Parking brake failure on the 2007 Hyundai Elantra
2 fires 2 of the 9 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 6 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 parking brake failure gets reported
There are 9 reports of parking brake failure on the 2007 Hyundai Elantra, 6 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
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 108,215 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, 2 a fire is 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.
Putting it right typically runs $250–$1,300 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 7 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2012, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 carries the most reports, with 21; the 2007 has 9. 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.
Own a 2007 hyundai elantra sedan. Have been having issues with the air bag light staying on at all times, for about the past week. Yesterday when I parked the car, I put in neutral pulled up the emergency brake and car filled with smoke had small fire, fire dept was called out to my house no injuries. I was sure to get out of car quickly in case turned out to be huge fire. Not sure what happened getting looked at tomorrow, need it towed car fills up with smoke and you can peek in at the wiring and was a small flame this time. If I turn the key on this happens. Unoperatable, as of now. This really needs to be investigated as people could be getting hurt. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2007 hyundai elantra . The contact stated that while driving 30 MPH and making a slight turn, the steering wheel turned in the opposite direction. The contact depressed the brake pedal however the vehicle would not stop. He then engaged the emergency brake and the vehicle came to a stop. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who stated that they had to replace the power steering system. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure and the current mileage was 80,000. ..updated 09-19-12 *bf the consumer stated the vehicle made 3 to 4 360 degree spins before coming to a stop. Updated 09/21/2012 *js
While I drive down the road, weather it be at 10mph or 55mph, my eps light and emergency brake light will turn on and my car will stop. It will not turn off until my car is stopped, turned off. And turned back on again. Since the power steering is lost I can not just turn to the side of the road. I have to pray that no one will be coming up behind me and hit me causing an accident. Before that will happen for two weeks my alarm will go off at all hours of the day and night. Over and over and over again until my cars eps and e brake lights turn on while I am driving, but then the cycle will start all over again. The most frequent tiem this happened was while I was driving down highway 99w in dundee oregon, I was going about 45mph and my cars eps and e break .light turned on and I had to turn it off and then restart it. I have taken it many times to a dealership to fix but they just charge me money and say its fixed, but then it happens again. I will sue, I am so over my car threatening my life and the lives of my loved ones.
Also reported on the 2007 Hyundai Elantra
Other visibility problem
Other brake problem
Tail light, brake light or signal failure
Other steering problem
Other body or interior problem
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 9 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 9 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 parking brake failure happen on the 2007 Hyundai Elantra?
Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 110,000 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 parking brake failure on the 2007 Hyundai Elantra?
9 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