Other engine problem on the 2013 Hyundai Sonata
10 crashes 53 fires 2 injuries 65 of the 499 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 engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2013 Hyundai Sonata report other engine problem at a median of 97,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 125,000 miles, from 291 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 33,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 150,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 117,500 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.
11% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32,500 miles | 60,000 miles | 97,000 miles | 124,950 miles | 150,000 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, 10 a crash, 53 a fire and 2 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–$4,000 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 26 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2023, at a median of 100 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 115,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 596; the 2013 has 499. 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.
Purchased 2013 hyundai sonata gls at streetboro ohio hyundai dealer new in mid june 2012. Vehicle seemed ok but at about 1500 miles idle became rough particularly at idle in drive at lights and stops. Took in to dealer and was told after 4 days in shop that problem was familiar to the dealer and an engineer was being called in to figure out the solution as no codes were stored in computer.I left the dealer after being told car is within hyundai specs but was running strange. The dealer seems to be avoiding doing anything to admit there is a issue and refused to allow a service tech to ride along with me to experience the problem. They also refused to let my salesman go in a newer model with me to see if any other vehicles had same issues.I wrote to hyundai corporate and was given a list of other dealers to go to.as the problem has begun to get worse the idle will now rev and then decelerate the vehicle when coasting and I can imagine what this braking action will cause the vehicle to do as the weather becomes worse and snow appears. This seems to be a growing problem with the hyundai models from the recent hyundai forums posts. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2013 hyundai sonata. The contact stated that the vehicle ignited into flames while parked and unoccupied. The fire department extinguished the fire. An independent investigator stated the fire originated in the engine compartment. The vehicle was completely destroyed and towed to an authorized dealer. The manufacturer was notified of the problem. The approximate failure mileage was 18,000.
First occurrence I was sitting at a stop light and started to move, car lunged forward with an unattended acceleration. Second occurrence I was at an intersection waiting to proceed through, stepped on the gas pedal and car did not accelerate. Third occurrence was in kansas and my brother was driving. It surged again and we both noticed it. Fourth occurrence resulted in an accident in ringgold ga on 10-28-13. I was starting to park in front of the church, the car surged fast and I tried to stop it with my brake, but it continued into the concrete building resulting in my serious injury and $6,000 damage to my car. With great concern about this car, I went to the dealer and asked if they had ever heard of this before and they said, "no". *tr
Also reported on the 2013 Hyundai Sonata
Other steering problem
Other electrical problem
Other fuel system problem
Tail light, brake light or signal failure
Other lighting problem
Other brake problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 499 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 engine problem happen on the 2013 Hyundai Sonata?
Across 291 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 97,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 125,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 2013 Hyundai Sonata?
499 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 2.3 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