Hyundai Creta: Serious brake failure issue (must-read for all owners) (2025)

naveen.raju

Join Date: Apr 2010

Location: Cochin

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Not the car, it's the brand I don't trust now. Believe me, don't expect a call from Hyundai. Like I had mentioned, I had reported many bad experiences with Hyundai India via mail and haven't' received any response from them even though they took action against the dealer.

Someone I know who drives a Creta saw the same warning light few days back. Asked him to take it to the service station immediately and shared this thread with him .

srivasa14

Join Date: Nov 2019

Location: Bangalore

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Stumbled onto this thread while googling "brake issues for seltos" :O

Dunno if it's my past experience on a Vento colouring my opinion, but here's something I've felt on my Seltos since I took delivery about two weeks back.

The brakes feel sort of sluggish to kick in ... I apply them and by the time the car stops, too much time and distance has passed compared to all of my earlier driving experience.

Today while depressing the brakes behind a parked car at a light, nearly touched the other car as mine took longer than expected to fully stop.

Once brake is fully depressed and car comes to a stop I do feel it getting released/softening a bit so dunno if this is a similar ABS issue or there is some sort of burn in that's yet to happen.

Opinions please?

naveen.raju

Join Date: Apr 2010

Location: Cochin

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Since both Kia and Hyundai share many components, I wouldn't be surprised to see such comments. I haven't driven the Seltos so can't comment it. But our official review states that braking performance is pretty good. Some sloppy feeling on the petrol DCT.

If you find it uncomfortable, I suggest you check with the service center. It's the most vital component on the car, why take that risk if you feel uncomfortable.

srivasa14

Join Date: Nov 2019

Location: Bangalore

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d3mon

Join Date: Nov 2008

Location: Bangalore

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Is this your first automatic car? If so, it may just be that the engine is still trying to provide some torque to the wheels while the brake is pressed (which is expected).

Try braking to a stop in Neutral and see if that feeling goes away. If it does, it's not a brake issue and you just need to get used to squeezing the brakes a little harder right at the very end to overcome the engine torque.

srivasa14

Join Date: Nov 2019

Location: Bangalore

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Not the first, I've only owned/driven automatics. I'll try the neutral+brake test as well as pushing the pedal harder in real driving. Will update.

Thing is I've always felt the brakes a bit sluggish since day 1. Maybe a trip to the service center is needed.

gopa99

Join Date: May 2009

Location: Bangalore,Kochi

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wheelguy

Join Date: Jul 2019

Location: Earth

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That's very dangerous, imagine being on highway at a good speed at the time of brake failure

One of my friend had had similar issue in his i10, and also severe rusting issue too. His car rear ended into a bus, it is sheer luck that nothing happened to him and co-driver.

Wonder, why despite such a critical issue, Hyundai is not getting the tags like half-baked, severe-design-flaw, niggle-prone, bad-qc, etc.

Agree that the issues are being discussed, but wonder why they are not getting mentioned in the every official review like in case of Tata, and why they are being overlooked, it would be of great help(in fact life saving) to the readers and prospective buyers which is what the forum is for.

Hyundai is easily getting away without any forever-negative tags. I see a number of product and service issues with various manufacturers, few get away easily while few are bashed forever!

Thad E Ginathom

Join Date: Jun 2007

Location: Chennai

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Makes me wary whenever I see a Creta nearby... on any road.

a4anurag

Join Date: Oct 2011

Location: Hyderabad

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Bought my Creta in October 2017 and it is the same variant as BHPian Naveen.raju's one. After covering almost 15,000 kms, I started getting thoughts on remapping the car. But before doing it, as any remap will increase the load and dependency on the braking system so I decided to upgrade the brakes first, drive around for a while and then go for the remap.

In those 15,000 kms that I used the car, issues I faced with the braking was 'hard' pedal feel (mainly in bumper-to-bumper traffic) & vibrations on the brake pedal under emergency situations and while going into some kind of pothole.

Started searching for an aftermarket setup but couldn't find any except Brembo that too OEM replacement kind. At 20,000 kms I got a set of rotors and brake pads and replaced them which made a lot of difference in terms of both pedal feel and overall response compared to the stock setup. Drove around 2,200 kms and then got the remap done. Current usage is divided at 65:35 (City: Highway) ratio and the odometer now reads 70,600 kms - after brake swap, I've driven 50,600 kms and feel positive about the overall brake swap that was done initially. The pads are good for another 20,000 kms and rotors may be good for another 40,000 kms.

