2012 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid: fire, smoke or burning smell

Filed Sep 4, 2025 · Engine · 15,000 miles · AR · fire

The contact owned a 2012 Hyundai Sonata. The contact stated that while driving at 75 MPH on the highway, while depressing the accelerator pedal, the vehicle failed to accelerate. No warning lights illuminated. The contact veered over to the right side of the road, turned the vehicle off, and she noticed smoke coming from the engine. A bystander behind her noticed the flames coming up from the engine. The contact mentioned she exited the vehicle and called 911. No injuries were sustained. No medical attention was required. A police report was filed. The fire department extinguished the fire. The vehicle was destroyed. The vehicle was towed to Atow lot. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 160,000.

Filed Jun 9, 2021 · Engine · 72,000 miles · CO · fire

The contact owns a 2012 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid. The contact stated while driving at various speeds, the vehicle slowly start to lose motive power. There was smoke coming from the engine compartment. The contact stated that the check engine warning light was illuminated. The contact then received notification of the federal safety agency campaign number: 20V746000 (Engine). The vehicle was then taken to the local dealer where it was diagnosed with the engine needing to be replaced. The dealer stated that they could not service the recall until the engine had failed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer had not been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 72,000.

Filed Apr 2, 2019 · Engine · 93,000 miles · TX · fire

Engine fire, non collision. Just driving down the highway. No warning lights came on until engine quit running. Lost power and engine became extremely hot. Had to tow to mechanic who said engine might have caught fire and I would need new engine.

Filed Aug 7, 2018 · Engine, Transmission · 3 miles · FL

Engine started making a very loud knocking sound while driving 70-75 MPH. Shortly there after the engine stopped and smoke came out of the hood. Towed the vehicle to a local hyundai dealership that said the piston broke and went through the firewall.

Filed Aug 2, 2017 · Engine · 146,000 miles · CA

I was driving on the freeway when my car started driving rough. It made some loud clicking sounds and started to misfire and stutter. The next day I took it to the mechanic and he said the oil was empty, but I had just had the car in for service a few months earlier and there was no problem. The check engine and oil lights didn't illuminate. He did an oil change and tune up. The car continued to ride rough. I took it back to the mechanic a few days later and the oil was low again. There was no oil leak. He checked everything again and said it appeared the spark plugs were failing. Two weeks later I had the same problem again. I added oil. I took it to another mechanic (I was out of town). He cleaned the spark plugs. Four days later the car started acting really horrible, making loud clanking noise and stuttering. I added oil again and took it back to my original mechanic. He treated the oil and asked me to come back in a week so he could monitor the problem. The car drove smooth and without any problem then one week later, while driving to the mechanic the car made loud clanking noise and a cloud of white smoke came from the car. I had it towed to the mechanic. He is looking to replace my engine. In all this the indicator lights never came on (oil or check engine).

Filed Oct 28, 2014 · Electrical, Engine · 77,259 miles · HI · fire

The car was at a stop light and burst into flames, all of the sonatas have this problem, all sonatas will at the least burn up the engines, transmissions, or batteries due to this problem. Out of 35 sonatas tested 35 had this problem. Contacted hyundai USA, hyundai fullerton, hyundai consumer complaint line and they refuse to do anything about it . Every sonata hybird in the world, (to the best of my knowledge) will burn up the engine, transmission, or lithium batteries (which will catch fire) between 70,000 &120,000 miles, hyundai will not warranty the failure, this is caused by a manufacture defect.. A part in the cooling system will disintegrate and crumble apart like a wet cookie, then you will have a 3/4" hose coming off the water pump pumping all the water out of the cooling system, with less then a gallon of coolant this will take 2 seconds, everything will overheat and you can throw that car away, a new engine is $7,000.00 a transmission, $6,000.00 lithium batteries $10,000.00 all prices do not include installation..

Filed Sep 15, 2014 · Body, Engine · 40,000 miles · GA · fire · 2 injuries

We were traveling down highway 125 when my 2012 hyundai sonata hybrid caught on fire. It completely burned to the ground. We had about 5 seconds to jump out of car. All 4 occupants got out of car thank you god.

Filed Jan 13, 2014 · Acceleration, Electrical · 8,700 miles · CT

Electrical smell like melting plastic wiring: first incident as noted above; 2nd incident on 1/29/2013, mileage 9227-on vehicle start up (engine warm as it was after earlier driving) same hot, melting wire type smell coming through climate control dash vents; 3rd incident on 4/12/2013-mileage 12,353-hot burning smell through heater vents occurring on/after climbing steep hill for a mile or so; 4th incident-4/16/2013, mileage 12538, location of incident same as 3rd incident, same hill climb, same smell occurring during drive. Reported to dealer. Could not be duplicated during service appt. No further incidents of burning smell to current date: 01/13/2014. Cruise control and transmission gear selection issues: first incident: around 1/20/2013; subsequent incidents periodically since then to current date of 01/14/2013: when on cruise control, speeds set at anywhere (40-60 mpg for these incidents), on coasting down or flat terrain transmission will shift from 6th (high) gear down to 3rd or 4th and hold that gear with engine rev ving accordingly, until I either manu-shift it back up to 6th, or, perhaps after 10 or more seconds it might shift into higher gear on its own. I have deliberately not disengaged cruise control during these incidents to continue to assess the condition. Related to this is occasional excessive acceleration as car can drop (on cruise) to below set speed as in a dip in the road, and then applying speed to get back to set speed, but, it will accelerate aggressively to as much as 10 MPH above set speed before cruise control mode 'back' off the acceleration action, making the car feel like it is 'taking off'. This can happen often on certain roads at same transition points from coasting downward into a dip in the road, then (cruise control) reapplying power to get the car backup to speed. Rest will be sent in a second submission following this.