When I drive thru a puddle on the passenger side, my 2005 sonata shuts off. All dash lights come on, squealing sound, then I have about 10 secs. to pull over before power steering, etc goes. Have taken it to 3 diff. mechanics and told that no shields are missing and the belt doesn't need to be replaced. Help please?

How deep are the puddles are you going through? Water is getting into the engine compartment from somewhere.

Not very deep at all. Maybe 4 or 5 inches or so. If I creep slowly thru I'm fine but if I go thru at say anything over 25 mph I look for a quick place to pull over.

Might even be a little less deep than 4 or 5 inches. One mechanic tried to recreate by putting the car on a lift and spraying profusely with a water bottle, but it didn't yield the same results.

4-5 inches is a pretty good sized puddle. There has to be a cover or should missing or not connected right. A spray bottle is not going to come close to the spray that a big puddle at 30 MPH will create. Have him spray it with a garden hose at least.

Thanks for the input. I may have exaggerated the depth of the puddles that put me in peril. Now that it's downpouring here in Western Mass, the puddles I avoid appear to be much less deep than I originally thought. I'll ask for the tensioner to be checked out next. On the plus side, I have become an extremely strategic driver!

Under thr front of the santa fe there is a gaurd. on the passenger side there is a rectangular cut out to get to the oil filter. that if it goes missing during an oil change and does not get put back, when you go through a small puddle water comes through and splashes on the serpentine belt causing the belt to get wet and slip causing the alternator, and water pump pulleys to go out of correspondence with the harmonic balancer pulley and car either hesitates or stalls, battery light goes on. When the belt catches again everything is fine.

I have a Hyundai Sonata 2006 101K , same problem. Problem started happening last year. Well yesterday I was backing out from my house. I hear a loud sound, battery light turn on. Steering heel hard. I waited, but this time the battery light did not turned off. I opened the hood and I see the serpentine belt off. I called a tow, the mechanic at the garage said that the harmonic balancer broke off (that is why the serpentine belt was off). when the harmonic balance broke off it also damaged the right axle. SO if the battery light goes on, steering wheel is hard when crossing a puddle of water. Ask your mechanic to check the harmonic balancer before it is too late, fails, brake off and damage something else in your car.