Guys, I recently had an incident wherein I saw the reflection of my Santa Fe's behind on a shiny truck. My brake lights were not coming on despite the fact that I had my foot on the brake pedal. This prompted me to immediately check my fuses when I got to my destination. Having found that all my fuses are intact, I immediately called Hyundai Global City and they informed me that it wasn't the fuse and that the culprit was a broken "Brake Light Switch".
So I conducted a research and here's what I found out:
RECALL: 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe
NHTSA Campaign Number: 09V122000
www.nhtsa.dot.gov Manufacturer HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY
Recall Date: APR 14, 2009
Potential Number Of Units Affected: 532633
Description SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC:SWITCHES:BRAKE LIGHT
Summary HYUNDAI IS RECALLING 532,633 MY 2006-2007 ACCENT, ENTOURAGE, SONATA, MY 2007 AZERA, ELANTRA AND SANTA FE, MY 2005-2007 TUCSON AND MY 2007-2008 VERACRUZ VEHICLES. THE STOP LAMP SWITCH IN THE AFFECTED VEHICLES MAY MALFUNCTION. A MALFUNCTIONING STOP LAMP SWITCH MAY CAUSE THE BRAKE LIGHTS TO NOT ILLUMINATE WHEN THE BRAKE PEDAL IS DEPRESSED OR MAY CAUSE THE BRAKE LIGHTS TO REMAIN ILLUMINATED WHEN THE BRAKE PEDAL IS RELEASED. A STOP LAMP SWITCH MALFUNCTION MAY ALSO AFFECT THE OPERATION OF THE BRAKE-TRANSMISSION SHIFT INTERLOCK FEATURE SO THE TRANSMISSION SHIFTER WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO BE SHIFTED OUT OF THE PARK POSITION. IT MAY ALSO CAUSE THE ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL (ESC) MALFUNCTION LIGHT TO ILLUMINATE, AND IT MAY NOT DEACTIVATE THE CRUISE CONTROL WHEN THE BRAKE PEDAL IS DEPRESSED.
Consequence ANY OF THESE MALFUNCTIONS, ALONE OR IN COMBINATION, MAY LEAD TO A CRASH.
Remedy DEALERS WILL REPLACE THE STOP LAMP SWITCH FREE OF CHARGE. THE RECALL BEGAN ON JUNE 29, 2009
This caught my attention especially since I have my son brought to school with this vehicle most of the time. This is very dangerous and makes us vulnerable to being rear-ended by a vehicle behind us. Always check if you're Santa Fe's brake lights are operational.