A pulsing brake pedal on your Santa Fe TM usually points to disc thickness variation or runout on the front rotors, not a mystery fault.
Here is what to check first, what it costs to ignore, and whether you can keep driving safely.
What that pulsing pedal is actually telling you
If your Santa Fe TM (2018-on) shakes the pedal under braking, you are almost certainly feeling disc thickness variation (DTV) or lateral runout in one or more brake rotors. Here is the useful part: the vibration travels through the hydraulic system, so where you feel it tells you where to look. Pulsation in the pedal and steering wheel is nearly always the front axle. Pulsation you feel through the seat, floor and body, with the wheel staying calm, points to the rear — worth remembering, because the TM's rear calipers have an electric parking brake motor that can drag and cook a rotor. True ABS activation feels different: it is a fast chatter or grinding that only shows up during hard stops or at very low speed, not a rhythmic throb that gets faster as you speed up.
