2015 HYUNDAI SONATA — Complaint #2178077
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE filed February 18, 2026
NHTSA complaint #2178077 (ODI reference 11718824) concerns a 2015 HYUNDAI SONATA and was filed on February 18, 2026. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 9, 2026. The report was geocoded to Pennsylvania based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as engine, 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 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 2015 HYUNDAI SONATA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The vehicle suddenly lost power while driving on a public roadway. Immediately after, the vehicle began producing a large amount of smoke. The smoke quickly filled the cabin, making it difficult to breathe and creating an urgent safety hazard. My passenger and I had to exit the vehicle right away due to the amount of smoke. We were exposed to smoke inhalation and were stranded on the side of the road in unsafe weather conditions for over an hour while waiting for a tow truck. I later learned that the vehicle had an open recall related to engine issues; however, I was never notified of this recall. Regardless of recall status, the sudden loss of power combined with heavy smoke and potential fire risk created a dangerous situation that could have resulted in serious injury or death. I believe this issue represents a serious safety defect and fire hazard that could endanger other drivers.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2178077 |
| ODI Number | 11718824 |
| Date Filed | February 18, 2026 |
| Failure Date | January 9, 2026 |
| VIN | 5NPE24AF2FH |
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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.