Hyundai Tucson Engine Problem

Updated on Author: Brian Jones

Updated on Author: Brian Jones

Lemberg Law is investigating complaints that the 2022 Hyundai Tucson has serious engine problems. Vehicle owners report that vehicles stop accelerating, shut down suddenly for no reason, and sometimes overheat. 

Don’t be stuck with a lemon. You have legal rights to cash, return or buyback.

The law makes Hyundai pay legal fees.

We've fixed thousands of lemon problems. Message or call 877-795-3666 today.

Is There a Problem with the Engine?

Complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) indicate that there are major problems with the engines in the 2022 Hyundai Tucson. There are already 19 complaints in the Engine category filed with the NHTSA. Another four very similar complaints are filed in the Unknown or Other category.

The simplest of all states: “Car died while driving and would not go.”

What Problems are Owners Experiencing with Engines?

Many of the complaints to the NHTSA say that the Tucson slows down suddenly and then shuts down. A lot of them mention that their cars stumble and shake or “constantly stutter” when they find they cannot accelerate. It’s not surprising that some complain about safety issues, especially when driving on highways.

One complaint involves overheating when driving under 80 mph on a flat, straight road in fine weather. It states the dealership says Hyundai is to blame. “The dealership technician determined that the engine overheated and the water pump was severely damaged due to the compressor bolts not being tightened correctly during the manufacturing process at the factory.”

There are also complaints that dealers are swamped with repair requests and so there are lengthy delays.

There are too many complaints to mention them all, but here are a few excerpts from complaints.

Engine Stalling Tucson Complaints

Some complaints say that the engine simply shuts down. For instance, an owner from New York states: “The engine will suddenly turn off several times while driving. There has not been a turn-off at high speeds yet and the engine is turned off while driving at a low speed of approximately 20 to 40 miles.”

An owner from Michigan states that the car suddenly slowed down from 65 to 35 mph on the freeway. This happened four times. The first three times the engine light went off after the vehicle shut down and restarted. The fourth time the repair light came on and stayed on.

Explaining a different scenario, an owner from Florida states that while in a turning lane, a driver swerved in front of the car.

“My car is equipped with auto start-stop and it was on. I slammed on my brakes and the engine turned off. When I tried to restart the car there was a fluttering/grinding noise. Turned off the key and restarted the car. Dangerous in the intersection with a stalled car. At the dealer now but not optimistic.”

An owner from California filed a complaint nine months after buying the car. “The car just stopped in the middle of the road and won’t run. This happened twice on 7/31/22 and 8/17/22. Dealer said on the first incident something fired or something but (the) engine is okay. I am awaiting the diagnosis of this second incident.”

Stating that the car could have been rear-ended, the complaint continues. “This is a safety issue. I want this car to be recalled before something very bad happens. You can recall a car but you cannot recall a loss of life.”

Engine Shakes, Stumbles or Stutters Complaints

An owner from Texas says, “I started my car in the parking garage at work. The engine stuttered slightly but recovered. After I left the garage and accelerated I found that the car would not rev past 3000 rpm. At 3000 rpm the car began to lose power. It would recover when you backed off of the accelerator. This issue continued for the 27-mile trip from work to home. I restarted the car once I reached home and it was okay. I have tried to recreate the issue and it has not happened again. I took the car in for service and (the) Hyundai dealership could not find any issue or recreate the problem.”

An owner from Arizona reports major “shaking with no RPM.” This was after the Engine Control System code had appeared three times, with complete engine loss the third time. While the dealership reset the code the first two times, after that it was undrivable. But the dealership wasn’t able to even look at the vehicle for more than a week.

An owner from New York had stumbling, shaking issues and their dealership wasn’t able to attend to the car for at least 2-3 weeks.The dealership also refused to tow the car for a warranty repair of a 1,000-mile car. The owner was also told that “no loaners or rental could be provided.”

The complaint states that the error message and check engine light didn’t appear at first. Only when “attempting 50-60 bump starts” while trying to get the car off-road because it was a hazard to occupants of the car and other motorists.

Tucson Won’t Accelerate Complaints

An owner from California states that the car wouldn’t accelerate beyond a speed of 20-30 mph. It was an intermittent issue that the dealer wasn’t able to reproduce. “The issue happens after parking overnight, and the issue will go away after restarting the car. No-fault light shows up.”

An owner from Pennsylvania complains that the car loses speed and won’t accelerate when traveling at 50 mph. After waiting a few minutes the vehicle restarts. In this case, the dealer “indicated the system was not showing any malfunction codes and they could not replicate the problem. Claimed to reset the system back to factory settings. Will also be notifying Hyundai via certified letter due to history of engine recalls.”

An owner from Florida states that his 2022 Tucson “has put me and my family at serious risk multiple times. He calls his car a “death box.”

