replaced. I do not feel safe for other drivers and myself driving the freeway with the hyundai santa cruz. Due to the fuel injectors that randomly keeps giving out. They replace 1 at a time. I feel like hyundai is waiting for a big accident before they replaced all of them. There are multiple complaints that I have seen regarding this problem. They need to be investigated thoroughly, people's lives are in danger. I don't know much about vehicles, but if a car continues to stall, vibrate and stop at anytime it will cause an accident.

I was driving on the freeway at 65mph and experienced a sudden loss of power. I depressed the gas pedal but the car would not accelerate past 45 mph. I had to drive all the way home with my hazard lights on. There were no lights on the dashboard to signify a problem. This happened several times. I took it into the Hyundai Service center and they could not replicate the problem. It happened again. and again. and again. finally got an error "possible condition with your engine control module". Took it into the dealer and after they drove it around for hundreds of miles they said they were able to recreate the problem, pulls some codes and relaced the fuel injection pump. It happened again. and again. and again. I took it back to the Hyundai Service center. They could not re-create the issue. They told me to use Chevron gas only and added an additive to the car. It worked for a while. Then it happened again. And again. I took it to a different Hyundai Service Center. They were not able to re-create the problem. Apparently, every time I drive the car, after 5-10 minutes on the street roads, the car fails to accelerate and I have to pull over, stop the car, and then re-start it. Re-starting it seems to clear the issue. I am driving in SMART mode and my car is at 39000 miles. Every time I take it to the service center, they can not re-create the issue. This is outrageous. Do I need to get into a car accident in order to bring legal action to Hyundai for not fixing this loss of power/failure to accelerate issue? Worst part is, the first Hyundai service center went out of business and I can not get any of the maintenance records for the fuel pump replacement.

Dec. 16 2023 / 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz(Daily Driver) VEHICLE SAFETY CONCERNS / DANGEROUS DRIVING SAFETY ISSUES INCREASED RISK OF CRASH (HIGHWAY) Transmission: Problems started Dec. 11,2023 Monday Having trouble gaining any speed. The engine revving when getting on freeway when practicing normal function acceleration, slow having hard time gaining speed, car jerking. Transmission gauge will go beyond4-5 sometimes 6 on RPM just as regular pick up to accelerate problems noticed week of Dec. 11/2023. We were going to bring it up when taken for routine maintenance that would be due at 39,000 mile oil change. car currently standing at 37,000 miles. Radiator: Problems started Dec. 16, 2023 (Saturday) Pearland is 12 miles from home route on 288. Incident occurred while driving from Bushi Ban Martial Arts & Fitness after son's class. I was on freeway and car started to lose speed & over heat. The car beeped and said overheating. hood and oil light began to flash. Luckily was exiting freeway when it occurred speed was 60 mph slowed down to 8 mph and it cooled down enough to coast home. When in driveway hot pink liquid spewed every where, battery cover blown open, liquid all over tubes and engine. The liquid leaked all over driveway and was on drivers side quarter panel and paint was bubbled up. Damage to paint from heat of liquid. Lights on dash that are lit up are engine light, oil can light, battery light on staying on not turning off. Car is not able to be driven due to MFG. defective radiator, transmission, possible engine damage. Looked online noticed recall on thousands of vehicle including the 2022 Santa Cruz 4 recalls stated. Have not turned car back on due to needing it checked out by dealership ASAP need it towed to dealership. De Montrond Hyundai 3260 Gulf Fry Texas City, Tx 77591 Followed instructions on maintaining service at dealership as stated on warranty. REQUEST THAT THE CAR BE TESTED AND OPENED TO FIND ALL DEFECTS AND DAMAGE.

* On the date of 12/13/23 my 2023 Hyundai Santa Cruz had a loss of power to the drivetrain on two occasions , once in a parking lot , second when merging into traffic. * I felt to drive the vehicle was a risk to myself and safety of others. * 12/21/23 is the last report of DTC. 49,701 miles * The 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz is at a Dealership in Maryland for powertrain inspection and problem diagnosis. * The 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz did display a engine warning lamp, no symptoms notice before powertrain failure. Engine code ( P1C2E92 ) * First warning lamp on 12/13/23 ( no driving symptoms noticed ) 49,186 miles

When driving home from work, the vehicle shuttered and almost lost power to the vehicle. Received error code DTC P1C2D03 Powertrain TCU through the MyHyundai application and is available for inspection. My safety is put at risk due to loosing power to the vehicle while driving which almost caused an accident on the highway. There is a similar recall in place for the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz for the same issue. However, the recall only applied to the Santa Cruz with a certain vin prefix. I haven't had the vehicle inspected by the manufacturer (Earliest appointment is 17 November 2023). I only received the check engine light once the shuttering started to happen.

