Unclassified problem on the 2002 Hyundai Elantra
22 crashes 16 injuries 38 of the 37 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
Only 22 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.
When unclassified problem gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Hyundai Elantra report unclassified problem at a median of 70,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 120,000 miles, from 22 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 49th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 135,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 127,230 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
41% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9,980 miles | 20,750 miles | 69,000 miles | 117,500 miles | 137,210 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
Of these reports, 22 a crash and 16 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 26 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2021, at a median of 500 miles, and latest on the 2019 at 100,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 132; the 2002 has 37. 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.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Vehicle "surges" to very high RPM without warning. Has been to dealer x3 for repair/adjustment. Last time at dealership 04-10-03 the throttle sensor was replaced. )n 05-02-03 "surging" occurred again, causing crash. Also vehicle pulled violently to right after brakes were applied, car skidded prior to impact even with ABS brakes. No air bag deployment. Crash speed est. At 25-30 MPH. *jb
While driving between 25 to 30 MPH and going down and a curb the steering wheel failed to respond and remained in the same position. This caused the vehicle to veer into oncoming truck. Upon impact, neither of the air bags deployed. According to the consumer, under puerto rican law, vehicle would be returned to the bank if dealer was notified. *ak
Head on collision, drivers side, airbags did not deploy, three people in the car all sustained injuries, driver was transported to the hospital....damage to the car from this accident is considered a total loss.......my biggest concern is why didn't my airbags deploy?*ak
Also reported on the 2002 Hyundai Elantra
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other brake problem
Other body or interior problem
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
Airbag failed to deploy in a crash
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 37 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 37 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 unclassified problem happen on the 2002 Hyundai Elantra?
Across 22 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 120,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2002 Hyundai Elantra?
37 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 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