Overheating on the 2007 Hyundai Sonata
Only 4 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 overheating gets reported
There are 4 reports of overheating on the 2007 Hyundai Sonata, 4 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 102,000 miles. It is the 33rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 38,097 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 $400–$3,500 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2015, at a median of 1,100 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 90,000 miles.
By volume the 2012 carries the most reports, with 21; the 2007 has 4. 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.
2007 sonata w/ 34000 highway miles. Car was making a high pitched sound from the back left, and the drivers side back wheel was becoming very hot while driving. The dealer, napleton hyundai basically said everything is fine, I just need to pay for a whole new set of back brakes. Knowing the heat was from the pads not releasing, I refused the work and investigated myself. Like other complaints here, I found that the pads are too tight in the calipers, and also are corroded. The heat issue only makes them fit tighter. The pad guides needed to be lightly filed and coated with anti-seize to fit and slide properly. I googled this and scanned the hyundai forums, and the internet is littered with sonatas and other hyundais with the exact same problem. Hyundai will not address the issue, preferring to charge customers for new brakes and regular brake "lube" service. Hyundai consumer affairs also did absolutely nothing about this. This is a safety issue and a design flaw. Sooner or later this problem will cause an overheated wheel/tire to fail, or a wheel to lock up under slippery roads, and someone will be out more than just repair money…
2007 hyundai sonata. 11,500 miles left rear wheel seized up while traveling on the interstate. Mechanic said: brake caliper was frozen causing the brake pads to wear prematurely causing overheating and damage to the rotor. Fortunately I did not loose control of the vehicle so there was no crash. The brakes on the other 3 wheels were fine indicating a defective part(s). Now the frustrating and unbelievable part of the issue: hyundai service manager said it is not covered under warranty because the brake pads are a wear item. I asked him to show me in the warranty where a defective caliper is a wear problem with no response. They would not fix the vechicle under warranty. Upon searching the internet, I learned that this same thing happened to many people and is apparently a very common problem. The posts also reflect the exact same experience with the hyundai dealership in their refusal to admit that a mechanical defect exists. I took the vehicle to my own personal mechanic for the repair and plan on saving the bill and parts for a recall that should occur in the future. Thank you. *tr
Intermittent rear brake noise on 2007 hyundai sonata for over 1year. Twice inspected at dealers shop, no problem found and all disc brake pads within specs. I noticed recently at 42,000 miles that the passenger side steel rear wheel was getting extremely hot due to rear brakes overheating. My dealer stated that pass. Side rear brake pad had worn down almost completely due to "brake pad slides sticking on calipers". New set of rear brakes were installed at cost of 240.00 . My dealer and hyundai corporation both stated that repair work would not be covered under warranty! I feel this is a safety issue not only because of rear brake pad premature failure but the unknown effect on the rear wheel bearings due to overheating of brakes/wheel. *tr
Also reported on the 2007 Hyundai Sonata
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other visibility problem
Other brake problem
Seat belt or retractor failure
Other driver assistance problem
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 4 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 4 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 overheating happen on the 2007 Hyundai Sonata?
Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 40,000 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 overheating on the 2007 Hyundai Sonata?
4 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 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