2012 HYUNDAI SONATA — Complaint #1799952
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about EXTERIOR LIGHTING:BRAKE LIGHTS:BULBS filed March 7, 2022
NHTSA complaint #1799952 (ODI reference 11455479) concerns a 2012 HYUNDAI SONATA and was filed on March 7, 2022. The owner reports the failure occurred on June 1, 2021. The vehicle had 160,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Florida based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as exterior lighting:brake lights:bulbs, 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: yes, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. A complaint that flags a crash, fire, or fatality is escalated on NHTSA's internal review queue and factors more heavily into any Preliminary Evaluation decision on this make and model. 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 exterior lighting:brake lights:bulbs 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 2012 HYUNDAI SONATA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2012 Hyundai Sonata. The contact stated that the rear taillights failed to illuminate upon depression of the brake pedal. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact had taken the vehicle to a dealer where she was informed that the socket to replace the light bulb had melted and that due to the failure, both light bulbs could not be replaced. The contact also mentioned that a white smoke had emitted from her driver side headlight when she attempted to replace the light bulb. The contact was able to replace the driver side headlight bulb; however, the driver side headlight bulb would illuminate very dim. The manufacturer had yet to be notified of the failure. The vehicle had yet to be repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 160,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1799952 |
| ODI Number | 11455479 |
| Date Filed | March 7, 2022 |
| Failure Date | June 1, 2021 |
| VIN | 5NPEC4AC4CH |
Similar EXTERIOR LIGHTING:BRAKE LIGHTS:BULBS Complaints for 2012 HYUNDAI SONATA
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.