The first incident was when the car would not accelerate and would constantly stutter when he tried to accelerate “causing a truck to almost rear end us.” The next day the vehicle overheated. The complaint says it took the dealership two weeks to return the car but they couldn’t say what was wrong. The problems continue and the complainant advises others not to buy the 2022 Hyundai Tucson.

An owner from Texas states that “When turning left or accelerating from 20 mph there is a really bad hesitation. The car has a hard time accelerating. It didn’t have this problem when we bought it. This poses a safety issue because you really have to give yourself a lot of space or you will get hit for not accelerating. Every other time the car is quick and responsive.”

What Should You Do if Your Hyundai Tucson Has Engine Issues?

Lemberg Law is investigating the many complaints that relate to the 2022 Hyundai Tucson engine. We would like to hear from owners who have experienced problems.

We will evaluate your case for free and you won’t be charged to participate. The law states that the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group must pay all legal bills for lemon law cases. Give us a call or fill out our case evaluation form.

Brian Jones

About the Author:

Brian Jones spent more than 30 years working as an ASE Certified Master Tech and Parts Specialist at multiple dealerships. Brian has become an authority in the industry, traveling across the country to consult for car dealerships and contributing his expertise as a writer for several major automotive publications. In his spare time, Brian enjoys working on pickup trucks, muscle cars, Jeeps and anything related to motorsports.

See more posts from Brian Jones
21 COMMENTS
  • Nikee

    Not just 2022 engines, my 2016 has the same symptoms. Always has and Hyundai did nothing about it. Just received a replacement engine and it has the same issues with the shaking engine and car not accelerating at turns sometimes.

  • Ab

    Happened to my Hyundai Tucson 2022 mileage 23600, started shaking and lost power, switched of the engine, started it back and just went to the service center and dumped it, they didn’t have appointments but I said I don’t feel safe in the car, waiting now to get my car back, no loaner and I don’t have a second car too. Horrible from Hyundai

  • Cheryl W

    I bought a 2022 Hyundai Tucson in February 2022. 3 months after I bought it, it started skipping, car shakes, and stutters. No engine light comes on. I took the car to the Hyundai dealership twice and they say nothing is wrong and that the software is also updated. It still does those things and it has gotten worse now. I also have an extended warranty that I purchased through Hyundai when I bought the car. I don’t feel safe driving it.

  • Ben

    I own a 2022 Hyundai Tuscon. Tonight I pulled out onto the frontage road and entered the lane to enter the highway. However, the vehicle stopped accelerating when I reached 20 MPH. It held that speed as I slowly applied more and more pressure to the gas pedal. When the gas pedal finally hit the floor, the vehicle jumped forward wildly accelerating. Our erratic behavior almost caused an accident.

    Watching this video shed some light on the situation:
    youtube(.com)/watch?v=LZLxab6Sw4o

    In case the video link goes down, I’ll summarize. Apparently, this vehicle has a “feature” that will prevent the car from accelerating beyond a certain speed unless the gas pedal is fully depressed. This feature is typically activated by holding down the cruise control button, which will limit you to your current speed, a minimum of 20 MPH. This “feature” is temporarily disabled by pressing the cruise control button again or turning the vehicle off.

    I wasn’t aware of this “feature”, so I did not know how to respond when it asserted itself. Now, I am 99% sure I didn’t touch the cruise control button, which means that this behavior must have activated on its own, which is a huge safety concern. Even if it is not spontaneously activating, and requires you to hold the cruise control button for 2 seconds to activate, not warning drivers of that or providing any information in the dash about how to correct the issue causes severe safety issues. I have searched, but have not found a way to permanently disable this completely undesirable behavior.

    I will be bringing this to the dealer and to the manufacturer. If anyone has any additional information to share I would appreciate it.

  • James L

    I have a 2019 Hyundai Tucson that I bought brand new. At 66,000 miles I was informed that I needed a new engine. So far they’ve had my car for four weeks. Now I’ve been informed that the engine is on back order. It’s going to be a long time until my car is fixed. Once the repairs are done I’m trading it in on a new car. Not a Hyundai

  • Tom R

    I have a 2017 Hyundai. Have maintained it religiously. After checking the oil 6 months ago I realized the oil was down. Topped it up and called the Hyundai dealership. They couldn’t fit me in. So I called another mechanic. He looked at it said it was definitely something wrong with the motor and get it over to Hyundai. After multiple oil consumption tests that they either said had been started wrong and restarted they finally came back with nothing is wrong. 1500km later the motor is empty of oil. Piston blown up and lots of damage to motor. Now they are asking 8k + taxes for a motor and Hyundai Canada will do nothing. Any way you can help?

