Other visibility problem on the 2009 Hyundai Santa FE
Only 5 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 other visibility problem gets reported
There are 6 reports of other visibility problem on the 2009 Hyundai Santa FE, 5 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 75,000 miles. It is the 23rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 87,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $150–$1,400 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 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 600 miles, and latest on the 2009 at 85,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 70; the 2009 has 6. 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 . While driving 40 MPH the windshield was very difficult to see out of due to the glaze coming from the sun. The dealer was informed about the windshield and stated that they would polish the windshield in order to clean the outside. The contact also stated that it was still difficult to see out of the window while driving. There have been no windshield replacements. The failure mileage was 3097 and the current mileage was 10114.
Tl* the contact owns a 2009 hyundai santa fe. While driving approximately 30 MPH, the rear window defroster was activated and the entire rear windshield exploded, causing glass to shatter inside the vehicle. Prior to the failure, the vehicle remained parked for thirty minutes with the heater and defroster activated. The outside temperaure was 27 degrees. The contact scheduled an appointment with an independent mechanic who specialized in windshield replacement. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 87,000.
Paint comes off the car in large pieces that, if raining, will stick to windshield of the car and the car behind you, while driving. This blocks the visibility out of the front of the windshield and causes wiper problems as the large pieces get stuck to them. Again this will happen while driving in the rain. The large piece of paint will still come off during normal driving, but the safety concern is while driving in the rain. Pieces as large as 1 inch by 1 inch are not uncommon, with the largest piece currently missing is about 8 inches by 8 inches. Problem started happening over 2 years ago. When the pieces get stuck to the windshield, you have to pull over to remove them from both the windshield and wiper blades. This is also dangerous as we have had to pull over on a major freeway before to remove them from parts of the vehicle, namely the windshield and wipers. This problem again causes problems with visibility out of the front of the windshield of the car and possibly the car(s) behind you while driving in the rain. I don't believe that large pieces (sheets) of paint should be coming off of a car and sticking to a windshield…
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
This page is kept out of search results because 6 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 6 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 visibility problem happen on the 2009 Hyundai Santa FE?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 85,000 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 other visibility problem on the 2009 Hyundai Santa FE?
6 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