2003 HYUNDAI TIBURON — Complaint #651366
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about AIR BAGS:ON-OFF SWITCH ASSEMBLY filed December 29, 2007
NHTSA complaint #651366 (ODI reference 10213138) concerns a 2003 HYUNDAI TIBURON and was filed on December 29, 2007. The owner reports the failure occurred on December 13, 2007. The vehicle had 90,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Virginia based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as air bags:on-off switch assembly, 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: yes, fire: no, 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 TIBURON cohort independently describe similar air bags:on-off switch assembly 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 2003 HYUNDAI TIBURON shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
AIR BAG LIGHT CAME ON ON THE DASH OF MY 2003 HYUNDAI TIBURON BECAUSE OF A BROKEN WIRE UNDER THE DRIVERS SEAT. HYUNDAI HAS HAD RECALLS ON OTHER VEHICLES FOR THE SAME PROBLEM WITH THE WIRE GETTING BROKEN UNDER THE DRIVER SEAT. THEY HAVE FIXED THE PROBLEM UNDER A RECALL TO INCLUDE PUTTING A PLASTIC COVER OVER THE WIRES TO PROTECT THEM. THEY TOLD ME THAT THERE IS NOT A RECALL FOR THAT PROBLEM ON MY VIN NUMBER VEHICLE, SAME PROBLEM. THE DEALER SAID IT IS A COMMON PROBLEM WITH THIS VEHICLE. THIS COULD CAUSE THE AIR BAG NOT TO DEPLOY IN AN ACCIDENT. THEY SAID THAT THERE WAS DEBRI UNDER THE SEAT THAT CAUSED THE BREAK. THE ONLY THING UNDER THE SEAT WAS A SMALL COLLAPSED UMBRELLA THAT WAS ON THE BACK SEAT FLOOR. I BELIEVE THAT THERE HAS NOT BEEN A RECALL FOR THIS VEHICLE BECAUSE NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE HAVE COMPLAINED. THIS IS A SAFETY PROBLEM WITH THE WAY HYUNDAI RUNS THE WIRES UNDER THE SEAT. *TR
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 651366 |
| ODI Number | 10213138 |
| Date Filed | December 29, 2007 |
| Failure Date | December 13, 2007 |
| VIN | KMHHN65F43U |
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.