Premature brake pad or rotor wear on the 2013 Hyundai Elantra
Only 4 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 premature brake pad or rotor wear gets reported
There are 6 reports of premature brake pad or rotor wear on the 2013 Hyundai Elantra, 4 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 45,000 miles. It is the 44th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 8,000 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 $300–$1,400 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 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2002, at a median of 40 miles, and latest on the 2012 at 80,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 7; the 2013 has 6. 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.
There is an extremely loud grinding noise that keeps coming from my brakes. I was pulling up to a mailbox and I was on my cellphone and someone asked me what that noise was as it was so loud they could hear it! I brought it to the dealership and they said there was a little bit of rust on the rotor!! I just had the 7500 mile check up and got all green checks but 10 days later the grinding is even louder than before. I dread even putting on my brakes and I am not confident if people jump out in front of me that they will respond properly. I purchased this car brand new and went on to carcomplaints.com and there are a lot of people saying the same things with as low as 20 miles on the car. Something is definitely wrong here. This is my fifth brand new car in the last ten years so I know this is not something that should be going on. *tr
Our elantra began making grinding noises when we pressed on the brake pedal that sounded like the brakes or rotor were defective. When the shop inspected the car, they said they could not duplicate the noise, and told us the car was in perfect shape. Over the next few months, the noise became louder when braking, plus it began making a whump-whump-whump noise that appeared to be directly related to the speed and rotation of the wheels. The sound would increase when we steered the car to the right, and would decrease when we steered left. The whumps were barely audible at 5 MPH, but were overly loud at 40 MPH. I thought it was plastic trim fluttering in the wind, but could not find anything loose. When we took it to the shop again, I think in august, I told them the car was not drivable that they needed to find out what was causing the whump noises and the grinding noises when we applied the brakes. This time they found the problem was caused by the bolt holding the left wheel coming unscrewed. They tightened the bolt under warranty repair service, and the car has not made the whump noise or had grinding brakes since the repair. I…
Our elantra began making grinding noises when we pressed on the brake pedal that sounded like the brakes or rotor were defective. When the shop inspected the car, they said they could not duplicate the noise, and told us the car was in perfect shape. Over the next few months, the noise became louder when braking, plus it began making a whump-whump-whump noise that appeared to be directly related to the speed and rotation of the wheels. The sound would increase when we steered the car to the right, and would decrease when we steered left. The whumps were barely audible at 5 MPH, but were overly loud at 40 MPH. I thought it was plastic trim fluttering in the wind, but could not find anything loose. When we took it to the shop again, I think in august, I told them the car was not drivable that they needed to find out what was causing the whump noises and the grinding noises when we applied the brakes. This time they found the problem was caused by the bolt holding the left wheel coming unscrewed. They tightened the bolt under warranty repair service, and the car has not made the whump noise or had grinding brakes since the repair. I…
Also reported on the 2013 Hyundai Elantra
Other brake problem
Other steering problem
Other engine problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other wheel or tire problem
Other suspension problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 6 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 6 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 premature brake pad or rotor wear happen on the 2013 Hyundai Elantra?
Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 10,000 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 premature brake pad or rotor wear on the 2013 Hyundai Elantra?
6 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