Other engine problem on the 2017 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid
1 crash 2 fires 3 of the 30 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 engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2017 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid report other engine problem at a median of 80,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles, from 17 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 140,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 131,580 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.
24% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8,200 miles | 40,800 miles | 80,000 miles | 116,495 miles | 139,780 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, 1 a crash and 2 a fire 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 $300–$4,000 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 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2025, at a median of 35,000 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2016 carries the most reports, with 51; the 2017 has 30. 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.
Car has 10000 miles. Came to a stoplight and the car died. Radio was on, dash was dark. Tried to restart, no response. Tried 5 times, on the 6th time, engine came to life. Car has been at the dealer for the last week; no fault code detected according to dealer. They are in touch with hyundai.
1: at the beginning of october 210, when the motorway exits from east to west, suddenly the engine does not work (pictured) and the car decelerates directly from 70 miles to 30 miles. The brakes can not work fully. Step on the gas pedal must step on multiple steps to relax the throttle, depress the accelerator again, from the second move to most of the most outside high-speed, do not know do not know about the crash above the speed. Such a high speed, I go home, stop the flame, and then open everything is normal. Later, dealer repair can not find the problem, until now there are three total failures, manufacturers repair is not good, do not solve the problem, it has been dragging
Abrupt and total loss of acceleration at full throttle at or near high RPM shift points. This behavior can be reliably reproduced by "flooring it" (all the way, including kickdown) and not letting go - as if one is executing a passing maneuver. The power loss will occur at the next shift point after kick down, and will not be cleared until the accelerator pedal is released and re-applied - or after approximately 15 to 20 seconds after the occurrence if the driver does not release the pedal. In cases where the pedal is not released after the power loss, the vehicle will surge suddenly after the condition has cleared and repeat the behavior described above. This behavior can be reproduced in any drive program mode (eco, normal, sport, ) and in both automatic and manual shift selection modes, and is especially prevalent at speeds above 45 MPH where sudden full throttle command causes kickdown. The drivetrain should respond reliably when it is commanded full-throttle. A sudden power loss at a shift point during a full throttle maneuver is unsafe: (1) it disorientates the driver and; (2) causes un-commanded, unexpected, and rapid…
Also reported on the 2017 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid
Other electrical problem
Other powertrain problem
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
Stalling while driving
Engine knock or bearing noise
Cruise control failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 30 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 engine problem happen on the 2017 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid?
Across 17 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 2017 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid?
30 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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