AtWhatMileage
Fuel · 3 owner reports

Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure on the 1999 Hyundai Elantra

Only 3 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.

Reports of this failure 3
With an odometer reading 3
Reports per 1,000 built 0.1 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 33%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $250–$1,800
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 15th

When fuel tank, filler or evap failure gets reported

There are 3 reports of fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure on the 1999 Hyundai Elantra, 3 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 15th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 3 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 65,000 miles — —

Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.

What a percentile can and cannot tell you here

These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.

What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.

Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.

What happens, and what it costs

Putting it right typically runs $250–$1,800 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.

The same failure on other years

The same failure is reported on 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2001, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 1997 at 145,000 miles.

By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 17; the 1999 has 3. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.

If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

When fueling, the pump shuts off approximately every fifty cents of gasoline. An independent mechanic at a repair shop determined that the fuel tank must be replaced. Please provide further details. *ph vehicle's check engine light illuminated and consumer experienced trouble pumping gas. Vehicle also experiencing jerking upon acceleration as well as frequent stalling. Repair shop determined that fuel tank must be replaced.*mr

65,000 miles NHTSA complaint 440504 filed 2003-11-12

Nar 9-8-03. The consumer felt that the vehicle's transmission was slipping. The vehicle was taken to the dealer . The dealer figured the problem might be fuel delivery related and asked permission to pursue a remedy. The dealer removed the fuel tank and flushed the fuel lines and injectors and replaced the fuel filter. When the vehicle was returned to the consumer it operated as it should. *nm

35,681 miles NHTSA complaint 507994 filed 2004-11-23

I have a 1999 hyundai elantra with 128,750 mi. At. The evaporative emissions canister has become disconnected from the body of the car where it is bolted which is underneath the trunk behind the left rear wheel due to the bracket rusting and breaking due to inadequate steel used which does not resist salt and improper design for not placing the canister in a protected area of the car or or placing shrouding around the canister to shield the salt spray from the road/rear wheel. The result is the pipes from the fuel tank which convey fuel vapors have disconnected from the evap canister and trigger a p0422 (check engine light) which is a leak in the evap system which means the car will not pass ny inspection. *js

128,750 miles NHTSA complaint 916963 filed 2012-05-02

Also reported on the 1999 Hyundai Elantra

Other powertrain problem

35 reports median 71k

Misfire or rough idle

15 reports median 23k

Other body or interior problem

14 reports median 66k

Engine sensor failure

10 reports median 120k

Other electrical problem

10 reports median 81k

Other engine problem

9 reports median 95k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 3 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.

Complaints are voluntary, so 3 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.

Questions this page answers

At what mileage does fuel tank, filler or evap failure happen on the 1999 Hyundai Elantra?

Across 3 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is fuel tank, filler or evap failure on the 1999 Hyundai Elantra?

3 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.

What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars

Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed