AtWhatMileage
Steering · 13 owner reports

Steering column or shaft failure on the 2014 Hyundai Santa FE

Only 7 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.

Reports of this failure 13
With an odometer reading 7
Reports per 1,000 built 0.3 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 57%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $600–$2,500
What it means when it happens Critical
Rank among this year's problems 13th

When steering column or shaft failure gets reported

There are 13 reports of steering column or shaft failure on the 2014 Hyundai Santa FE, 7 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 85,000 miles. It is the 13th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 7 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 21,000 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 $600–$2,500 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 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 105,000 miles.

By volume the 2014 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

The steering on our 2014 santa fe went out today while trying to take a left turn at a green light prior to getting onto a major highway. The car was towed to the dealer we purchased the vehicle at and we were told we need an entire new steering column and to do this they need parts from outside of the united states. Could have been a very bad situation if it had happened a few moments later on the highway.

11,500 miles NHTSA complaint 1190219 filed 2015-06-12

On 6/20/2015, while travelling on an interstate highway,, the steering wheel made a "clunk" noise and the power assisted steering warning light came on. Lights indicating a malfunction of the esc and downhill brake assist also lit up. There was complete loss of power assisted steering. I was able to manhandle the steering on side roads and made it home. On the first business day after the incident I took the vehicle to the local hyundai dealer where it has remained awaiting a replacement steering column. Updated 11/01/2017*cn

6,600 miles NHTSA complaint 1194299 filed 2015-06-28

Tl* the contact owns a 2014 hyundai santa fe. The contact stated while driving at approximately 45 MPH, the steering wheel required excessive force in order to maneuver the vehicle. The vehicle was taken toa dealer where it was diagnosed that the power steering column needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 21,000. ...updated 01/07/16 *bf *cn

21,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1210351 filed 2015-08-18

Also reported on the 2014 Hyundai Santa FE

Other engine problem

157 reports median 78k

Complete engine failure or seizure

40 reports median 101k

Other brake problem

36 reports median 83k

Excessive oil consumption

31 reports median 133k

Other steering problem

30 reports median 28k

Other powertrain problem

24 reports median 34k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 13 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 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 steering column or shaft failure happen on the 2014 Hyundai Santa FE?

Across 7 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 20,000 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 steering column or shaft failure on the 2014 Hyundai Santa FE?

13 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