Other powertrain problem on the 2012 Hyundai Tucson
2 crashes 1 fire 3 of the 22 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 powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Hyundai Tucson report other powertrain problem at a median of 65,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles, from 16 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 105,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 95,400 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.
25% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8,100 miles | 33,933 miles | 63,219 miles | 84,750 miles | 103,500 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, 2 a crash and 1 a fire 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 $400–$4,500 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 20 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2023, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2026 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2016 carries the most reports, with 328; the 2012 has 22. 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 hyundai tucson. The contact stated that after placing her vehicle in park and exiting the vehicle, it rolled backward and crashed into a bus. No police were contacted. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where they advised her that they were unable to diagnose the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contacted and they offered no assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 1,000.
This car has an automatic transmission and it pulls out of park very easily with no key in the ignition or foot on the brake. This LED to my car rolling down a hill and hitting a tree with no one in the drivers seat. When I went to the dealer they tried this on another car in the lot and it did the same thing. I was told by hyundai corporate offices that this is a "campaign" item. I can not find this problem listed and I think it should be addressed before it leads to injury or death. *tr
I should start by stating that this has been an ongoing issue with this vehicle since I got it last year. At random times, while driving, my vehicle will not allow me to go above 2500k rpms, even with the gas pedal fully depressed. This may happen while I am on a slow road or, as today, when I am on the highway. It is a safety concern because I will need to merge onto the highway or speed up for some other reason and suddenly I have no power. I will be going 30mph and entering a 70mph roadway. The only way to stop this is to pull over, turn the vehicle off, and then turn it back on. I have taken it to my hyundai dealer multiple times and they have been unable to fix it or address it in any way whatsoever. It is a huge safety issue that they will not address. *tr
Also reported on the 2012 Hyundai Tucson
Other engine problem
Other brake problem
Complete engine failure or seizure
Other electrical problem
Oil leak
Other speed control problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 22 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 powertrain problem happen on the 2012 Hyundai Tucson?
Across 16 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2012 Hyundai Tucson?
22 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 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