CV axle or driveshaft failure on the 2010 Hyundai Santa FE
Only 6 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 cv axle or driveshaft failure gets reported
There are 10 reports of CV axle or driveshaft failure on the 2010 Hyundai Santa FE, 6 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 7th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 122,401 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 $450–$2,200 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, every year of the Hyundai Santa FE
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.
My husband and I were traveling north from palm coast, fl to slatington, pa. Traveling north on rte I-95, my husband drove about 300 miles and than I drove another 300 miles, stopping to eat and at various rest areas. Just before the virginia border, we stopped at a rest area and my husband took over driving. He said we should stop for gas and a bit to eat. We went over the state line and got off at exit 4, we exit, stopped at the stop sign, turned right to go into the station and we heard a loud snap. At this point, the only way he could stop the car was to put on the emergency brake there was no control of the car. After being towed to the dealership, we were told that possibly the driveshaft snapped and the transmission also went. The mechanic there said that this is the third one he had seen like that. The next day we were told that in fact that is what had happened. Luckily, we had gotten off when we did, or else we may have been in a major crash on busy rte I-95 or may even had been killed because of no control of the car. This is 2010 car with only 17,700 miles on it. Today, we found out that hyundai knew of the problem and…
My husband and I were traveling north from palm coast, fl to slatington, pa. Traveling north on rte I-95, my husband drove about 300 miles and than I drove another 300 miles, stopping to eat and at various rest areas. Just before the virginia border, we stopped at a rest area and my husband took over driving. He said we should stop for gas and a bit to eat. We went over the state line and got off at exit 4, we exit, stopped at the stop sign, turned right to go into the station and we heard a loud snap. At this point, the only way he could stop the car was to put on the emergency brake there was no control of the car. After being towed to the dealership, we were told that possibly the driveshaft snapped and the transmission also went. The mechanic there said that this is the third one he had seen like that. The next day we were told that in fact that is what had happened. Luckily, we had gotten off when we did, or else we may have been in a major crash on busy rte I-95 or may even had been killed because of no control of the car. This is 2010 car with only 17,700 miles on it. Today, we found out that hyundai knew of the problem and…
Tl* the contact owns a 2010 hyundai santa fe. While slowing down to a stop from 25 MPH, a knocking sound emitted from the engine. In addition, the gear shifter failed to go into the drive and reverse position and the engine felt as if it had detached from the vehicle. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the axle, transmission strip, power train, and drive shaft failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The VIN was included in NHTSA campaign number: 11v261000 (power train). The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 180,000.
Also reported on the 2010 Hyundai Santa FE
Other powertrain problem
Other engine problem
Other fuel system problem
Other speed control problem
Other body or interior problem
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 10 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 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 cv axle or driveshaft failure happen on the 2010 Hyundai Santa FE?
Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 120,000 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 cv axle or driveshaft failure on the 2010 Hyundai Santa FE?
10 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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