2018 HYUNDAI SONATA — Complaint #1768451
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:ENGINE:OIL/LUBRICATION:SUMP/TANK filed September 15, 2021
NHTSA complaint #1768451 (ODI reference 11433038) concerns a 2018 HYUNDAI SONATA and was filed on September 15, 2021. The owner reports the failure occurred on October 15, 2020. The vehicle had 40,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Illinois based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as engine and engine cooling:engine:oil/lubrication:sump/tank, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same HYUNDAI SONATA cohort independently describe similar engine and engine cooling:engine:oil/lubrication:sump/tank failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2018 HYUNDAI SONATA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2018 Hyundai Sonata. The contact stated that while driving, the oil warning light illuminated. The contact stated that he checked the engine oil level and discovered that there was no oil in the engine. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the failure was diagnosed as an oil plug needing replacement. The vehicle was repaired however, the failure continued. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer several times and the failure cause could not be determined. The contact stated that recently an oil consumption test was completed, and the dealer determined that to be the failure cause. The dealer contacted the manufacturer who stated that the failure cause was due to the owner's negligence and no solution was offered. The approximate failure mileage was 40,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1768451 |
| ODI Number | 11433038 |
| Date Filed | September 15, 2021 |
| Failure Date | October 15, 2020 |
| VIN | 5NPE34AF2JH |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.