2018 HYUNDAI SONATA — Complaint #2033125
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:AIR HANDLER/CHAMBER, DUCTS, AND VALVES filed October 17, 2024
NHTSA complaint #2033125 (ODI reference 11620317) concerns a 2018 HYUNDAI SONATA and was filed on October 17, 2024. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 15, 2023. The vehicle had 125,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Indiana based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:air handler/chamber, ducts, and valves, 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 visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:air handler/chamber, ducts, and valves 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 2013 Hyundai Sonata. The contact stated that all the rear row seat belts did not buckle as intended and water would leak from the front passenger side air conditioner. The local dealer was contacted, but the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 125,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2033125 |
| ODI Number | 11620317 |
| Date Filed | October 17, 2024 |
| Failure Date | March 15, 2023 |
| VIN | 5NPE34AF0JH |
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.