  • Claudia G

    My sister bought a 2017 hyundai tuscon between July August 2022 she’s going through a terrible divorce an put all of her money into this vehicle and could not afford extended warranty so it came with 30 day warranty. Not more than 40 days go by and her A/C compressor goes out. Now January 17th 2023 her oil light comes on and I myself know there was oil in it. When I went to check on it for her there was none I personally checked her oil the week before and it was good. Now mechanic is saying the engine.

    SHE IS IN A VERY BAD SITUATION AND I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF YA’LL CAN HELP HER SOME KIND OF WAY. She does not need this problem in her life right now. The car is not even a year old sincerity since she bought it
    Please call me and any advice or help you can give will be greatly appreciated. PLEASE CALL ME I would like to talk to someone BECAUSE this was very WRONG to do to her don’t know what direction to turn

    Thank YOU
    CLAUDIA

  • Rogina S

    2022 hyundai tucson
    Beautiful car but is it really worth it
    Started shaking really bad on our way home from a family reunion
    Was so lucky to have made it home safely after a 3 hour drive
    Took it in and still waiting for the diagnosis results
    It’s been expensive renting a car since e they don’t have courtesy loaner cars
    It only has 40,000 miles on it was bought used with 22,000 miles on it
    I am very disappointed in hyundai they could of at least offered us a loaner until ours gets fixed if it ever does

  • Craig M

    2022 hyundai tucson engine frequently misfires or, because of how quickly it up shifts, the engine lugs because the transmission is in too high of a gear and so it goes down the road jerking all the way until it gets high enough rpm to stop lugging. It will also begin to misfire(or so it seems, I guess that it could also be a transmission issue) going at highway speed, jerk, jerk jerk jerk jerk, then it recovers and it is fine. I have never had a failure light go on. Of course during the short ride that a mechanic takes it for a test spin it never malfunctions, one of these things(2022 tucson with 2.5 liter engine) needs to be put to the test on a dynamometer and really spend some time, this drive train is junk, either the engine or the transmission or both, are failure time bombs, with the sporadic nature of the problem being very dangerous. I would think that hyundai is working on it but a little communication would be nice, or a total recall.

  • Natalie

    My 2022 Hyundai Tucson is less than a year old, she has 11,000 miles and just today it would not accelerate while I was driving to work. It started to stutter and stopped accelerating. I was able to make it safely to a parking lot and when I finally parked and turned it off, it has this burning smell, but it was not smoking. It would not start back up and when it did, it would smell of gas. No check engine light or any alert came on to notify me of what was going on. And it did not send any notification to Bluelink. The tech at the dealership said they found the code for the issue and that it’s a coil malfunction, but Hyundai wants the to run diagnostic on more things to see why the car did not alert me or Bluelink. I’m hoping this doesn’t take longer than a couple days to get my car back. But from the sounds of it and everyone else on here- this may be a long road.

  • mackenzie

    My 2022 Hyundai Tucson is less than a year old, she has 10,000 miles and in the past month has had to be towed twice for the same issue. The first time I was driving home when my car randomly started to shake and stopped accelerating when it just completely stopped and wouldn’t move forward, there was an awful smell and it had to be towed. They claimed that it was a coil malfunction and was fixed. One month later the same thing happened, I was driving and the car started to shake/stopped accelerating and had to be pushed back to my campus because it completely died, had to be towed again and is currently in the shop. I got this car with less than 100 miles and have had it for less than a year. this is unacceptable and I honestly don’t feel safe driving my car

  • Maggie

    I’ve bought this vehicle 5 years ago 2017 Hyundai Tucson 2.0,I have been the only owner,I’ve done my oil change on time and keep up with all services,my vehicle start making this clapping sounds at 108000 miles,when I take it to the dealership Mjsullivan they told me the rod In the engine is gone and that I need a new engine,I try to get Hyundai to replace the engine,they asked for prove of oil changes from 70.000 to 102.000 I gave them those then they came back asked for 40.000 to 70.000 I couldn’t get those I lived in few states traveling for work.I look it up and noticed I’m not the only with the issue,they declined to replace the engine,now I have a car that I’m still making payments on with a fail engine that will cost over $15.000.I’ve own so many other vehicles before this,this is the worst experience I’ve had owning a new car

  • Angela B

    We just bought a Hyundai Tucson 2022 and have the same issues others are having in their complaints. Yesterday the car totally died, and it was towed to the dealer an hour away. It shook, reeked of gas, and refused to start. Before it died, the rpms went to nothing and power was lost. The dealer has no rental, plus can’t look at it for a few days. It happened the first month we owned it, but didn’t completely die. Just had no rpm’s wouldn’t accelerate, and had gas fumes, but came out of it fortunately. This time Bad area, text saying tow wouldn’t be for 12 hours, and pure headache, while it wouldn’t even start for a few minutes. Turning it on, it shakes, rpm’s woon’t go up. excelleration doesn’t happen and shuts off less than 30 seconds into this. What a nightmare this new car has become!!

