Unclassified problem on the 2017 Hyundai Santa FE
3 crashes 2 fires 2 injuries 7 of the 48 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.
Only 14 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 unclassified problem gets reported
Owners of the 2017 Hyundai Santa FE report unclassified problem at a median of 10,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 2,400 miles and a quarter after 35,000 miles, from 14 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 81st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 1,200 miles at the tenth percentile to 50,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 47,290 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
71% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,210 miles | 2,430 miles | 11,500 miles | 33,750 miles | 48,500 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, 2 a fire 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 23 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2008, at a median of 2,500 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 115,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 84; the 2017 has 48. 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.
I bought the vehicle on 5/7/16. On 6/2/16 I was driving on highway 395 when I noticed smoke coming out of the engine compartment. The car started losing power and eventually died. When I got it pulled over to the side of the road I noticed flames coming out from the front of the engine. I grabbed what I could and got out of the car. Within 5 min the front of the car was engulfed in flames. I had approximately 675 miles on it. I have contacted hyundai but they have not responded to me. I ordered a copy of the police report but have not received it yet. I have pictures that I have attached. I am concerned about this happening to other people. Thankfully I didn't have grandkids in the car, I'm not sure I would have been able to get them out.
On april 15, our brand new santa fe was involved in an accident. While driving in low speed traffic suddenly, while my fiance rear ended someone. To this day she cannot figure out what happened. She is a careful driver, does not speed and knows that the area were she was driving is high traffic and was coming up to a red light. Both of her hands were on the wheel and she wasn't on a phone or anything. She believes she hit the breaks, and as stated before still does not know what happened. After reading these complaints we are wondering if we had the same issue as someone else who reported and is the cause of the accident. We figured we would report this. We are also wondering if other people are having similar accidents since there has been a major issue getting parts to repair said car (car has now been off the road for 11 weeks most parts required for repair have been externally backordered and hyundai has been extremely unhelpful to help us get our car repaired). The consumer stated the vehicle lunged forward, while slowly depressing the breaks. The manufacturer was notified. Updated 11/2/2017*js
On may 31st I purchase a new santa fe sport AWD 2017 - 21 days after drving the card the dashboard light where coming on for tracking control and downward shifting - when I originally called the dealership I was told maybe I went through a large puddle if they come on again call them back - within three hours of hanging up the phone the same problem started again - I called the dealership - and brought the car in they kept the car for a month stating a master technician from hyundai was looking into it, but they see where there was an issue with the shift. But they were not able to tell me the issue but it seemed to be cured for. While I was driving last week on the highway I hear a thumping sound, I thought I had a flat tire - pulled over no flat - I proceeded to drive and the sound came back - I immediately turned around and brought it back to a local mechanic shop - the mechanic shop informed me that the right front axle and shaft joint was broken and the car was unsafe to drive - I had the car towed to the local dealership who confirmed the same issue and replaced the parts required - they informed me that it was very possible…
Also reported on the 2017 Hyundai Santa FE
Other engine problem
Excessive oil consumption
Other powertrain problem
Complete engine failure or seizure
Other brake problem
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 48 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 48 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 unclassified problem happen on the 2017 Hyundai Santa FE?
Across 14 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 10,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 2,400 miles and a quarter after 35,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2017 Hyundai Santa FE?
48 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.1 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