2016 Hyundai Santa Fe AC Seats

RICHIWALT

MEMBER
2016 HYUNDAI SANTA FE
4 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
120 MILES

My wife has a 2015 Hyundai Santa Fe, 6 cyl. I have a 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe 4 cyl. They're both new, we bought them one month apart.

If you turn AC Seat Fan on with her car:
(1) You can feel air flowing upward from seats with your hand about 4 inches away from the seats. (BTW, this is with the cabin fan all the way off. Seat fan only is on. And temp is set the same for both cars.

(2) You'll have to turn the AC off to keep from freezing to uncomfortable coldness after about 10 minutes of operation.

If you turn the AC Seat Fan on in my car:
(1) You can not feel any air at all in my seats (either driver's or passenger's)

(2) There is not noticeable difference at all. Even if traveling on hwy at 70 mph after 30 to 40 mins.

==========

I took the car for repair. The tech said it was working fine. I knew better, so I brought my wife's car in and proved there was a difference.

I cut off cabin fan, and set seat fan to max in both cars. I also set the temp the same. And made sure the cars were parked side by side with identical angel of sun in both. I let them run for 10 minutes. And allowed 3 different people from the dealership to examine: The tech, the general manager, and a receptionist. All of them felt a dramatic difference in both AIR FLOW and TEMP from both cars.

So the dealer took the car for repair. Problem is, they do not know how to fix it. We are now into week 4 of them having the car, while I have been give a 2015 loaner Sonata car.

Is there hope? Common things to check? Wrong seats installed? Other?

I can place my ear under the seats and hear that there is a fan somewhere that changes speed properly in both cars. But I can not feel any underneath seat movement of air. Or locate that fan. I can only feel the air through the seats of my wife's car. Not mine.

help.

Richard

1 Reply

ED-WEEZY21

MECHANIC
248 POSTS

This would be a stumper even for the best Hyundai technician in the country and in fact my dealership employs the best Hyundai technician in the country so I actually asked him. He just won the Hyundai skills competition and is going to Korea to represent the USA in the World Championships so needless to say, I trust almost everything he tells me. Basically, he was stumped too but told me that every vehicle is made different. It could be the seats not powering up to its full potential compared to your other vehicle. It could be the wiring harness isn't supplying as much voltage to the fans compared to your other vehicle. The wiring harness can have more resistance in the wiring compared to the other vehicle. Keep in mind, when taking measurements, specifications are not an exact number. For example, the specification may be something like 1-3 ohms of resistance is within specifications so if your vehicle has 3 ohms and your wife's vehicle has 1 ohm, that means her seat has less resistance in the wiring and will receive more amperage but both vehicles ARE within specifications according to the manufacturer. The best course of action for the dealership to do is to contact Hyundai Techline which is the hotline that technicians for guidance on what to do. At this point, the Hyundai Techline has 100% authorization from Hyundai to tell the technician what they should check and what they should replace. Techline is also very useful because they can see if there are any similar cases throughout the country. This is the best course of action for the dealership because now the dealership can basically start replacing parts without getting into trouble from Hyundai by "guessing." So if Hyundai Techline says to replace the $2,000 seat bottom, and it unfortunately doesn't fix it, the dealership will not receive any repercussions from Hyundai and can continue to do or replace what Hyundai Techline says. I hope all this information helps you and gives you a better understanding of how the process should go. Best of luck. One last thing that I just thought off. You guys should try comparing more than just 2 vehicles if possible and compare 3 or 4 vehicles and come to to a conclusion from there. If more of them blow harder out of the seats, then you definitely have a problem for sure. If your wife's car is the only one that blows that hard from the seats, then she's the one that might have the problem but the problem seems to be in your favor.