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2023 Hyundai Sonata

Owner reports · Recalls · Investigations

Similar to other model years

Owner complaints for the 2023 Hyundai Sonata do not stand out strongly from the model-year median of 161.

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How this year compares

Owner complaints by model year

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Counts vary with age, sales and reporting. They are not failure rates.

What owners reported most

All reported categories

Tap a category to read its complaints. One report may name several components.

When problems were reported

Mileage at the reported incident

Limited mileage data: 11 of 86 reports include usable mileage. There isn’t enough coverage to show a useful chart.

NHTSA’s mileage field refers to the reported incident, not necessarily the filing date. This shows report counts, not the likelihood of a failure.

What to inspect

Issues worth paying extra attention to based on owner reports.

  • Fuel/propulsion System. Review the 37 owner reports in this category and discuss these concerns during a pre-purchase inspection. Read reports →
  • Engine. Review the 27 owner reports in this category and discuss these concerns during a pre-purchase inspection. Read reports →
  • Power Train. Review the 16 owner reports in this category and discuss these concerns during a pre-purchase inspection. Read reports →

NHTSA owner reports · September 18, 2026 snapshot.

5 crash reports0 fire reports0 injury reports

What owners actually said

86 reports
Mileage unknown · Sep 19, 2024
Electrical SystemFuel/propulsion System

My name is [XXX] , and I am the frustrated owner of a 2023 Hyundai Sonata SEL. For context, I am a [XXX] woman who had never experienced the frightening event of a “brand new” car breaking down—until now. I am still in shock and trembling from the experience I had with my “new” 2023 Hyundai Sonata on the morning of [XXX]. At 9…

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My name is [XXX] , and I am the frustrated owner of a 2023 Hyundai Sonata SEL. For context, I am a [XXX] woman who had never experienced the frightening event of a “brand new” car breaking down—until now. I am still in shock and trembling from the experience I had with my “new” 2023 Hyundai Sonata on the morning of [XXX]. At 9:30 a.m., I was driving on [XXX] . I was driving the speed limit (55 mph) and cruising along when, all of a sudden, as I went to accelerate, my vehicle instead began decelerating rapidly. I pressed the gas pedal, thinking I might have let up too much or accidentally had my foot on the brake. However, pressing the gas only caused the RPM to spike, with no change in my speed. I had to act quickly, paying close attention to the surrounding traffic as my car slowed down. Thankfully, I managed to maneuver from the far-left lane to the shoulder of the highway. My speed had dropped to around 30 mph and was decreasing. Trying to safely navigate a slowing vehicle on a highway filled with traffic is an adrenaline rush I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I was in a state of severe panic. As I steered the car onto the shoulder, I noticed it was shaking and struggling to move forward. White smoke was also coming from the exhaust. Once safely stopped, I put the car in park and turned off the engine to let it cool down. After a few minutes, I restarted it and noticed the engine, oil, and battery indicators were all illuminated on the dashboard. My first thought was a battery issue, but the car was still able to turn on. However, the engine did not start. A notification appeared, stating the car was not in a condition to be driven. After receiving the car back from the Hyundai Dealer I was notified that the issue was due to fuel injectors failing. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ODI #11615515

Mileage unknown · Sep 18, 2024
Power Train

I have been having transmission issues the whole time I've had the car. There is a delay upon take off, and it bogs down instead of downshifting. I was driving my son to school and made a left turn. It started to go but then delayed for 10 seconds before suddenly taking off. If the on coming traffic had been closer, they would'v…

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I have been having transmission issues the whole time I've had the car. There is a delay upon take off, and it bogs down instead of downshifting. I was driving my son to school and made a left turn. It started to go but then delayed for 10 seconds before suddenly taking off. If the on coming traffic had been closer, they would've hit us. The dealer has reproduced the problem but can't get enough information for the tech line to approve a new transmission even though the dealership has repeatedly said that is what it needs. I've never had a warning light on it. it's been in the shop for it this time since 7/26/24.

NHTSA ODI #11615169

Mileage unknown · Sep 11, 2024
Fuel/propulsion System

On 3 separate occasions the vehicle decelerated, lights flickered and stated to produce a burning smell through the engine. Each time the car would not allow me to accelerate and eventually stalled out. The car would no immediately start. After a few minutes it would start but not accelerate. After about 30 minutes it would star…

