2021 HYUNDAI SANTA FE — Complaint #2137094
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about AIR BAGS:FRONTAL:DRIVER CLOCKSPRING/SPIRAL CASSETTE filed October 7, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2137094 (ODI reference 11691820) concerns a 2021 HYUNDAI SANTA FE and was filed on October 7, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 7, 2025. The vehicle had 60,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to North Carolina based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as air bags:frontal:driver clockspring/spiral cassette, 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 SANTA FE cohort independently describe similar air bags:frontal:driver clockspring/spiral cassette 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 2021 HYUNDAI SANTA FE shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the controls on the steering wheel became inoperable. In addition, the air bag warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed with clock spring failure. The contact was informed that the clock spring needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. In addition, the contact stated that the Department of Motor Vehicles declined the registration renewal due to the failure. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure, and several cases were filed. In addition, the contact was informed that the repair was not covered under the recall nor special program. The failure mileage was approximately 60,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2137094 |
| ODI Number | 11691820 |
| Date Filed | October 7, 2025 |
| Failure Date | March 7, 2025 |
| VIN | 5NMS34AJ9MH |
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.