Other engine problem on the 2002 Hyundai Sonata
2 crashes 1 fire 1 injury 4 of the 10 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 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.
When other engine problem gets reported
There are 10 reports of other engine problem on the 2002 Hyundai Sonata, 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 95,000 miles. It is the 8th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 57,000 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
Of these reports, 2 a crash, 1 a fire and 1 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.
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 26 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2023, at a median of 100 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 115,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 596; the 2002 has 10. 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.
While driving, the air bag inadvertently deployed which caused the consumer to hit a parked vehicle and subsequently the vehicle rolled over. Provide further details. *jb the vehicle was once service for the check engine light illuminating. Recall campaign: NHTSA campaign id number : 02v145000. On certain passenger vehicles, the supplemental restraint system (SRS) side impact air bag satellite sensors may be too sensitive to some lateral accelerations that are not caused by side impacts to the vehicle, such as forcefully slamming a door closed. *tc
Tl*the contact owns a 2002 hyundai sonata. While driving 40 MPH, the service engine soon light illuminated. On hot days (90 degree weather), the light illuminates and remains lit. However, in cooler weather, once the vehicle is turned off and restarted, the service engine soon light dims. The dealer stated that the VIN was not included in NHTSA campaign id number 04v178000 (fuel system, gasoline:storage:tank assembly). The current mileage was 40,300 and failure mileage was 40,000.
I own a 2002 hyundai sonata which has severe passenger side engine cradle rust. It would not pass vehicle inspection. The mechanic has suggested welding the frame to "bandage" the problem. I have read the other stories from owners of the same car and believe something should be done before there are deaths related to this defect. I am afraid to drive my car, it's like waiting for something to happen. My son also drives my car on occasion. *tr
Also reported on the 2002 Hyundai Sonata
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
Other body or interior problem
Rust or structural corrosion
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
Other suspension problem
Other wheel or tire 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 other engine problem happen on the 2002 Hyundai Sonata?
Across 7 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 55,000 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 other engine problem on the 2002 Hyundai Sonata?
10 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