AtWhatMileage
Brakes · 27 owner reports

Other brake problem on the 2008 Hyundai Elantra

3 crashes 3 fires 3 injuries 9 of the 27 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.

Reports of this failure 27
With an odometer reading 20
Reports per 1,000 built 0.4 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 20%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 9
Typical repair $300–$1,800
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 3rd

When other brake problem gets reported

Owners of the 2008 Hyundai Elantra report other brake problem at a median of 85,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 150,000 miles, from 20 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 20,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 190,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 168,633 miles across the middle 80% of reports.

When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.

20% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 20 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
21,400 miles 45,250 miles 84,000 miles 151,750 miles 190,033 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, 3 a crash, 3 a fire and 3 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.

Putting it right typically runs $300–$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 22 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2021, at a median of 300 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 105,000 miles.

By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 201; the 2008 has 27. 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. 1996 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  2. 1997 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  3. 1998 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  4. 1999 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  5. 2000 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 10k
  6. 2001 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 44k
  7. 2002 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 18k
  8. 2003 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 39k
  9. 2004 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 3k
  10. 2005 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 64k
  11. 2006 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 83k
  12. 2007 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 105k
  13. 2008 (this one) 84k
  14. 2009 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 59k
  15. 2010 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 85k
  16. 2011 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 69k
  17. 2012 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 60k
  18. 2013 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 55k
  19. 2014 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 91k
  20. 2015 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 58k
  21. 2016 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 15k
  22. 2017 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 22k
  23. 2018 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 19k
  24. 2019 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 10k
  25. 2020 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 23k
  26. 2021 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 300
  27. 2022 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  28. 2023 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 12k
  29. 2024 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  30. 2025 Hyundai Elantra other brake problem 4k

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.

Tl*the contact owns a 2008 hyundai elantra. While driving approximately 80 MPH, the front driver side tire would wobble excessively. She took her vehicle to the dealer and the tire was replaced. Two weeks later, the failure recurred and a crash nearly occurred. The dealer has not provided any assistance. The contact has not filed a formal complaint with the manufacturer. . The failure mileage was 800 and current mileage is 2,000. The consumer stated when she applied the brakes it felt strange. The consumer stated there was a burning type smell coming from the vehicle, but the dealer told her it would go away. The consumer stated it has been a month and the smell was still present. Updated *jb

800 miles NHTSA complaint 650389 filed 2007-12-19

2008 hyundai elantra was proceeding north when it hit a hydroplane on an upgrade while traveling 40 MPH. Driver applied brakes on downgrade to no avail. Car crashed into a parked car, went into a residential yard and through residence fence before coming to a halt on upgrade of residence yard. Front air bags failed to deploy. Driver and passenger suffered face, head, neck and back injuries. Car was totaled. *tr

47,000 miles NHTSA complaint 751853 filed 2010-01-08

Tl* the contact owns a 2008 hyundai elantra. The contact stated that the brakes and steering locked abnormally. The contact shifted into reverse and the vehicle went forward instead. She shifted into park and turned the vehicle off. When restarted, the failure recurred and the vehicle became nonresponsive. The vehicle was towed to an authorized dealer who reset the computer but could not confirm that the failure would recur. The failure recurred twice and the vehicle was not taken back to the dealer for further diagnosis or repairs. The manufacturer was not notified. The current mileage was approximately 11,500 and the failure mileage was approximately 7,000.

7,000 miles NHTSA complaint 845623 filed 2011-03-07

Also reported on the 2008 Hyundai Elantra

Fuel pump failure

43 reports median 1k

Other steering problem

32 reports median 70k

Other engine problem

22 reports median 32k

Parking brake failure

21 reports median 63k

Other electrical problem

17 reports median 77k

Cruise control failure

15 reports median 34k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 27 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 brake problem happen on the 2008 Hyundai Elantra?

Across 20 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 85,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 150,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other brake problem on the 2008 Hyundai Elantra?

27 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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