Hyundai Santa Fe tires

Four different tire sizes left the factory on the 2023 Santa Fe, from a 17-inch hybrid wheel to a 20-inch on the Calligraphy. They all take the same pressure, which is unusually tidy. What is not tidy is the model year boundary: a 2024 Santa Fe is a different vehicle for fitment, and nothing on this page covers it.

The sizes Hyundai fitted

This page covers the TM facelift, 2021 to 2023, confirmed on the 2023 car. The MX5 redesign from 2024 changed fitments and is not covered.

• 235/65R17 on the Hybrid Blue.
• 235/60R18 on SE, SEL and XRT. This is the volume fitment.
• 235/55R19 on Limited, Hybrid Limited, Hybrid SEL Premium, Plug-In Hybrid Limited and Plug-In Hybrid SEL Convenience.
• 255/45R20 on the Calligraphy.

Four sizes on one model line is more than most. Wheel diameter moves with trim, and on this car the electrified trims are spread across three of the four sizes, so the powertrain badge does not tell you which tire you need. Neither does the word Limited on its own. Read the sidewall or the label. See finding your tire size.

Where the Santa Fe puts its placard

The driver's door sill, on the driver-side centre pillar. The Hyundai Motor Group owner's manual describes the tire and loading information label as located on the driver's door sill, carrying the original tire size and the recommended cold tire pressures.

That wording comes from a group manual in the shared Hyundai and Kia format rather than from a document specific to this model and year, so treat it as the make-level answer and confirm it on your car. In practice: open the driver's door, and if the edge of the door is bare, look at the upright post beside the seat. That post is the B-pillar. Our tire pressure placard guide covers which makes use which.

How to read it once you find it

1. Cold pressure, front.
2. Cold pressure, rear. Equal to the front on this vehicle.
3. The original tire size, which is the one of four your car was built with.
4. The spare, printed separately and usually at a much higher figure.

Cold means the car has been parked at least three hours, or driven under about a mile. A tire warms as it rolls and its pressure climbs with it, so a reading taken after a drive reads high and tempts you into letting air out.

The verified pressure

35 psi front and rear. Two independent pressure sources agree exactly on the 235/65R17, 235/60R18 and 235/55R19 fitments.

The 255/45R20 on the Calligraphy is given as 35 front and rear by one source only. It fits the pattern of the rest of the range, but one source is one source, so treat the 20-inch as the least settled figure here and read it from that car's own label. That is not a hedge for its own sake: a 20-inch fitment on a heavy SUV is exactly the kind of case where a manufacturer does step the pressure up.

Replacing fewer than four

All-wheel drive is optional, through Hyundai's HTRAC system. No Hyundai tire-matching tolerance was found, and Tire Rack's per-manufacturer table does not cover Hyundai, so there is no numeric limit to quote and we will not invent one.

On a front-drive Santa Fe, one or two tires is a normal job and two new ones go on the rear axle. On an HTRAC car with three worn tires, matching all four is the safe course, and we raise it before fitting rather than after. See how many tires and mixing tire brands. For a tread puncture, start with repair against replace.

What changes on a mobile Santa Fe fitting

• Direct TPMS, with a sensor in each road wheel, so the work ends with a reset or a relearn.
• Four possible sizes on one model. We confirm the size on the car before loading tires, not from the trim name on the tailgate.
• Plug-in hybrid trims carry more weight than the petrol cars on the same nominal size. We keep the load index rather than matching size alone.
• The 255/45R20 has no fully corroborated pressure in our records, so on a Calligraphy we set strictly to the label.
• The label may be on the pillar rather than the door edge, so the door gets opened fully before anything is inflated.

What we do

We supply the tires and fit them where the car is parked. Pressure is set to the figure on your own label rather than to a database, the TPMS is reset or relearned where the vehicle supports it, and the old tires leave with us. Pricing is on our mobile tire replacement page.

Questions people ask

• What psi does a Santa Fe take? 35 front and rear. Two sources agree on that for the 17, 18 and 19-inch fitments.
• Does the Calligraphy on 20s take 35 too? One source says so and nothing contradicts it, but only one source carries it. Read that car's label and use what it says.
• Where is the label? The driver's door sill, on the centre pillar. If the door edge is bare, look at the upright post beside the seat.
• Is my 2024 the same? No. The 2024 redesign changed fitments and this page does not cover it.
• Can I replace two tires on an AWD Santa Fe? Sometimes, after we look at the other two. There is no published Hyundai tolerance to measure against, so it is a judgement at the car.
• Does the hybrid need a special tire? Not a special construction, but the electrified trims are heavier, so the load index on the label is the specification to keep.