Other body or interior problem on the 2003 Hyundai Sonata
1 crash 1 fire 14 injuries 16 of the 39 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 body or interior problem gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Hyundai Sonata report other body or interior problem at a median of 72,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 122,500 miles, from 32 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 37,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 155,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 117,810 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.
9% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38,190 miles | 49,446 miles | 71,404 miles | 121,250 miles | 156,000 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, 1 a crash, 1 a fire and 14 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 $200–$2,000 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 25 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2023, at a median of 100 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2010 carries the most reports, with 147; the 2003 has 39. 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.
My car door caught on fire while I was driving. The insurance adjuster and the body repair technician both concluded after investigation that the fire appeared to be caused by a faulty door actuator. The dealer refused to correct the problem or even acknowledge or investigate the conclusions. I had to repair the problem out of my pocket. Nothing has been done to correct the failure by the dealer. *jb
2003 hyundai sonata 4 door sedan. Chrome is peeling from metal interior door handles at random such that passenger or driver will grasp handle to open door and several lacerations to hands and fingers will result. Lacerations are deep enough to release blood. I was a driver and passenger on separate occasions in same vehicle and cut right and left hands on both interior door handles. Upon first encountering peeling chrome on drivers side handle, the vehicle was returned to hyundai dealership at 3675 sheridan drive amherst, new york (716) 835-8500. Said dealership replaced the driver side handle but did not replace any others. Subsequently, when opening the passenger side door on august 13, 2006, I cut my right hand in several locations resulting in a release of blood. My wife had also cut her hand on the driver side handle. Apparently hyundai is aware of this issue which is a safety related manufacturing defect resulting from a defective plating / cleaning process prior to plating. Hyundai however, has not issued a voluntary recall of all vehicles for this reason. Plating defects such as this are process related and will be…
Had problems with the brakes for over a year now. Had both front brakes replaced costing about $200. They still squeak when turning the wheel , and sometimes when driving. Also, pant has completely come off the door handles, and there was rust on different spots of the car hood. I had the door handles replaced inside the car because the silver was peeling, causing us to cut our hands, but that didn't cost me anything. *ak
Also reported on the 2003 Hyundai Sonata
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
Other wheel or tire problem
Other engine problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 39 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 body or interior problem happen on the 2003 Hyundai Sonata?
Across 32 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 72,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 122,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other body or interior problem on the 2003 Hyundai Sonata?
39 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.9 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