Other speed control problem on the 2008 Hyundai Santa FE
6 crashes 3 injuries 9 of the 39 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 2008 Hyundai Santa FE report other speed control problem at a median of 52,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 27,500 miles and a quarter after 92,500 miles, from 36 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 17,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 137,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 119,829 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.
33% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17,423 miles | 27,911 miles | 53,000 miles | 91,750 miles | 137,252 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, 6 a crash and 3 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 $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 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.
Tl*the contact owns a 2008 hyundai santa fe. While driving approximately 60 MPH on normal road conditions and applying pressure to the accelerator pedal, the vehicle failed to accelerate. The contact was able to coast with caution into a parking lot. The vehicle was towed to an authorized dealer for diagnostic testing. The technician stated that the failure was contributed to the throttle sensor assembly. The vehicle was repaired. The contact had concerns of the safety risk involved. The failure and current mileages were 8,452.
I have twice experienced a dangerous occurrence during acceleration. I press the gas pedal but when I take my foot off to decelerate, the car continues to gain speed and braking has no effect. In each instance, the only way to make the car slow down or stop was to put it in neutral and find a safe place to allow it to coast until I could turn the engine off. The last occurrence I was going 75 MPH on I-35, had to swerve to left shoulder to avoid being sideswiped. My 5 year old granddaughter was in the car with me. I took my vehicle to the dealership for repair and was told both times that the pedal must be sticking on the floor mat. After the second experience, I looked for similar stories on the internet and found 5 recent postings of the same issue happening to other people. If more than a couple of people report the same issue, shouldn't hyundai make a dedicated effort to identify and correct it immediately or recall the vehicle altogether? I do not believe the mat is causing the problem because the second time it occurred I visually checked the mat and even pulled it backwards with my feet while trying to find a way out of…
While driving on highway, gas pedal stop responding. I was able to go to the curb and put car into parking, then I had problem to shut engine off, only second or third attempt was successful. After couple of minutes I start the ignition and engine warning light come on . Car is drivable, but it hesitates when I push the pedal. *tr
Also reported on the 2008 Hyundai Santa FE
Fuel gauge or level sensor failure
Other fuel system problem
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other engine problem
Oil leak
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 39 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 2008 Hyundai Santa FE?
Across 36 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 52,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 27,500 miles and a quarter after 92,500 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 2008 Hyundai Santa FE?
39 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