Lose of power, twice, one was around July early August, driving from my home doing about 30 mph I lost power, and the word limit showed on my dash, thinking I may have done something wrong myself I didn't think much of it until last Wednesday 09/27/23 it happened again, after leaving my destination I was driving home went around a corner and was up to about 35 mph and my truck lost power, which was completely nerve wrecking I had to pull over quickly and the word limit showed up again, I restarted the vehicle and drove off, and called a hyandai dealership and made an appointment which is for today Monday 10/02/23

2022 Santa Cruz with 5850 miles ... lost power when accelerating on busy road (avoided accident) ... Transmission Control System malfunction warning ... notified by dealer transmission will need to be replaced

In the middle of driving, the DCT transmission began having intermittent issues with shifting and wouldn't allow regular acceleration, as well as disengaged the transmission/clutch around 3,000rpm in every gear. At this point, it would either over-rev with no connection to the transmission, or required letting off the gas completely, and long enough, to force a gear shift. Max speed was limited to around 55mph during this time. Both TCU updates have already been performed on the vehicle prior to the incident. A warning message appeared during the incident stating the TCU needs repair, and the check engine light illuminated. A standard OBDII diagnostic tool was unable to read the specific code afterwards. This falls in line with multiple similar situations with these transmissions, and it will be going to a dealer for evaluation.

Twice, as I accelerated the transmission slipped out of gear as if it was shifted into Neutral. In both cases it finally shifted into gear and started to accelerate. In one case I was accelerating on to the Interstate. The Santa Cruz was taken to the dealer on Sept. 7th 2023 but they could not reproduce the problem and indicated there were no error codes. When the problem occurred I did not see a warning light on the dash.

August 16th, 2023 - Roughly 10:30 am Started car using Push-To-Start, car coughed a few times upon startup. Was about 74 degrees, not too hot or too cold. (This has happened before, not totally abnormal for it to cough on startup.) Loaded up the kid, our luggage, and left. Car was running about 4-5 minutes before putting it in drive. Drove out of the neighborhood street pretty normally, went to our stop sign, turned left. Car struggled up hill, appeared to be revving, but the RPMs and the speed did not reflect the amount of noise the car was making. Stopped at another stop sign, turned right, car WOULD NOT accelerate faster than 25ish mph. I put the pedal to the floor to try to bring up the speed, the SMART mode indicator was turning red (indicating bad gas mileage) but it was not accelerating or moving any further. Pulled into someone's driveway to get off the road. Stopped the car, put it in park, then put it in reverse, drove out of the driveway, put it back in drive. Car continued to not accelerate. Unable to get RPMs past 3k and speed past 25ish mph. Got it home without incident. Had dealership tow car as I was unwilling to drive it on an 70 mph road to get it to the dealer. Dealership and Hyundai corporate reject that anything occurred due to there being no computer indicator indicating there was an issue. They believe I had the car in manual mode. I discussed with them that 1) This was very unlikely, as I shifted back into drive more than once and 2) my RPMs would have been increasing if I was accelerating but simply not shifting. I went online and found out this is a widespread issue - I am not the only one reporting this problem.

1.Spring 2023 Received a Recall on tow hitch wiring package (may catch on fire)... No solution yet! I was experiencing transmission problems around same time. 2. My Hyundai App warns of transmission problem on 07/22/2023. Took my (19 month old) 2022 Santa Cruz to Preston Hyundai 07/24/2023. Earliest appointment available was scheduled for 08/09/2023 (16 days waiting period). 3. 08/09/2023, at Preston Hyundai, says they must order a new transmission and refuses to give me my truck back claiming it is UNSAFE to Drive (even though I drove it 16 days (over 400 miles) waiting for my service appointment!). Truck has remained at Preston Hyundai since 08/09/2023 and replacement transmission ETA is 10/24/2023, making total time in dealership 76 days to date (or 92 days since being notified on my Hyundai appof transmission problem! Truck has not moved or been started since 08/24/2023. 4. Back on 07/22/2023, I attempted to program Navigation system with "vacation address" but Nav System displayed prompt that Nav it needed a map update. I cleared the "OK" prompt off the display but I started getting "Check Engine" dummy light appearing and other dummy lights appearing! Also my tachometer gauge (also is the right turn signal mirror camera), quit working and started beeping every 10 seconds or so. 5. On 07/24/2023, at Preston Service Dept., I ask them to update Nav System. I was told that it takes too long and they won't do it! (lacking personnel and time and I should do it myself. I researched "How To" and discovered many warnings from owners that their vehicles computer system got messed up attempting the map update. I've been communicating with Hyundai headquarters who suggested I inquire about the "BuyBack" Program at my Dealership! I did inquire on 10/10/2023 and they've never heard of it, but evaluated my truck and offered me $27,000 for my 20 month old truck, leaving me a $15,000 expense for a new 2024 Santa Cruze. 6. I've now contacted a "Lemon Law" Law Firm!