Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure on the 2002 Hyundai Santa FE
2 crashes 2 of the 37 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 control arm, ball joint or bushing failure gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Hyundai Santa FE report control arm, ball joint or bushing failure at a median of 150,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 95,000 miles and a quarter after 157,500 miles, from 31 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 108,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 70,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 190,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 120,000 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.
3% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 70,000 miles | 94,500 miles | 151,246 miles | 158,500 miles | 190,000 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
Of these reports, 2 a crash is 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 $400–$2,200 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 2007, at a median of 100,000 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 150,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
Left front ball joint failed suddenly and without warning. Right front ball joint still ok. Failure caused lack of ability to steer the vehicle resulting in an accident. Mechanic said it is very rare to see such wear on one side and not the other. Car was badly damaged due to resulting accident.
I purchased a 2002 hyundai sante fe in spring 2007. I have had no problems with until two days ago I began to feel the car wheel jerk on the freeway. I brought the car home and asked my boyfriend to drive the car and see how he felt in it. That night on his way to work as he was exiting the freeway the tire popped off. When the car was towed to the car store the mechanic said the tire popped off due the front subframe being rotted and rusted out. To correct the problem will be $3400. No one was injured. However during these tough economic times I can barely make ends meet. My family has no transportation to school or work. Granted that I receive the job offer from a company I recently interviewed with I will be unable to accept for I have no transportation to get there. I notice that hyundai has this problem with many of its cars what's the deal with their quality? *tr
My 2002 hyundai sante fe control arm rusted through causing the wheel to come off. I understand this was a recall which I was not notified about. Because of this dangerous situation I am not comfortable driving this car. Not only did the control arm rust , we had to change to hub, bearing,and the axle and have the car towed to a repair shop at my expense. I am asking hyundai to pay for the labor and parts to repair my car. Luckily, I was not on a highway driving since this would have resulted in a major accident or possibly a fatality. I now have to bring the auto to a hyundai dealership to have the parts and car inspected and then wait 6 to 8 weeks for them to decide on how I will be reimbursed. Failure to notify me aswell as thousands of other hyundai owners is unacceptable. I should not have to go through all this redtape on something they are totally responsible and liable for. *tr
Also reported on the 2002 Hyundai Santa FE
Other suspension problem
Rust or structural corrosion
Other engine problem
Other brake problem
Other powertrain problem
Other steering problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 37 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 control arm, ball joint or bushing failure happen on the 2002 Hyundai Santa FE?
Across 31 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 150,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 95,000 miles and a quarter after 157,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is control arm, ball joint or bushing failure on the 2002 Hyundai Santa FE?
37 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 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