AtWhatMileage
Electrical · 8 owner reports

Engine sensor failure on the 2000 Hyundai Sonata

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.

Reports of this failure 8
With an odometer reading 5
Reports per 1,000 built 0.2 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 0%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $180–$900
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 10th

When engine sensor failure gets reported

There are 8 reports of engine sensor failure on the 2000 Hyundai Sonata, 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 95,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 5 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 73,899 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 $180–$900 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 2002, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2006 at 140,000 miles.

By volume the 2000 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.

I was traveling down the highway when without warning my engine simply shut off, and the power assist to the brakes and steering was stopped. I tried moving from the center lane over to the shoulder and was almost rear-ended by a vehicle in the right lane. I was able to pull the car off on the right shoulder and stop. The vehicle would not restart and I had to have it towed to the nearest dealer in the area, pugi hyundai in downers grove, il. They took the vehicle in for service and later in the morning informed me that the crankshaft position sensor had failed. The cost of repair will be a minimum of $600, and possibly more, depending if they determine the engine needs additional repair parts. *nm

74,400 miles NHTSA complaint 590621 filed 2006-07-31

Tl*- the contact owns a 2000 hyundai sonata. The current mileage was 98,140. While driving 60 MPH on the freeway during dry weather conditions, the vehicle lost power without warning. She was able to coast to the side of the road. The vehicle was towed to dealer, who stated that it was the mass air flow sensor that caused the engine to fail. The dealer stated that there was recall 00v259001 for the mass air flow, but that this vehicle was not covered under the recall due to the VIN. The contact could not recall the name of the dealer where she purchased the vehicle. *ak

98,140 miles NHTSA complaint 620371 filed 2007-04-13

Tl*the contact owns a 2000 hyundai sonata. While driving at any speed, the check engine light illuminates on the instrument panel and the vehicle suddenly shuts off. The failure occurs intermittently and the vehicle has not been diagnosed by the dealer. The current and failure mileages were 73,899. Updated 10/14/08 *bf the oxygen sensor was replaced. Updated 10/15/08. *jb

73,899 miles NHTSA complaint 687414 filed 2008-09-09

Also reported on the 2000 Hyundai Sonata

Other body or interior problem

42 reports median 105k

Other suspension problem

30 reports median 115k

Other electrical problem

21 reports median 67k

Rust or structural corrosion

18 reports median 120k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 8 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 8 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 engine sensor failure happen on the 2000 Hyundai Sonata?

Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 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 engine sensor failure on the 2000 Hyundai Sonata?

8 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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