What 1,536 owners told NHTSA about the 2016 Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell

The passenger front door Will not open from the outside once locked. It must be open from inside the car. This would be a safety concern if there was an accident and people were trying to get into the passenger side car. It seems from research that this is a known issue from Hyundai

NHTSA ODI 11445802

Passenger side door failing to unlock fully, not openable from the outside under many circumstances. This seems to be a common problem with the 2016 Hyundai Tucson. Hyundai needs to issue a recall for this safety issue.

NHTSA ODI 11443601

First the passenger side rear door would not unlock or open; was repaired for a very high amount and I was told it wasn't covered; now the same thing with the driver's side rear door; online forums show this as a very common problem with Hyundai Tucson 2016. This is a safety issue - door cannot be used to exit the vehicle from the inside or outside at the malfunctioning (non-functioning) door.

NHTSA ODI 11442230

My third door has stopped opening from the outside. This is a known issue to Hyundai about these cars and it is a safety issue.

NHTSA ODI 11442180

Neither of the backdoors of the car will open from the inside or the outside. The first failure was the driver side backdoor which will not open even with force. Several months later the passenger side rear door is experiencing the same issue. I spoke with the local Hyundai dealership who confirmed that it is a well known issue, but they have been less than helpful with getting it repaired. They take my contact info and say someone will call me but they never do, when I call or go to the dealership in person the one guy who can help get the repair underway is never available, and they will not give me his direct contact info. This is a serious safety risk because there is no way to get to my children from either of the backdoors if there was an emergency, they have to be accessed and pulled over the center console to be removed from the car at all. Given the incredibly persistent issues with these latches failing in the Tucson, there is also no way to know when any of the other latches may fail and make it impossible to quickly escape the car.

NHTSA ODI 11441428

Latch failure of all 4 doors, passenger side door in 2018, passenger rear door 2018 and again now (2021), driver door 2019, driver rear door 2019. The door latch fails and at first won’t open from the inside. After a few days or weeks, door will not open from outside or inside. This costs over $450 (labor not included) and is a HUGE safety concern! This should not happen in a 5 year old car, especially to ALL 4 DOORS, and one of the doors twice!

NHTSA ODI 11440430

Rear passenger door when unlocked will not open. I can open the door when unlocked by banging on door just below the outside door handle.

NHTSA ODI 11437435

Rear door does not open. Can't be opened from the inside or outside. Apparently, similar problems from this model from other owners. Affects all doors.

NHTSA ODI 11437166

Our rear driver side door does not open from both inside and outside. I have seen that this is an extremely common issue with other Hyundai owners. I have three small children. This is extremely dangerous if there was ever an emergency situation, to have small children trapped back seats, unable to open the doors. I have read that other doors eventually fail too, which just compounds the extreme danger that this poses if an emergency comes up and one has to evacuate the vehicle. The issue seems to always be the door latch and cable not catching, so there is a consistency in what other people are experiencing. Please consider this an extreme safety issue and issue a recall.

NHTSA ODI 11436074

The rear driver's side door of my door suddenly stopped working. When I was trying to get my baby out of the car, neither my husband nor myself could get to her. We couldn't open her door with the exterior door handle (even after multiple attempts to unlock the car) or the interior door handle. If we find ourselves in an emergency situation, we would not be able to safely and efficiently evacuate our child and other passengers. While it has not been inspected, it is available for inspection upon request. There were and still are no warning lamps, messages, or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure. Additionally, this seems like a common issue for the Hyundai Tucson as there are many people online talking about this very same issue, with some people unable to open either of their doors.

NHTSA ODI 11434666

Rear passenger door will not open from inside or outside despite being unlocked. Previously it could be opened after pulling handle several times, now it will not open at all despite being unlocked. I have small children in the back seat in car seats and would not be able to get them out through that door in an emergency. The front driver's door also requires pulling the handle several times in order to open it.

NHTSA ODI 11434498

Both front doors no longer open from outside. Started off as intermittent and has gotten progressively worse sometimes I cant get them to open from inside either. This is a huge safety problem.

NHTSA ODI 11433053

The lock actuator on the driver's side door failed. The door cannot be opened, even when the car is unlocked. This creates a hazard if one is required to exit the vehicle in an emergency. There have been numerous owners reporting the same issue on different door in the 2016 Tucson.

NHTSA ODI 11433106

Both back doors fail to open from the inside or outside and the front doors are starting to fail as well.

NHTSA ODI 11432343

The latch mechanism in all doors is malfunctioning. The rear doors do not open at all and the front drivers side door only opens sometimes. This is a known defect in the design of the Hyundai Tuscon door latch mechanism. This is a safety issue because the doors are inoperable, possibly trapping a person in a vehicle.

