Tire blowout or tread separation on the 2003 Hyundai Sonata
Only 3 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 tire blowout or tread separation gets reported
There are 3 reports of tire blowout or tread separation on the 2003 Hyundai Sonata, 3 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 38,000 miles. It is the 21st most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 65 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 $200–$1,500 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2003, at a median of 100 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 95,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 7; the 2003 has 3. 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.
In apr 04 I purchased new tires for my 2003 hyundai sonata. Inside of thirty days, I had the right front tire go flat while driving on a major highway. I was able to get to the shoulder to change the flat. I went back to national tire & battery (ntb) where I had purchased the tires. They could not find an obvious cause for the tire failure. They replaced the tire, and three days later, the tire went flat again while travelling on the highway. I expirenced two more flat tires on the same wheel within the next two weeks, and then a few days later the left tire went flat. It was determined that the valve stem was being cut by the hubcap. Ntb suggested that I go back to the dealership and have them investigate the situation. I went to pohanka in fredericksburg, va and the service technician said that the hubcap was making contact with the tire when there should be a small gap separating the two. The suggestion from the dealership was to change the tire or replace the rim. I went back to ntb, and they conferred with bf goodrich, the manufacturer of the tire, and they suggested that I go back to the stock tire that was on the car. I had…
In apr 04 I purchased new tires for my 2003 hyundai sonata. Inside of thirty days, I had the right front tire go flat while driving on a major highway. I was able to get to the shoulder to change the flat. I went back to national tire & battery (ntb) where I had purchased the tires. They could not find an obvious cause for the tire failure. They replaced the tire, and three days later, the tire went flat again while travelling on the highway. I expirenced two more flat tires on the same wheel within the next two weeks, and then a few days later the left tire went flat. It was determined that the valve stem was being cut by the hubcap. Ntb suggested that I go back to the dealership and have them investigate the situation. I went to pohanka in fredericksburg, va and the service technician said that the hubcap was making contact with the tire when there should be a small gap separating the two. The suggestion from the dealership was to change the tire or replace the rim. I went back to ntb, and they conferred with bf goodrich, the manufacturer of the tire, and they suggested that I go back to the stock tire that was on the car. I had…
The wheel covers on my 2003 hyundai sonata are moving on the rims of my tires causing the tire valve stems to flatten and eventually wear through causing sudden tire failure. I have had two (2) sudden tire valve failures since purchasing four new uniroyal tiger paw 205/65r15 tires from b.j.'s wholesale club on may 7. 2005. The tires I bought were the exact size specified for my car in the b'j's tire catalog and my owner's manual. The hyundai dealer tried putting on new wheel covers but that didn't help. Later they said that the tires were sticking out too far over the rims, causing them to be in contact with the wheel cover, which caused the wheel covers to move and flatten the valve stems. They acknowledged that the tires were the right size but said they were somehow different from the tires that came with the car. There is nothing in the hyundai owner's manual which specifies any particular tire or brand of tire, or which states that certain tires cannot be used. The only specification is the size, which is 205/65r15, exactly what I purchased. The problem is ongoing. At the dealer's suggestion, I am driving without the wheel…
Also reported on the 2003 Hyundai Sonata
Other body or interior problem
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
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 3 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 3 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 tire blowout or tread separation happen on the 2003 Hyundai Sonata?
Across 3 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100 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 tire blowout or tread separation on the 2003 Hyundai Sonata?
3 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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