Hyundai Recalls 46,000 Palisade Vehicles for Faulty Seat Belt Indicators

Hyundai Motor America has issued a recall of 46,787 2026 Palisade vehicles due to a faulty seat belt status indicator that may fail to alert occupants about an unfastened seat belt, increasing the risk of injury, according to a report posted on March 26 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Models potentially affected include certain 2026 Hyundai Palisades and 2026 Hyundai Palisade Hybrids equipped with Limited and Calligraphy trim models, the report said.

According to the report, the internal wiring in the third-row, driver-side seat belt buckle in affected vehicles can be damaged due to excessive tension that occurs when the seat belt is significantly tugged or pulled while fastened. As a result, the supplemental restraint system could fail to detect the fastening status and display a fastened seat belt on the instrument panel when it is not.

Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed by May 18, 2026. Dealers will install a wiring harness extension and replace the seat belt assembly, as necessary, free of charge.

Owners can also contact Hyundai customer service at 1-855-371-9460. Hyundai’s number for this recall is 297. Vehicle identification numbers involved are also searchable on NHTSA.gov.

The automaker’s North American safety office became aware of the problem in early January and conducted replication trials mid-month. In February and early March, the office held weekly discussions with Hyundai to review potential root causes, manufacturing design, and warranty part return analyses, and then decided that additional evaluation was needed.

On March 12, the safety office agreed to conduct a recall. By then, Hyundai was aware of five reports related to the defect in the U.S. market, but there were no accidents, fires, injuries, or fatalities.

These are the same three-row sport utility vehicles for which the company issued a “stop sale” nearly two weeks ago.

On March 13, Hyundai said in a statement posted on its website that the powered second- and third-row seats in the SUVs may not adequately detect an occupant or object as intended and could continue with power-folding operations, mentioning the death of a young girl because of this.

The company said that sales of Palisade models had been indefinitely halted, and that it was recalling nearly 68,500 of them, including more than 60,500 vehicles in the United States and nearly 8,000 in Canada.