Other brake problem on the 2012 Hyundai Elantra
6 crashes 3 fires 4 injuries 13 of the 70 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 brake problem gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Hyundai Elantra report other brake problem at a median of 60,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles, from 23 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 130,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 122,542 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.
26% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7,418 miles | 33,000 miles | 59,850 miles | 110,000 miles | 129,960 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, 6 a crash, 3 a fire and 4 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 2012 has 70. 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.
Car lurched, engine shut off. Car became uncontrollable and all the warning lights on the dash lit up. Eventually managed to get to side of road where the transmission locked into place. Electrical system was still functional but car was completely unresponsive. Occurred again 800 miles later after "repair" both incidents nearly caused accidents. *tr
I bought a brand new 2012 hyundai elantra on feb. 10, 2012. Within several weeks I noticed the gas disappearing so quickly so I began filling the tank and taking pictures. I bought this particular vehicle due to the fact it advertised 40 mi. Gal on highway and 29 city. I took it to the dealership, I was told to fill car and reset trip and drive on highway. I did as they said on several occasions before going back. The trip continued to read 18 MPH and approximately (as low as 10.9 and as high as 24.8 mpg) one of the mechanics (I guess he was a mechanic) took it for a ride, I waited; he was gone an hour. When he got back he said he drove 47 miles and got it to read 33 mpg in which he said he combined city and highway together. I have never got it to do that and I have been tracking it closely since I bought it. Also, the steering wheel squeals, I told them; they said it is nothing. The brakes (alloyed wheels) squeal after it rains, they said it is nothing. I smelled something coming from cabin filter, they said it is a big job to take apart to see what the smell is and they said they believed it is a dead animal in which I would…
Driver attempting to brake but the brake system failed and hit another car, also upon impact the airbags did not deployed to protect the driver considering how severely the front area of the car were damaged. 2 days prior to the accident, car was not starting, was jumped- start and vehicle was brought to hyundai service and they did not see anything wrong. *tr
Also reported on the 2012 Hyundai Elantra
No-start or intermittent start failure
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other engine problem
Other steering problem
Other electrical problem
Other driver assistance problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 70 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 2012 Hyundai Elantra?
Across 23 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 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 2012 Hyundai Elantra?
70 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.9 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