I have a 2007 Santa Fe LMTD V6 with 2 weel drive. ONly 9K miles. I am noticing a vibration when doing speeds on the HWY. 65-75 MPH. It does not seem to feel in the steering wheel. You can feel it in the drivers seat. Slight fast vibration. My boy sits in the rear third seat and he complains about this vibration back there. Any suggestions. When I putit in nuertal doing these speeds,vibrationis still there, so I doubt if it is thetrany. Is my tires out of balance in the rear? Maybe the Santa Fe justrides rougher with vibration. I like to leave my tires with 40 pounds of pressure.

thanks
RHanck

 

I would say one or more tires are out of balance. BTW, 40-psi is too high.

 

Either one of the tires is out of balance, or somebody hit a curb with the rear and bent the rim. Another possiblility is a deformed tire.

 

According to the owners manual, 30 psi is the recommended tire pressure level. Reduce the pressure and try rotating the tires. If the vibration moves to a different corner of the vehicle, you know what to deal with.

 

Yes I read that too. Except I got the car with 35psi and I asked two dealers and they said "Well it depends on the kind of ride you like." Firmer ride, 35psi is fine.

All of the cars I have owned have typically been 35psi.

So should I be insuring the pressure is 30psi? or is 30-35 generally accepted?

Thoughts?

Oh, on vibration. Only once last year did I have vibration - driving down the highway - as I creeped up closer to 60mph (100km/h) the vibration intensified. That evening and from then on it was no longer there. I spoke to a few who thought it could have been ice underneath (during the winter - after a storm). I thought it was odd since it had been in the garage the night before and any ice would have fallen off already (not heated but warm enough to always melt snow). Never happened since - and all day long I was rolling in my head "balancing" "tires" ching ching ching ching $$$$$$$.

 

You should check the max PSI on the side of the tires. I think these tire are rate for 38PSI or something like that. I like my tire firm, but I usually stick for a few pund under the max PSI on the side of the tire. Above that you play with your life and others... A blowout at 75MPH is a nightmare, I can tell all about it.

 

I just bought a 2008 Santa Fe LTD and I'm having a similar problem. Vibrations in the vehicle at 55MPH and higher, faster you go the worse the vibration gets. Brought it back to the dealer on Christmas Eve and they balanced the tires. Vibrations still exists. From the research I've done this is an on going issue with the 2007 - 2008 Santa Fe's. Some suggestions that I've found on other sites are:

- Road Force Balancing
- High Speed Balancing (this may be the same as above, I don't know the difference)
- Have the engine mounts checked
- Have the timing checked
- Have the alignment checked
- If you had the under coating have them check that none got on the rear wheel drive shaft.
- Bad tires could also be the problem

As for the Max PSI on these tires (18' for the LTD), it is 44 PSI. Hyundai ships the vehicle with the max 44 PSI in the tires and the dealers are supposed to bring them down to 30PSI prior to delivery. I checked mine last night and the front two tires were at 35.5 PSI and the rear two were at 34.5 PSI. I dropped all 4 tires down to 30 PSI to see if that would alleviate the vibration problem. No help. I'll be calling my service manager at the dealership to have them go through the above list.

 

I have a 2008 Santa Fe Limited AWD and I had the vibration problem that you describe. I took it back to the dealer and they balanced the wheels. Didn't help. I took it back again and this time the put each wheel on what is called a "road force variance" (RFV) machine (this is NOT a standard wheel balancer).

Whata RFVdoes is rotate the wheel while the tire is mashing against a roller - to simulate the tire against the road with a load on it. The computer in it measures the force the tire exerts against that roller. IF a tire were perfect the force would remain constant as the tire turned a complete revolution. In reality, there is a range of variance. I think for mine it was 12 pounds - just for example, say the force of the tire against the road was 100 pounds, then the max variance for a good tire would be 100 pounds + or - 12.

It turned out that one of my tires had a variance of 42 pounds!!! They pulled a wheel from another vehicle (and tested it on the RFV) and my problem was completely solved. Mine has these Bridgestone Duellers on it and I am not impressed with their quality (or rather lack thereof).I would never buy them as a replacement, but they are okay until they wear out.

If a wheel balance does not solve your problem, demand that you get the RFV done. My dealer happened to have the machine, but if not have them find a tire shop that does have one and have them take your wheels there. Also, doing the RFV properly takes quite a bit of time. To do all 4 of my wheels plus the new one from the other vehicle took almost 3 hours. I waited, but it was worth the wait.

By the way, I have run the air pressure in the 18" Duellers from the recommended 30 up to 42 - it did not make a bit of difference as far as vibration was concerned. The vibration is from a wheel out of balance or damaged or a tire being defective (my case), not from air pressure (as long as it is at or below the max on the sidewall). Don't take any dealer line of bull that the tire pressure can be causing it. I tried the higher pressure to see if it increased my gas mileage. It if did, I never noticed, but the ride was a lot rougher, so I put it back down to 32 psi.

Let us know what you find out (both of you who are having the vibration problem).

 

I had same issue on a 2004 santa fe and a friend also had same issue. The dealer had to repoace a piece of the drive shaft that has some kind of balancing on it. Fixed both my problem and my friends. I will see if I can look in my folder at home and figure out exactly what was replaced

 

Could it be the rubber vibration damper??? I read on another site that this could be the problem.

As an update to my previous post, my dealer is giving me the run around right now. They claim they don't feel a vibration and never did any of the work I requested. I even took them out for a 20 minute drive where he said he could feel, but when we got back to the dealership denied it and had me take one of the ones that just rolled off the truck for a drive to see if I felt the vibration in that one. Results, yeah I did feel the vibration in the new one, just like when I got mine. The new definately needs the tires balanced before they sell it, as for it having the same vibration as mine, I couldn't tell you, until they balanced the tires on the new one.

Anyway I plan to take it back inthis week, as seems to be getting worse again, maybe they'll feel it this time.