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Body · 5 owner reports

Rust or structural corrosion on the 2013 Hyundai Sonata

Only 5 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.

Reports of this failure 5
With an odometer reading 5
Reports per 1,000 built 0.0 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 20%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $500–$6,000
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 52nd

When rust or structural corrosion gets reported

There are 5 reports of rust or structural corrosion on the 2013 Hyundai Sonata, 5 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 120,000 miles. It is the 52nd most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 5 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 70,000 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 $500–$6,000 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 11 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 70,000 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 130,000 miles.

By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 39; the 2013 has 5. 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

Vehicle has 70000 miles. Both front coil springs are broken due to corrosion. Found on inspection at dealership. Very premature failure . If not found could have LED to tire puncture and possible accident.

70,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1298152 filed 2016-07-14

Coil springs. We live in a cold climate state and our concerned that our coil springs might be defective or corroded like the spring problems in the 2011 sonata models. We own the 2013 se sonata model which one would think has a better suspension than the standard model, apparently that is not the case. After a flat tire on a paved county highway (car in motion at 45mph) on march 6, 2017 we found out that both front springs had to be replaced after normal driving (70k mileage). Dealership told us passenger front spring breaking likely caused our flat tire and once in the shop, they discovered other spring was cracked and needed to be replaced as well. We had not encountered any major road hazards when the flat tire occurred. Car was more noisy after last service at dealership december 27, 2016. Service included oil change, tire rotation and a required under body corrosion treatment. Our ride sounded more noisy like when snow tires are placed on a vehicle, dealership and myself thought it was just from the recent tire rotation, but the noise lasted until the flat tire incident which occurred with a rumble like sound from the tire…

70,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1363438 filed 2017-03-15

Tl* the contact owns a 2013 hyundai sonata. The contact stated that the exterior brake lamps illuminated without warning. The vehicle was taken to the jim bert hyundai dealer where it was diagnosed that the failure was due to corrosion. The bulbs were replaced and the technician attempted to remove the corrosion; however, the failure recurred. Hyundai was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 85,000.

85,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1390576 filed 2017-07-10

Also reported on the 2013 Hyundai Sonata

Other engine problem

499 reports median 97k

Other steering problem

258 reports median 45k

Other electrical problem

146 reports median 80k

Other fuel system problem

135 reports median 102k

Other lighting problem

94 reports median 83k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 5 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 5 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 rust or structural corrosion happen on the 2013 Hyundai Sonata?

Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 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 rust or structural corrosion on the 2013 Hyundai Sonata?

5 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