2023 Hyundai Elantra Brakes Problems

Subject: Safety Concern – Unintended Emergency Braking My vehicle is experiencing a serious safety issue involving unintended emergency braking. While driving on the freeway, the vehicle has unexpectedly applied emergency braking on its own when other vehicles pass at higher speeds. This has occurred multiple times and has nearly caused accidents. This issue occurs consistently during my trips between [XXX] and [XXX] on Highway XXX, typically happening once or twice per trip. I make this drive approximately 4–6 times per year. The problem remains unresolved and continues to occur as of today, April 29, 2026, posing an ongoing safety concern. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ID

11734570

Incident

Mar 1, 2024

I have been encountering a series of troubling and erratic issues with my vehicle. These problems occur under various driving conditions, including acceleration, steady-state driving, and braking. However, the most prevalent and problematic occurrences seem to transpire during acceleration and braking. During acceleration, I've observed inconsistent behavior. Sometimes, the car shifts smoothly, with minimal torque drop between gears. On other occasions, the vehicle accelerates initially but then abruptly loses all power between gears, resembling the sensation of someone engaging the clutch in a manual vehicle and shifting slowly. This results in a temporary power loss lasting 1-2 seconds, followed by an over-revving and clutch slip, leading to an unintended surge in acceleration. The issues I've encountered during braking typically begin with a chattering noise and vibrations that seem to be an imbalanced or shocked reciprocating mass, I can assume maybe one of the clutches/flywheel . This is often followed by decreased brake pedal linearity, requiring increased brake pedal pressure to stop. This normally results in an unintended aggressive forward jerk just before coming to a stop, akin to someone releasing a clutch on a manual transmission vehicle too quickly when downshifting while the engine speed is too low. One night I went to get diapers for my baby and it was raining and I hit the breaks and the breaks lost control and I crashed into a median wall and my car kept spinning around. Ambulance were called and I was admitted to the hospital with minor injuries.

NHTSA ID

11622137

Incident

Mar 6, 2024

Multiple times driving on highway at posted speed limit and vehicle displays emergency braking system and just comes to complete stop on highway with oncoming cars going 65mph. Has happened 3 times before.

NHTSA ID

11590624

Incident

May 24, 2024

While driving in a straight line my brakes and brake pedal were activated without any pressure being applied and maintaining about 45 mph. I pulled over to check the car and see if there was anything stuck in the wheel well and saw nothing. I got back in my car and proceeded to drive 2 blocks where i then went to park and upon turning left to pull into a parking spot my car immediately stopped and indicated that the emergency brake had been activated. I had not touched the brakes or the hand brake whatsoever and using the handbrake to turn on and off the emergency brake did not fix this i had to just wait until it was released. Upon researching this other drivers of the same model and year have experienced this problem in more dangerous situations on the freeways and at high speeds. I believe the problem has to do with the emergency brake being activated due to an electrical problem.

NHTSA ID

11584337

Incident

Apr 21, 2024

My car has 11000 miles. 6 times I have had the emergency braking come on when there have been no cars close to me (4 times by 3500 miles and twice from 3500-11000). One time no other cars even in sight. I have been on the freeway and on side streets, so from 20 mph to 65-70 mph. It is startling and I'm afraid will cause me to get rear ended as it's instinctive to step on brake when this happens. I mentioned this to the dealer I purchased it from at my 3500 and 11000 mile oil changes and they said they couldn't reproduce it and everything was fine. It's only happened 6 times in 11000 miles so it is unlikely the dealer will be able to reproduce. But especially going freeway speeds it is not safe to slam on breaks for no reason and I am afraid of getting rear ended. I was looking online to see if this problem had been reported and someone with the same issue was recommended to report it to this site, so I am doing the same. Thank you.

NHTSA ID

11570163

Incident

Feb 3, 2024

On two occasion vehicle abruptly shuts down leaving me with no control of vehicle. 1st incident , i was turning corner when car made a loud screeching noise and completely shut down ,i had no control over breaks or steering. Car sat for several hours before i could start it up, i did attempt to drive it down the street. I called to have vehicle looked at by dealership. They were unable to duplicate what happened . I received car back drove it for 2 weeks and then same thing happened, this time I was on a busy road when it shut down making loud screeching noise . I let vehicle roll while i struggled to pull over . I had no control over vehicle something is triggering vehicle to shut down . I am very concerned this will continue happening and it could result in a serious injury or fatality . Dealership as of today has no resolution to this problem , they still have my vehicle in their shop .

NHTSA ID

11556275

Incident

Oct 23, 2023

The contact owns a 2023 Hyundai Elantra. The contact stated while driving 65 MPH, the rear cross track warning light was illuminated, and applied the brakes independently, causing the vehicle to independently steer to the right. The contact was able to regain control of the vehicle and continued driving. The contact stated he had experienced the failure a total of 5 times. The contact took the vehicle to the local dealer who was unable to duplicate the failure. The contact stated he continued to experience the failure. The vehicle was taken back to the local dealer and to diagnose the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer had been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 7,000.

NHTSA ID

11535451

Incident

Jun 1, 2023

Mileage

7,000 mi

1. False Emergency braking when car from back side passing. Today I was driving in the left lane (lane 1) at ~43MPH. There was no vehicle in front of me and I saw a vehicle applying emergency brakes with a message pop up. At the same time there was a small truck passing me from behind in lane 2 at a higher speed than me. Looks like the system is falsely detecting there is a crash from back and applying brakes. Please also see the other users story on below links. Thanks, Anil https://www.carproblemzoo.com/hyundai/elantra/automatic-emergency-braking-problems.php https://www.hyundai-forums.com/threads/2021-elantra-sel-emergency-brake-engages-for-no-reason.680150/

NHTSA ID

11487326

Incident

Sep 30, 2022