Other body or interior problem on the 2009 Hyundai Santa FE
3 crashes 2 injuries 5 of the 13 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 body or interior problem gets reported
Owners of the 2009 Hyundai Santa FE report other body or interior problem at a median of 30,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 800 miles and a quarter after 65,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 13th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25 miles at the tenth percentile to 90,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 89,975 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.
55% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 miles | 835 miles | 30,000 miles | 65,167 miles | 90,000 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, 3 a crash and 2 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 $200–$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 23 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2016, at a median of 900 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 165,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 23; the 2009 has 13. 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.
Tl*the contact owns a 2009 hyundai santa fe. The contact stated that there was a factory decal indicating that the load carrying capacity was reduced. He contacted the dealer and was told that they did not put the decals on the vehicle and had no knowledge how to update them. The manufacturer was also unable to assist the contact on how to correct the decal. The vehicle also hydroplaned while driving the vehicle in the rain which caused him to be concerned about the tires. The tires were bridgestone dueler h/t tires size p235/60/r18. The DOT code was unavailable. The current mileage was approximately 3,400. The failure mileage was approximately 300.
Hyundai santa fe purchased on 12 sept 2009. Dvd screen not functioning, could hear movie not see it. Dealership replaced screen in october 2009. Since then, the dvd rse system has intermittently changed from dvd to xm or cd at will. Rear passengers are not able to reach the dvd buttons due to age and child safety seats. Rse is locked from front controls. Dvd system continues to switch from dvd to xm or cd at least once per day causing the passengers to be blasted with high volume music. In october 2009, the internal electrical control system (for doors and windows and such) was replaced and the alarm system was reset (it kept arming itself randomly). In november 2009, the alarm system was reset again and the dvd problem was brought to mechanics attention again. Alarm system was fixed but they could not replicate the dvd problem. Took car in again 16 january 2010, was told intertwining outside radio signals and the fact I work on a military base were causing the dvd to switch. Ft sam houston, tx is mainly a medical training military base. Mechanic replicated problem but later told shop manager that he couldn't replicate the problem…
Had a flat tire on 2009 hyundai santa fe. Set brake and jacked the car up to remove flat tire. Came back a couple of hours later to find that the jack had twisted and collapsed. Luckily, no one was injured. But it was a pain to have to obtain a floor jack as nothing else was going to work. Seems to me to be a dangerous type of failure. *tr
Also reported on the 2009 Hyundai Santa FE
Fuel gauge or level sensor failure
Other fuel system problem
Other speed control problem
Other engine problem
Other brake problem
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 13 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 body or interior problem happen on the 2009 Hyundai Santa FE?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 30,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 800 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 other body or interior problem on the 2009 Hyundai Santa FE?
13 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