2012 HYUNDAI SONATA — Complaint #1873695
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:ENGINE:OIL/LUBRICATION:SUMP/TANK:DRAIN PLUG filed February 15, 2023
NHTSA complaint #1873695 (ODI reference 11507474) concerns a 2012 HYUNDAI SONATA and was filed on February 15, 2023. The owner reports the failure occurred on February 7, 2023. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as engine and engine cooling:engine:oil/lubrication:sump/tank:drain plug, 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:drain plug 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
3 Months post oil change June 2022, oil plug fell out on highway and motor seized. Dealership advised motor no longer manufactured and recommended used motor supplier. Purchased a used motor with 80K on engine, had it installed in June of 2022. Dealership did oil change in December 2022, in February 2023 noticed oil smell and oil on the ground in driveway. Added 4.25 quarts of oil and started motor, attempted to locate the leak when noticed leak below motor. Turned off motor and found oil dripping from under car near the oil drain plug. Reached under car and touched oil drain plug with finger and plug fell out draining all oil to the ground. Had vehicle towed to the dealership, new oil change completed. Demanded the dealership install new oil drain plug, torque to manufacture specifications and apply lock tight to plug. Dealership stated they no longer remove the oil drain plug due to customer complaints and stated they only pump out the oil. When i asked them if that was a man
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1873695 |
| ODI Number | 11507474 |
| Date Filed | February 15, 2023 |
| Failure Date | February 7, 2023 |
| VIN | KMHEC4A41CA |
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.