AtWhatMileage
Suspension · 7 owner reports

Other suspension problem on the 2003 Hyundai Elantra

Only 5 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 7
With an odometer reading 5
Reports per 1,000 built 0.1 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 0%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $350–$2,000
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 14th

When other suspension problem gets reported

There are 7 reports of other suspension problem on the 2003 Hyundai Elantra, 5 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 100,000 miles. It is the 14th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 5 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 130,000 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 $350–$2,000 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 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 165,000 miles.

By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 86; the 2003 has 7. 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.

Median
  1. 1997 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem 141k
  2. 1998 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  3. 2000 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem 54k
  4. 2001 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem 37k
  5. 2002 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem 165k
  6. 2003 (this one) 130k
  7. 2004 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem 105k
  8. 2005 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  9. 2006 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem 84k
  10. 2007 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem 112k
  11. 2008 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem 36k
  12. 2009 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem 30k
  13. 2010 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem 13k
  14. 2011 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem 72k
  15. 2012 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem 32k
  16. 2013 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem 20k
  17. 2014 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem 12k
  18. 2015 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem 15k
  19. 2016 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem 21k
  20. 2017 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem 34k
  21. 2018 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem 6k
  22. 2019 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  23. 2020 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  24. 2021 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  25. 2022 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  26. 2023 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  27. 2024 Hyundai Elantra other suspension problem 1k

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.

I own a 2003 hyundai elantra gt that currently has about 58000 miles on it. While driving home, when I was approx 2 miles away I noticed that the car started to pull to one side a bit. Thinking it was a flat, I drove slow for the remaining mile or so and when I was about 200 yards from my destination, the front end dropped and the car stopped. Upon visual inspection, it looks like the frame where the passenger front tire meets the steering rod completely rotted through and broke. After looking on the web, it seems very similar to investigation pe09011. *tr

58,000 miles NHTSA complaint 711012 filed 2009-03-06

Tl* the contact owns a 2003 hyundai elantra. While driving, the rear of the vehicle shook violently. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where it was discovered that the rear cross member was corroded. The mechanic stated that the vehicle was unsafe to operate. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 130,000.

130,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1208109 filed 2015-08-11

Tl* the contact owns a 2003 hyundai elantra. The contact stated that there was an abnormal noise coming from the front driver side tire. The failure recurred numerous times. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic but was not diagnosed or repaired. The contact was informed of NHTSA campaign number: 09v125000 (suspension) however, the VIN was not included. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 104,000.

104,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1246413 filed 2015-12-18

Also reported on the 2003 Hyundai Elantra

Other body or interior problem

20 reports median 73k

Loss of braking

19 reports median 15k

Other brake problem

14 reports median 39k

Airbag failed to deploy in a crash

13 reports median 4k

Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure

12 reports median 105k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 7 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 7 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 other suspension problem happen on the 2003 Hyundai Elantra?

Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 130,000 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 other suspension problem on the 2003 Hyundai Elantra?

7 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