Photo: Hyundai
Last year, on March 1st, the Hyundai Auto Canada Corporation received a report from a dealership regarding a Palisade that experienced a fire originating from the rear bumper area while parked. A month later, the regional office was further informed of a melted trailer accessory module.
The vehicle involved in the second incident was duly inspected. HACC discovered that an inoperative trailer lamp condition was caused by the improper installation of the trailer hitch wiring harness. The engineers couldn’t identify the potential cause for the first incident’s thermal event.
Come February 2022, the issue was escalated to the Data Review Committee, which performed a broad search of similar incidents. No confirmed fires were identified in the U.S., but not long after that, HACC received notice of a third fiery incident in Canada. The automaker’s Technical Review Committee was brought in, and that month, HACC became aware of a new thermal event.
Transport Canada opened an investigation, bringing together a plethora of parties. With their powers combined, they observed “a degradation of the B+ wire inside the module.” Fast forward to June 2022, and Hyundai observed the same degradation on two U.S.-specification Palisade SUVs.
Kia Motor America subsequently tasked a third-party engineering analysis firm to investigate and recreate the failure mechanism. Not long after, the South Korean automaker decided to recall no fewer than 245,030 SUVs.
Hyundai is aware of three fire incidents in Canada, eight melting incidents in Canada, and a further eight melting incidents in the United States. The suspect vehicle population consists of the 2020 through 2022 model year Hyundai Palisade produced between April 10th, 2019 and May 30th, 2022.
The attached report explains that “certain environmental contaminants potentially residing on the tow hitch harness module printed circuit board, such as moisture from the manufacturing process, could result in an electrical short circuit.” Hyundai is still investigating the root cause at press time. Supplied by SEGI Korea, the harnesses in question feature part numbers S8F67-AC400 and S8F67-AC401. Hyundai also recommends Palisade owners park outside, away from structures (i.e., their homes or any building).
As an interim solution, dealers will inspect the tow hitch module and remove the fuse. The final remedy is currently under development. Even though it’s a very urgent matter, owners will be notified on October 17th.
Come February 2022, the issue was escalated to the Data Review Committee, which performed a broad search of similar incidents. No confirmed fires were identified in the U.S., but not long after that, HACC received notice of a third fiery incident in Canada. The automaker’s Technical Review Committee was brought in, and that month, HACC became aware of a new thermal event.
Transport Canada opened an investigation, bringing together a plethora of parties. With their powers combined, they observed “a degradation of the B+ wire inside the module.” Fast forward to June 2022, and Hyundai observed the same degradation on two U.S.-specification Palisade SUVs.
Kia Motor America subsequently tasked a third-party engineering analysis firm to investigate and recreate the failure mechanism. Not long after, the South Korean automaker decided to recall no fewer than 245,030 SUVs.
Hyundai is aware of three fire incidents in Canada, eight melting incidents in Canada, and a further eight melting incidents in the United States. The suspect vehicle population consists of the 2020 through 2022 model year Hyundai Palisade produced between April 10th, 2019 and May 30th, 2022.
The attached report explains that “certain environmental contaminants potentially residing on the tow hitch harness module printed circuit board, such as moisture from the manufacturing process, could result in an electrical short circuit.” Hyundai is still investigating the root cause at press time. Supplied by SEGI Korea, the harnesses in question feature part numbers S8F67-AC400 and S8F67-AC401. Hyundai also recommends Palisade owners park outside, away from structures (i.e., their homes or any building).
As an interim solution, dealers will inspect the tow hitch module and remove the fuse. The final remedy is currently under development. Even though it’s a very urgent matter, owners will be notified on October 17th.
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