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On 3 separate occasions the vehicle decelerated, lights flickered and stated to produce a burning smell through the engine. Each time the car would not allow me to accelerate and eventually stalled out. The car would no immediately start. After a few minutes it would start but not accelerate. After about 30 minutes it would start and would drive about 5-15 mph, enough to get me to my location. On the first occasion I was coming home late in the evening after working a 12 hour shift and had to have a family member get me after being stranded by the side of the road. The second time I was taking my 4 to son to his planned surgery in a bigger city and it broke down on the way. It was not safe driving in the city barely being able to excel but we did it for my son. The third time I was in a larger time in traffic and missed an appointment as I tried to stear my decelerating vehicle out of multiple lanes of traffic to a safe location. I could not use the air conditioner while I attempted to let it rest in 100°+ heat. Each time the lights would flicker and dim. There would be a smoke from the exhaust. After the first 2 occurrences we took it to the dealership but they were not able to replicate the problem or identify a causative code. During the last occurrence we were able to get it to the dealership very slowly and they deemed it to be the fuel injector malfunctioning. This was fixed after about a week or so of being in the shop . About a week or two after the fuel injector was fixed the check engine light came on. We took it back into the service department and they "reset" the system thinking it was an error. The light came back on in less than 24 hours. The vehicle has been running a little harder, not as fast or responsive as normal. A service/evaluation date was scheduled and the code was checked indicating it was likely the catalytic converter. We scheduled another service appointment once the part was in which is 2 weeks from the evaluation appointment.

NHTSA ODI #11614018

Mileage unknown · Aug 29, 2024
Fuel/propulsion SystemPower TrainSeats

Hello, I have Hyundai Sonata 2023. The fuel tank of this car is expanded on [XXX]. I have never heard about this issue to any cars. I took my car to dealership they said they don’t know why this happened and they said they cannot fix it, my car at the dealership more than a month. I have created a case with Hyundai corporate off…

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Hello, I have Hyundai Sonata 2023. The fuel tank of this car is expanded on [XXX]. I have never heard about this issue to any cars. I took my car to dealership they said they don’t know why this happened and they said they cannot fix it, my car at the dealership more than a month. I have created a case with Hyundai corporate office in CA, it’s been a month since this case was created and I could reach out to my case manager only twice for this period of time. They are keep saying they are working on it, but no results they don’t even look at my car. Today I barely could reach my case manager and she told me that this is not under warranty and I will need to fix it out of my pocket. When I bring the car to the dealership they told me this not under warranty since warranty was up to 60k miles, I have 90k I asked them to fix it and I will pay but they said they don’t know how to fix it. Today I have researched and found that this issue is really common among Kia K5 and Hyundai Sonata’s 2021 2024, I will provide a link here: [XXX] Please check this link and you can see that most of the cars fuel tanks are expanded and back seats popped up. I have same exact problem. Kia asked drivers to inspect the cars with this issue and they said they will fix it for free since this is fuel tank defect. But what should I do with my Hyundai Sonata. I have same exact issue as you see at the link I have provided. I had powertrain DTC PO451 since march of this year dealership said just check if gas cap is on properly, but this caused this issue I see Hyundai will not help me it will almost 2 month I don’t have my car and I am still paying for it, please let me know what I can do Thank you! INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ODI #11611733

Mileage unknown · Jul 19, 2024
Electrical SystemEnginePower Train

I was driving on the interstate at interstate speeds and the car started to lose power. I was able to steer the car to a safe location and call roadside assistance. It appears that the engine control system had a failure in one of the control modules. The problem was reproduced at the time that I dropped the car off with the ser…

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I was driving on the interstate at interstate speeds and the car started to lose power. I was able to steer the car to a safe location and call roadside assistance. It appears that the engine control system had a failure in one of the control modules. The problem was reproduced at the time that I dropped the car off with the service center. The history of the issues for the vehicle are available. My safety was put at risk because the car lost power at high speed and I was only able to limp to a safe location. No warning lights happened until the issue was already taking place. After being notified by my Hyundai app, I was able to discover that the vehicle had a history of having this code (I have only owned the car for 32 days)

NHTSA ODI #11603350

Mileage unknown · Jun 28, 2024
Electrical System

2023 Hyundai Sonata Limited, 1.6 T. Battery discharged within 10 days while parked. This problem is well known to dealership. The dealership has to jump start cars and start them frequently on the dealership lot. It is impossible to park this model car at an airport or parking lot for more than a couple of days and maintain …

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2023 Hyundai Sonata Limited, 1.6 T. Battery discharged within 10 days while parked. This problem is well known to dealership. The dealership has to jump start cars and start them frequently on the dealership lot. It is impossible to park this model car at an airport or parking lot for more than a couple of days and maintain a battery charge. No warning or alerts. The problem is that the RESERVE amp hours of the standard stock battery is not adequate to supply the electronic drain of computers while parked.

