No-start or intermittent start failure on the 2008 Hyundai Elantra
Only 2 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 no-start or intermittent start failure gets reported
There are 2 reports of no-start or intermittent start failure on the 2008 Hyundai Elantra, 2 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 33rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 24,188 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 $200–$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 11 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2020 at 95,000 miles.
By volume the 2012 carries the most reports, with 99; the 2008 has 0. 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.
A week after purchasing my brand new 2008 hyundai elantra my car cut off in the middle of the road and failed to start. I luckily was able to eventually get it started in lieu of waiting a hour in the heat at rush hour for the roadside assistance. The car sputtered to the dealeship where I got a loaner. I was called today and told it was the fuel pump. I then decided to research the issue because a brand new car should not be shutting down in the middle of the road. I could not find anything from hyundai acknowledging the issue. After reading this website( http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f14ffd5) I realized this is a common issue facing new elantra owners that needs to be addressed! *tr
I started my car at the top of my driveway and drove down the driveway toward the road as usual. No traffic was coming from either direction, so I accelerated slightly to make a right turn onto the road. As I was pulling onto the road, I completely lost the ability to steer the vehicle and to control the direction of it. Consequently, I almost went over a 10 to 12 foot high wall on the other side of the road. Fortunately, I was able to prevent going over the wall by braking, but I was paralyzed by shock and fright. A neighbor, who is a retired automobile mechanic came and restarted the car and got it back into my driveway. The car started without difficulty, but the redlight (eps) was showing on the dash. I called the hyundai dealer where it was purchased, but they would not look at it until the following day. When they did, they say that they have "updated the ecu' and charged me $89.95 for doing so. They claimed that the problem was due to a bad battery; however the battery has never failed to start the vehicle and run all devices. I drive alone, and need to drive at night very often; however I am now afraid to drive the car…
Also reported on the 2008 Hyundai Elantra
Fuel pump failure
Other steering problem
Other brake problem
Other engine problem
Parking brake failure
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 2 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 2 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 no-start or intermittent start failure happen on the 2008 Hyundai Elantra?
Across 2 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 25,000 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 no-start or intermittent start failure on the 2008 Hyundai Elantra?
2 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 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