  • Annette

    First and foremost, I love Hyundai and my Tucson and sad to announce this unfortunate experience.
    Since I purchased my 2022 Tucson in Dec of 2021, my check engine light has turned on 3 times but only stayed on for about 1 day then turned off. The first time my check engine light appeared was around 5,000 miles. Finally at 19,400 miles, I was traveling at 54 miles when my car “pulled” and started shaking. I couldn’t accelerate and my car just kept going slower and slower. I pulled off the road and it was struggling to stay on and finally died. I was able to turn it back on and drove about 200 ft further but only accelerated to 8 miles before it died again. The final time I turned on and moved forward for the tow truck guy, it was shaking bad and struggling bad to stay on and smelled of gas. I live in a city where the Hyundai dealership is big enough for loaner cars but none available due to others with their vehicles in the shop and there is even a waitlist for the loaner vehicles. Not sure what hyundai models or what year those vehicles were. I was not told nor did I ask if it was other Tucsons. I was informed it would take 3 weeks to get a mechanic to even be able to take a look and diagnose my Tucson. I was also told the engines, along with other parts, are on back order. I am without a vehicle until further notice.

  • Donna K

    Unfortunately mine was a 2017 Tuscon. Last week my engine died. Lost all power and started to shake. Then the check engine light came on. I called Hyundai and of course mine doesn’t have a recall. Car is 5 years old and 130,000 miles. Such a shame this company doesn’t take care of the issue or take care of their customers.

  • Walt H

    We just experienced the same issue, just purchased a 2022 Tuscon XRT, we were pulling out onto a busy road and the vehicle started sputtering and died, we tried to restart and it still only made it a few feet before dying again. We received a message from Hyundai’s blue link website indicating that the engine control management system had detected a possibly serious issue and to bring it in. The service manager was very elusive but said it could be a fuel pump, but then backtracked saying he would let us know.

  • Tina M

    My new Tucson 2022 I bought in April for a not accerating to the speed limit. It stayed at 45 in a 65. And some engine sputter. We were told their weeks back up on diagnostic at dealership and no loaner car. And we could call road assistance. That’s doesn’t help a teacher on an hour trip to work with no cell signal service. With 18wheeler log trucks behind me. No place to pull over.

  • Nicole A

    Just bought a 2022 Hyundai Tucson and noticed the car shakes in drive and at highway speeds . The transmission also has a hard time keeping up with the highest speed and dogs out . Need to help to get a complaint to Hyundai the dealer has no idea what is going on with the vehicle and I stuck with it .

  • Brielle M

    I too have encountered on a busy route with speed limit of 50mph; 2022 hyundai limited edition stalled on me, and I couldn’t keep speed and engined seemed locked. Had to pull over, and turn off car. With turning off car it reset. This occurred at 800miles on the car , 1 month after ownership. It happened 2x total. I have had glitches on the board where mechanic lights and tire lights, abs , etc lights on dashboard are all lit up. When I told hyundai of paramus, nj they just shrugged there shoulders and found nothing wrong with car as it passed there inspection.

  • Nick D

    We have the 2022 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid Limited with the 1.6T engine. The vehicle operated fine for approximately the first 4 weeks / 1,000 mi of ownership. And then on June 12, 2021, while leaving the parking lot of a local grocery store, a noticeable bang came from the engine compartment and it hasn’t run right ever since. Multiple trips to the dealership only resulted in a “seems normal to us” reaction. Although reported to Hyundai engineers, there’s been no recall of any kind. The engine sounds like it has a significant valve problem and has gotten worse over the past 17 months. To validate the problem, I have test driven another 2022 Tucson Hybrid and that did not exhibit the same engine issue. We aren’t the only ones that have complained about this engine problem. So I suspect it is system or at least a lurking problem that others may eventually encounter.

  • Ed B

    What an idiotic article. No information provided about which engine is having this problem.

Leave a Reply or Comment

Write a comment below to share online. Or, instead you can to our legal team.

Please select your star rating.

Briefly describe your experience Briefly describe your experience

What’s your name? What’s your name?

What’s your phone number? Please enter a valid phone number

Want to know if you could sue? Get a free legal evaluation from Lemberg Law?

Get Your No-Obligation
Case Evaluation

Send a secure message to our legal team.

What’s your name? What’s your name?
What’s your email address? What’s your email address?
What’s your phone number? What’s your phone number?
Briefly describe the problem Briefly describe the problem
Confidentiality Guarantee: We keep your information completely confidential and will not send you spam or sell your information.
By submitting above, I agree to the privacy policy and terms and consent to be contacted by an agent via phone call or text message at the phone number(s) listed above, including wireless number(s).