2023 HYUNDAI SANTA FE — Complaint #1989661
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STRUCTURE:BODY:BUMPERS:ACTIVE SHUTTERS/GRILL filed May 7, 2024
NHTSA complaint #1989661 (ODI reference 11587396) concerns a 2023 HYUNDAI SANTA FE and was filed on May 7, 2024. The owner reports the failure occurred on May 7, 2024. The vehicle had 11,591 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Texas based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as structure:body:bumpers:active shutters/grill, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same HYUNDAI SANTA FE cohort independently describe similar structure:body:bumpers:active shutters/grill failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2023 HYUNDAI SANTA FE shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe. The contact stated that the vehicle was overheating while driving. Additionally, the contact stated that upon noticing that coolant was leaking onto the ground, he opened the hood and discovered that coolant was leaking from the radiator. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was diagnosed that a foreign object had struck the radiator, causing coolant to leak into the engine compartment. The dealer informed the contact that a failure caused by a foreign object was not covered under warranty. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact stated that upon examining pictures of the failure provided by the dealer, he noticed that there were rocks stuck in and near the radiator. The contact determined that the large gaps of the front grill were allowing foreign objects to strike the radiator. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and a case was opened; however, the case was later closed. The failure
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1989661 |
| ODI Number | 11587396 |
| Date Filed | May 7, 2024 |
| Failure Date | May 7, 2024 |
| VIN | 5NMS64AJ7PH |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.