Strut, shock or spring failure on the 2003 Hyundai Santa FE
Only 7 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 strut, shock or spring failure gets reported
There are 7 reports of strut, shock or spring failure on the 2003 Hyundai Santa FE, 7 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 105,000 miles. It is the 19th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 105,760 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 $500–$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 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2010, at a median of 60,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2004 carries the most reports, with 45; the 2003 has 7. 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.
A couple of years ago, I saw the recall on the rear suspension on 03 hyundai santa fe. So I went to two dealers around my area and asked them to check the condition. One of them did not even responded to my question and returned the car, and another one said they are fine and not need to be either treated or replaced. Then a few days ago, just web surfing the web and found the symptoms of the problem of the rear tailing arms recall. My car has all that symptoms right now, but hyundai is telling me that my vehicle is not equipped with the faulty trailing arms, and my vehicle is not qualify for the recall. My car swing when I make turns weirdly. It feels like you have a loose trailer in the back. Also the height of the car had been lowered, and also when I go over a speed bump, I hear creaking sound. I have replaced the front struts, strut mounts, and rear shocks so they are not coming from those. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2003 hyundai santa fe. The contact stated that while reversing at unknown speeds, the front driver's side coil spring failed. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 105,760.
While backing out of my garage during the cold month of december I heard a loud bang noise from the front of the vehicle. As I was moving the noise continued as I got onto the driveway. I got out of the vehicle and noticed that the front passenger side of the SUV was lower than the driver side. I was not able to move the vehicle due to the loud noise that got worse if I turned the wheel. I called for a tow truck and had it towed to the repair shop. The repair shop informed me that the front coil spring had snapped and was embeded into the tire. I ended up replacing the coil spring with a good/used one which was still very expensive. I have pictures of the vehicle. *tr
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
This page is kept out of search results because 7 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 7 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 strut, shock or spring failure happen on the 2003 Hyundai Santa FE?
Across 7 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 105,000 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 strut, shock or spring failure on the 2003 Hyundai Santa FE?
7 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