Other fuel system problem on the 2009 Hyundai Sonata
When other fuel system problem gets reported
Owners of the 2009 Hyundai Sonata report other fuel system problem at a median of 65,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles, from 13 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 90,000 miles. It is the 13th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 90,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 64,000 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
15% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26,000 miles | 50,000 miles | 65,000 miles | 80,000 miles | 90,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $300–$2,200 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 18 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 1,600 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 145,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 135; the 2009 has 15. 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.
1) was making a right turn into a parking lot. There was a slight incline. There was a quarter of a tank of gas in the car. 2) the engine appeared to turn off, however the electronics never turned off. Power steering was no longer available once the engine stopped running. 3) I attempted to restart the car, but it wouldn't start. You could hear the engine trying to start. I placed the car in neutral and pushed it into a parking space. About 5 minutes later I successfully restarted the car. I had the car towed to the dealership and they could not diagnose the problem or detect that anything had occurred. *tr
There has been an odor of gasoline entering the passenger cabin of the vehicle. I noticed it is "worse" when I fill the vehicle with gas but the problem occurs more frequently than that. I do not top off the tank. The pump shuts off when full, and I stop pumping. This odor starts when sitting at a stoplight and stays in the cabin until I'm moving again. I thought it only started when I came to a stop at a light and sat for a couple of minutes, however when I was driving home at slow speeds (15-25 MPH) continuous, the smell was constant. Lately it is so bad I have to roll down the window. One time, I almost pulled over at the roadside, and was going to get out of my car to get fresh air, but there was too much traffic. There are no fuel leaks that I can find. No standing fuel under the car after I park. It has done this most times I've driven the car to more or less degrees, but not everytime - most times. I have not been to a dealer yet, but I will be taking it in to have it checked. Apparently there are quite a few other owners of this car who have noticed this same thing based on a hyundai internet forums. But I did not have…
Tl* the contact owns a 2009 hyundai sonata. The contact was refueling the vehicle when fuel started to escape the filler tank and splash on the contact. The contact did not take the vehicle to the dealer for diagnostics or repairs. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 92,000.
Also reported on the 2009 Hyundai Sonata
Other brake problem
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Other driver assistance problem
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 15 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 fuel system problem happen on the 2009 Hyundai Sonata?
Across 13 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other fuel system problem on the 2009 Hyundai Sonata?
15 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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