NHTSA ODI #11597602

Mileage unknown · Jun 14, 2024
EngineFuel/propulsion SystemSteering

On two separate occasions, one at @9500 miles and the next at @19,000 miles the car engine started shaking and lost all power while driving. Unable to steer car. Both times towed to dealer and they say it needs new spark plugs and need to clean cylinders. They do not know root cause of problem and have not done any testing of …

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On two separate occasions, one at @9500 miles and the next at @19,000 miles the car engine started shaking and lost all power while driving. Unable to steer car. Both times towed to dealer and they say it needs new spark plugs and need to clean cylinders. They do not know root cause of problem and have not done any testing of the engine, no leak/compression testing. Dealer refuses to cover cost of repairs saying out of warranty but cannot give any assurances this won’t happen again. I’ve requested they contact Hyundai engineers to find out what’s causing this and, to date, they’ve done nothing. Vehicle is unsafe to drive and is still at dealership with no reason to underlying issue.

NHTSA ODI #11594317

Mileage unknown · May 3, 2024
EngineFuel/propulsion SystemPower Train

The car would not accelerate, nor switch gear while I'm driving middle of the highway. The car engine started to shake after my car wouldn't switch gear. The car engine would not start after turning the car off and caused a engine misfire. The transmission gear has a hard time switching gear from 0-40mph. This same incident …

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The car would not accelerate, nor switch gear while I'm driving middle of the highway. The car engine started to shake after my car wouldn't switch gear. The car engine would not start after turning the car off and caused a engine misfire. The transmission gear has a hard time switching gear from 0-40mph. This same incident occurred twice since purchasing the car in late November 2022.

NHTSA ODI #11586734

Mileage unknown · Apr 16, 2024
Structure

See attached document for complaint

NHTSA ODI #11583370

Mileage unknown · Apr 3, 2024
Electrical SystemEngineVehicle Speed Control

I have had three occasions where the dashboard lights would flash and the car would lose all power. The first occasion occurred on December 29th at around 12:20 pm at a crowded intersection. The dashboard lights lit up and all of a sudden the car had no power at all. I managed to get it through the intersection and pull it off t…

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I have had three occasions where the dashboard lights would flash and the car would lose all power. The first occasion occurred on December 29th at around 12:20 pm at a crowded intersection. The dashboard lights lit up and all of a sudden the car had no power at all. I managed to get it through the intersection and pull it off to the side of the road. To start it up I have to TURN OFF THE CAR by putting it in park and start it up again. This is stressful and terrifying to think about if this had happened on the freeway. Additionally, I took the car to get serviced and was charged a $1,800 bill to fix it in January. This repair took two weeks to complete. The car has since turned off two additional times on February 15th going down a hill at 40 mph and March 26th on a mountain road going 60 mph. I am very concerned this will happen on the highway and I will get into a serious accident or worse. To make matters more difficult, I have taken the car back to the Hyundai dealer again to have it looked at in April and will most likely be without the car for at least another week. I bought the car brand new and the check engine light has gone off four times since then.

NHTSA ODI #11581001

Official recalls

2

25V796000 · Fuel System, Gasoline

Nov 17, 2025

Hyundai Motor America (Hyundai) is recalling certain 2020-2023 Sonata vehicles. A damaged check valve can allow air to enter the fuel tank, causing it to expand and contact hot exhaust components, melting the tank.

Consequence & remedy

Consequence: A melted fuel tank can leak, increasing the risk of a fire.

Remedy: Dealers will inspect and replace the check valve. The fuel tank assembly will be inspected for damage and replaced if necessary. Additionally, dealers will inspect and update the engine control unit software. All repairs will be performed as necessary, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed beginning March 13, 2026. Owners may contact Hyundai customer service at 1-855-371-9460. Hyundai's number for this recall is 286. Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) involved in this recall became searchable on NHTSA.gov on November 19, 2025.

23V526000 · Power Train:automatic Transmission:fluid/lubricant:pump

Jul 27, 2023

Hyundai Motor America (Hyundai) is recalling certain 2023-2024 Palisade Tucson, 2023 Sonata, Elantra, and Kona vehicles. The electronic controller for the Idle Stop & Go oil pump assembly may contain damaged electrical components that can cause the pump controller to overheat.

Consequence & remedy

Consequence: An electric oil pump assembly that overheats increases the risk of a vehicle fire.

Remedy: Owners are advised to park outside and away from structures until the recall repair is complete. Dealers will inspect and replace the electric oil pump controller, as necessary, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed starting September 7, 2023. Owners may contact Hyundai customer service at 1-855-371-9460. Hyundai's number for this recall is 246.

Model-level recall history does not show whether a particular VIN is affected or has received a repair. Check a VIN with NHTSA ↗

NHTSA investigations

0

No exact-year investigations in this snapshot.