2022 Hyundai Santa Fe PLUG-IN Hybrid

The steering wheeled locked up and the dash showed error messages of check hybrid system and refill inverter coolant and car seemed to go into limp mode as I could barely accelerate forcing me to pull over. The messages and issue would go away upon turning off car and turning it back on, however the issue would eventually happen again. This has happened while driving on the highway and other various road situations without warning and making the vehicle very unsafe. I have taken my vehicle to Hyundai Ourisman in Bowie, Maryland (the dealership where I purchased the vehicle) three times over two years and they have failed to fix the problem. They have even replaced the battery in the car.

I was driving on a road approaching a right turn to enter into my neighborhood that has a 3 way intersection where only cars exiting the neighborhood have a stop sign. I turned my right turn signal on as I began to slow down and approach the turn (without stopping as there is no stop sign for my path). As I was about 1/4 way into the turn, an alert for either lane keep assist or driver assistance warning appeared and the steering wheel suddenly could not turn and I was forced to drive straight. Luckily, there was no car waiting at the stop sign or I would have hit them. I hit the brakes and was on the wrong side of the road pointed towards the curb. I saw multiple error messages for lane keep assist and drivers assisted warning but could still not turn the wheel. I slowly drove the car forward, wrestling the wheel to turn enough so I could park on the wrong side of the road. I tried putting the car in park and then drive again but it did not help. I turned the car off and on and the errors cleared and I could turn the wheels again. I then proceeded to slowly start driving home and less than 1/4 mile later as I was rounding a gentle curve (I did not use any turn signals), the same error occurred and I suddenly could not turn the wheel so I slammed the brakes and stopped in the middle of the road. I again turned the car off and on to reset and proceeded to drive the remaining 1/4 mile home and park in my driveway. I immediately contacted the Hyundai dealer and was recommended to have the car towed to the local dealer as it was unsafe to drive. Upon towing the car to the closest dealer, I was able to back the car off the tow truck and park it. While parking, the steering locked up again and I took the attached pictures of the error messages and showed the technician. The dealers in the area all indicated they were so backed up they could not diagnose the car immediately. I called Hyundai to open a case. It has been 2 weeks and they still have not diagnosed the car.

Car's power steering has suddenly stopped working twice while I was driving. -- First time occurred on 7/24/2022. I was driving approximately 30 mph at the time. I was able to retain control of car and safely park. When steering stopped working, steering light illuminated red. I also got warnings about lane-keeping assist and blind spot detection features. According to Hyundai customer portal, car recorded the following DTCs (diagnostic trouble codes): -- * C168886 (System: CHASSIS; Sub-System: LKAS) * C240162 (System: CHASSIS; Sub-System: EPS) -- After I turned car off and back on twice, warnings cleared and power steering started working again. -- I had car transported to nearest dealership. -- Dealership's service department investigated and indicated the following: -- SCANNED SYSTEM FOR CODES FOUND HISTORY CODES C240162 MOTOR CIRUIT C16886 MDPS C168881 MDPS SIGNAL C168808 MDPS SIGNAL HISTORY. -- Their corrective action was as follows: -- CHECKED GROUND CONNECTION FOR MDPS. GOOD. FOUND LOOSE CONNECTION AT DRIVER'S LEFT FOOT KICK PANEL LOOSE. CLEARED CODES AND TEST DROVE VEHICLE 3 MILES OPERATING NORMALLY -- However, when I picked up car on 7/29/2022, immediately after exiting dealership's parking lot (while driving at low speed), power steering suddenly stopped working a second time. There were similar warnings (probably about lane-keeping assist and blind spot detection features again), but Hyundai customer portal shows no DTCs this time. -- I returned car to dealership's service department for them to investigate further. -- Sidebar: A coolant line in car's engine compartment was replaced in June 2022 due to rodent damage. When dealership was first looking at this steering issue, I reminded them of that occurrence and requested that they consider possible rodent damage to electrical system as a cause of the steering issue. They did not notice any such damage.