Other body or interior problem on the 2009 Hyundai Elantra
3 crashes 2 fires 3 injuries 8 of the 8 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.
When other body or interior problem gets reported
Owners of the 2009 Hyundai Elantra report other body or interior problem at a median of 70,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 30,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 98,815 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.
13% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28,600 miles | 44,500 miles | 69,500 miles | 92,000 miles | 127,415 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, 2 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 $200–$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 23 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2021, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1997 at 135,000 miles.
By volume the 2017 carries the most reports, with 117; the 2009 has 8. 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2009 hyundai elantra. The contact stated that the chrome on the gear shifter and the front driver's side door handle began peeling, exposing shards of chrome. The contact sustained minor cuts to the right hand from the shards of chrome. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure and current mileage was 69,000. *tr
I was driving to work and there had been loose gravel on the road. Trying to keep the car steady I lost control and at 50 MPH hit a tree head on. Jaws of life were used to remove me from the vehicle. Had anyone been in the passenger seat they would have died instantly. I suffered broken ribs, fractured vertebrae in my back, fractured pelvis, major contusions and hematoma. Was out of work for almost 3 months and then returned part time for months. Began the year 2015 full time which has been very difficult. Wore a back brace and now use a cane all the time. *tr
I hit a deer on highway 890 in rotterdam ny, spun out of control and hit the guardrail, car had damage all around, the most damage was in the front resulting in a totaled vehicle, my whole front end is gone, and no airbags deployed, we were traveling doing about 60 miles per hour
Also reported on the 2009 Hyundai Elantra
Other steering problem
Steering column or shaft failure
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Loss of power steering
Other speed control problem
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 8 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 body or interior problem happen on the 2009 Hyundai Elantra?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other body or interior problem on the 2009 Hyundai Elantra?
8 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