Other speed control problem on the 2003 Hyundai Santa FE
5 crashes 5 of the 14 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 speed control problem gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Hyundai Santa FE report other speed control problem at a median of 60,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles, from 10 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 8th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 85,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 81,750 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.
40% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3,800 miles | 24,250 miles | 60,261 miles | 77,500 miles | 85,550 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, 5 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 $250–$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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
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 100 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 carries the most reports, with 39; the 2003 has 14. 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.
On 3 separate occasions vehicle revved and accelerated while at a complete stop but idling. Consumer's foot was depressed on the brake pedal at the time of these incidents. On the third occasion it resulted in a rear end collision. *ak
When accelerating from a stop vehicle stalled. Consumer managed to pull over and restarted the vehicle with no problem. Dealership had been notified, but did not resolve the problem. *ak
We purchased our 2003 hyundai sante fe november of 2003. It is a 2003 model with a 3.5 liter engine. After having the car a couple of months, we started having a lurching problem when sitting at stop light. It would feel as if someone bumped into you from the rear. We brought the car in and were told that this was due to an ABS problem. They serviced the car for the recalls that were current, and explained to us that they could not duplicate the problem, but it should be ok now with the recall servicing they had done. The car continued to have the problem, doing it several times a day. Just recently I was parked in a parking lot. I started the car, applied my foot to the brake and shifted the car into reverse. The car engine suddenly revved very loudly, and the car lurched backwards about 6 feet, almost hitting some people who were parked behind me in the opposite spaces, putting groceries in their car. I had to place a lot of pressure on the brake to avoid the car going further than the six feet before the engine stopped revving. The car is now at the dealer, whom I hope will be able to help with the issue.*ak
Also reported on the 2003 Hyundai Santa FE
Other suspension problem
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
Other brake problem
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 14 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 speed control problem happen on the 2003 Hyundai Santa FE?
Across 10 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other speed control problem on the 2003 Hyundai Santa FE?
14 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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