NHTSA ODI 11431151

Issue: The rear passenger door will not open from inside and outside. We had set the Child-Lock to enabled, so diagnosing/troubleshooting from the inside is not possible. Frequent and consecutive pulls on the exterior door handle do not provide any opening results. Listening to the door panel when using the key fob or door lock toggle, it appears to be disengaging and engaging the lock; or at least it sounds the same as the other doors when locking/unlocking. We have two children we transport that are still in car seats. -- Situation or events that could have caused this issue: None. Was working the morning before. The vehicle has not had any minor impacts to any part of the body (no accidents or bumps, etc). -- Risk of Safety/Death in an Emergency: We believe this to be a safety issue in the event of an emergency (flooding, door collapsed on its side, etc.) -- Inspection: Pending via Dealership -- Warning Lamps: None

NHTSA ODI 11429728

Brakes feel like ABS is always on. Feel unsafe to drive. Was told by Hyundai dealer that I need a new Steering Column and no explanation on how something like this can just break. Less than 60K miles when this issue started with brakes. I'm the first and only owner of this vehicle. The other safety issue is the doors not opening. 3 out of 4 doors have problems opening from inside and outside. This forum explains exactly what is happening to my doors. https://www.hyundai-forums.com/threads/rear-passenger-door-wont-open.603329/

NHTSA ODI 11427896

The left passenger door wont open from inside and outside. I have a child that is still in a car seat and this is a huge safety issue. I have to make sure he sits on the right side so I can open the door if there became an emergency.

NHTSA ODI 11426701

The back doors will not open from the inside or the outside. I have seem multiple people complain about this and yet still not recall issued. This is a HUGE safety problem. I can't use half of my car because if I somehow get passengers back there and we get in an accident.. they are stuck. If my dog rides back there and we get in an accident and God forbid he can't jump to the front, he is stuck. This needs to be recalled ASAP. There is no reason for these door handles to just stop working. My front door handle also has to be pulled twice for me to be able to open it.

NHTSA ODI 11422946

In my 2016 Tucson, the issue started with the front passenger door not opening even though you can hear the car unlocking when clicking the key fob. This issue has now started on the drivers side door, with both the key fob not opening the door as well as manually trying to open the door with the key. This is a serious safely issue and should not be happening. This issue runs the risk of someone being stuck in the car, with no way of getting to them. There was no pre warning of the issue starting. It just happened one day and from that point forward has been progressing to each door. Getting in and out of the car in the event of an accident or emergency poses an issue if the doors do not open. This is made worse by not being able to manually open the door with a key.

NHTSA ODI 11422735

Several doors are unable to be opened from both the inside and outside. This is very concerning to me, as in the event of an emergency passengers (including children in car seats) will be able to evacuate the car. After some research it appears many people have this issue with different models of Hyundai vehicles from that time period and yet no recall has been put out. I have never been in an accident in this vehicle and the doors are not dented or otherwise damaged. This problem started slowly, with the door handle not opening on the first try but opening after a few pulls. Over time it got the point where it will not open at all, inside or outside. And over time this has happened with all 4 doors. The two rear doors will not open at all. The front two doors are finicky and take several tries before opening.

NHTSA ODI 11422742

My rear passenger side door does not open from the inside of the car and also from the outside of the car when unlocked. This is a huge safety concern as anyone sitting in the back seat would be trapped inside the car in an emergency especially if my grandson were strapped in his car seat in the back and I had to get him out of the car as quickly as possible in an emergency. I called the dealership where I bought the car and they acted surprised even though this is clearly a known issue as I discovered while researching this problem on various blogs. I haven't taken my car to the dealership yet, I'm trying to determine if this will be covered under my 5 years/60,000 mile warranty as my car is right on the edge with my car having 55,000 miles and being 5 years and 2 months old. This problem happened very suddenly and we had no warning at all. The door worked when we left home for a trip and when we reached our first stop 60 miles later, the door would not open from inside or outside.

NHTSA ODI 11418622

PASSENGER SIDE DOORS, FRONT & REAR, FAIL TO UNLOCK OR OPEN WITH THE INTERIOR DOOR LOCK SWITCH ON THE DRIVER'S DOOR OR FRONT PASSENGER DOOR. USING THE LOCK/UNLOCK ON THE KEY FOB DOES NOT WORK, EITHER. ADDITIONALLY, THE REAR PASSENGER DOOR WILL NOT OPEN FROM INSIDE OR OUTSIDE.

NHTSA ODI 11418165

The passenger side front and rear doors can no longer be opened either from the inside or outside even when th vehicle is unlocked. The mechanism that activates the latches seems to be working as it can be heard on both doors, but the latches themselves seem to fail frequently. This results in a safety hazard since exiting the vehicle in case of an accident where the the only side that's not blocked is the right one becomes impossible except by crawling through the door windows which may not fit the occupant(s).

NHTSA ODI 11417694

BOTH REAR DOORS WILL NOT OPEN NEITHER FROM THE OUTSIDE OR THE INSIDE, THE DOOR ACTUATORS FAILED 3 MONTHS APART. I'M VERY CONCERN CHILDERN ARE INVOLVED, AND I AM NOT SAFETY CONFIDENT WITH THE OTHER TWO FRONT DOORS! THIS IS A SERIOUS SAFETY MATTER - HYUNDAI HAS DONE NOTHING TO CORRECT THE ISSUE EXCEPT REPLACE THE ACTUATORS WITH THE SAME STYLE FAULTY ACTUATORS THAT WILL FAIL AGAIN - THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE FOR SAFETY OF MY FAMILY

NHTSA ODI 11416526