Other fuel system problem on the 2011 Hyundai Sonata
4 crashes 10 fires 4 injuries 18 of the 52 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 fuel system problem gets reported
Owners of the 2011 Hyundai Sonata report other fuel system problem at a median of 102,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 22,500 miles and a quarter after 132,500 miles, from 31 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 90,000 miles. It is the 19th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 165,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 158,500 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.
29% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5,500 miles | 23,023 miles | 102,381 miles | 133,500 miles | 164,000 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, 4 a crash, 10 a fire and 4 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–$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 2011 has 52. 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.
There has been an odor of gasoline entering the passenger cabin of the vehicle. I noticed it started at my last gas fill up. I did not top off the tank. The pump shut off when full, and I stopped 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 in a blizzard yesterday 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 forum. I read it previously in this forum, but I did not have…
I agree with the other complaints about the fuel fumes. My husband had mentioned to me while I was warming my car that the smoke coming from the tail pipe was very strong. I then begin to notice fumes inside the vehicle and thought I was just imaging things. The highway safety commission need to look into to these complaints before someone get killed. I get sick and tired of going to the dealers and they claim nothing is wrong with the car. Hyundai need to wake up and look into these complaints. *tr
There is a smell of gas/engine fumes notable in the vehicle on occasion. The problem does not happen consistently, however there are some common factors to when the smell in noticeable. These factors include: 1) the engine must be hot, generally having been driven for at least 15 minutes or more. The smell is never noticeable when the engine is cold, such as after sitting overnight. 2) the vehicle must be either moving at very slow speeds of <25 m.p.h., or sitting still. Examples would include driving through parking lots, sitting at an idle for a long period at a stop light, when first starting the vehicle after sitting in a parking lot for awhile, etc. 3) when the gas / fume smell is notable with greatest intensity, it seems to occur after a hot engine soak of 15~45 minutes at ambient temperatures of 30 degrees fahrenheit or above and in conditions of moderate- to high-humidity. Examples include during periods of heavy fog, rainy days, snowstorms, etc. On occasion, the smell is strong enough that it is no longer comfortable to remain in the vehicle. Rolling down a window at speeds >25 m.p.h. To clear out the cabin air, followed…
Also reported on the 2011 Hyundai Sonata
Other steering problem
Other engine problem
Steering column or shaft failure
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other electrical problem
Tail light, brake light or signal failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 52 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 2011 Hyundai Sonata?
Across 31 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 102,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 22,500 miles and a quarter after 132,500 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 2011 Hyundai Sonata?
52 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