Airbag failed to deploy in a crash on the 2004 Hyundai Santa FE
10 crashes 9 injuries 19 of the 10 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 airbag failed to deploy in a crash gets reported
Owners of the 2004 Hyundai Santa FE report airbag failed to deploy in a crash at a median of 65,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 65,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 72,000 miles. It is the 16th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 30,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 80,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 50,440 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
13% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27,700 miles | 56,650 miles | 63,200 miles | 63,200 miles | 78,140 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, 10 a crash and 9 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 $1,000–$5,000 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 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2003, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 155,000 miles.
By volume the 2004 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.
While traveling through an intersection at which I had the green light, another vehicle, traveling perpendicularly, ran the red light and my hyundai santa fe smashed right into the passenger side of that vehicle. My speed was approximately 25 MPH, yet the air bag did not deploy. The entire front of my vehicle is smashed and the car may possibly be totaled (we are waiting for insurance claims adjusters to examine). Our concern is that the airbags did not deploy on impact, as they should have. *jb
I purchased a used 2004 hyundai santa fe in aug/2005 from a hyundai dealership (# ). In aug/2006, the airbag light came on. The vehicle was taken to the dealership and the results were "code b1382 psab resistance high - resecure connector under the passenger seat/clear code". In feb/2008, the airbag sensor again appeared. The same technical code was detected, and the dealership resolution was to "reroute wire harness". In mar/2008, the airbag light again appeared and was serviced by the dealership. In nov/2008, the vehicle was again taken to the dealership due to the airbag light appearing. At the time of service in nov/2008, the vehicle was out of warranty. The dealership indicated they would not fix the airbag free of charge under the warranty, at which time, they were informed that a complaint would be filed under the california lemon law due to repeat fixes for the same issue. The dealership then fixed the issue. On nov. 26, 2008, the vehicle was hit in a high-speed rear end collision (~35mph) while at a stop light and pushed into an intersection, where it broadsided a moving vehicle. As a result of the impacts, the hyundai…
I purchased a used 2004 hyundai santa fe in aug/2005 from a hyundai dealership (# ). In aug/2006, the airbag light came on. The vehicle was taken to the dealership and the results were "code b1382 psab resistance high - resecure connector under the passenger seat/clear code". In feb/2008, the airbag sensor again appeared. The same technical code was detected, and the dealership resolution was to "reroute wire harness". In mar/2008, the airbag light again appeared and was serviced by the dealership. In nov/2008, the vehicle was again taken to the dealership due to the airbag light appearing. At the time of service in nov/2008, the vehicle was out of warranty. The dealership indicated they would not fix the airbag free of charge under the warranty, at which time, they were informed that a complaint would be filed under the california lemon law due to repeat fixes for the same issue. The dealership then fixed the issue. On nov. 26, 2008, the vehicle was hit in a high-speed rear end collision (~35mph) while at a stop light and pushed into an intersection, where it broadsided a moving vehicle. As a result of the impacts, the hyundai…
Also reported on the 2004 Hyundai Santa FE
Strut, shock or spring failure
Other speed control problem
Other suspension problem
ABS module or sensor failure
Other engine problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 10 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 airbag failed to deploy in a crash happen on the 2004 Hyundai Santa FE?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 65,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is airbag failed to deploy in a crash on the 2004 Hyundai Santa FE?
10 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