Not sure why Hyundai is silent after receiving so many complaints without conducting any kind of recall?! Being one of their premium products and looking at posts in this thread, the issue is widespread and could be found in the whole of Hyundai line-up I think. I expected some action as it is dangerous not only for the people sitting inside the car but also for other road users.

Wake up Hyundai!

naveen.raju

Join Date: Apr 2010

Location: Cochin

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I had this tested and everything was fine except the ABS sensors that failed.

I keep saying this to everyone and on this forum - Hyundai service network is really a "Hit or Miss". Many of our relatives and friends who seek our opinion since we have 3 Hyundai cars (we eventually sold off one few months back) and the only reply I give is that the after sales support is really poor. One particular service station took us for a ride for 3 years and I switched to a totally new dealer after that. It's been good there. But again, absolutely not a finger moved by Hyundai in spite of numerous issues/complaints that I had reported.

Anyhow, like I always say, I wouldn't recommend/buy another Hyundai until they prove that they address customer issues and improve their after sales support.

Paul63

Join Date: Feb 2017

Location: Mumbai

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Similar ABS failure triggered Brake failure incidents happened with my Creta in Dec 2018. The brake pedal just jammed with no braking effect whatsoever, forcing me to navigate the car further ahead and then try braking after a minute, post which the car came to a stop. Fortunately for me, the failures happened at slow speeds (8-10 kmph) while navigating out of my building driveway onto the main road, and not at higher speeds which could have resulted in banging other vehicles. These brake failure incidents happened with brand new replacement Bridgestone tyres installed.

My local Hyundai ASC had no answers as to why the complete braking system failed with just one ABS sensor failing, and not once but on two separate occasions on different dates. Its unheard of and ridiculous to experience complete brake failure in a vehicle with all top end features in this day and age.

Had escalated the matter to HMIL management, both regional and national level, post which, HMIL Delhi sent their field engineers and conducted thorough inspection of the ABS system, test drove it on rough and good roads here in Mumbai suburbs, installed GPS equipment to record readings on their equipment, but could not simulate a similar brake failure incident.
Nor could they explain why the whole braking system failed despite just one ABS sensor failing. Very clearly braking is impacted with any one of those ABS sensors failing, HMIL has no answers to this issue, therefore, recommend any Creta driver to not drive the vehicle if ABS warning lights appear.

A similar issue at slightly higher speeds occurred with a Creta user in Cochin, around the same time frame, but he, like Naveen_raju, had to force crash into a Maruti Swift and bear damage repairs costs.

Last edited by Chetan_Rao : 7th January 2020 at 14:16.Reason: Trimmed quote.

wheelguy

Join Date: Jul 2019

Location: Earth

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Though it's reported mostly with Cretas, other Hyundai cars are also having similar issues like in i10 mentioned above, it might be a Hyundai thing, not just limited to Creta I think.

So, despite knowing this issue since years, Hyundai continued to sell thousands and lakhs of copies without an iota of concern towards the consumer's safety.

Hyundai is able to do this because it's not getting highleted as much as required and therefore many prospective buyers are not aware of it before purchase. One can live with a rattling car, one can live without sunroof and wireless charging, but can one line with inconsistent brakes?

Even if the probability of failure is less, it is not acceptable because it's life and death matter. Whereas laggy screen, rattling interiors etc even after multiple occurrences will not kill anybody.

If one is lucky enough to survive the brake failure, he will go to A.S.S after the incident to get it resolved, or else he will not be there to even report.

Last edited by wheelguy : 7th January 2020 at 14:13.

RavenAvi

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Location: Flying Around

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Jismon Joy shares his horrific ordeal from last month:

Sedate

Join Date: Apr 2010

Location: Cochin

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Just wanted to report the ABS issue with my cousins Creta.

The car had its ABS light lit up and he called me to ask what to do. I asked him to stop driving the car, but being in remote place we decided to take the risk of driving it home at extremely low speed and using engine braking as much as possible.

Car was given to Popular, Muvattupuzha and was being worked on for last 2 days. They are replacing the back wheel ABS sensor as per the SA. Not sure of the details, but will be meeting him to see the service bill to understand what all were replaced. The car should reach him today after the repair.