Table 1 shows one common exterior lighting related problems of the 2024 Hyundai Sonata.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Exterior Lighting problems |
While driving on the highway on 4/4/26 at 10:40 pm the dashboard and the headlights went out. The outage lasted about 5 seconds and then they came back on. I drove another 40 minutes and did not have another problem. My safety was put at risk because I could not see the road and others could not see me! there were no warnings prior to the problem. This is the second time in a year that this incident has happened. The first time was in September 2025.
While driving the dashboard headlights and all safety systems shut off for a brief period and then reset and if driving at night this leaves you completely in the dark till the system resets. All lights exterior and interior all the safety sensors, adaptive cruise control everything shuts off. Anything tied to the electrical system shuts off. The only thing that remains running is the engine.
The exterior lights such as head lights and brake lights aswell as all interior electronics shut off at random intervals while driving posing a serious danger early in the morning and at night.
The automatic high beams feature seems to work through the camera by the rearview mirror. But the issue is when this camera is blocked, all of the safety systems that use the camera will be disabled as they normally will be since the camera cannot see, but the automatic high beams function will still stay on, the indicator light for it will be green meaning that the system is operating normally. As a result of this, the automatic high beam system keeps the high beams on at all times because it thinks that it is dark enough because it doesn’t see any light through the camera. This could potentially increase the risk of a crash because the driver may not realize that the high beams are not turning off when approaching another vehicle or when a vehicle is coming the opposite direction, which can blind other drivers on the road. This needs a recall to resolve this problem.
When driving early in the morning while it was still dark outside, the car had what seemed to have been a sudden loss of electrical power. The audio for the radio cut off, then the screen for the radio and speedometer went blank, and the headlights also went out. This all lasted for a couple seconds when this happened and then everything came back on fine. I normally would think that this is a defective alternator which it probably is and would be covered under warranty, but after researching this problem I found out that it is a common issue with the 2024 Sonata. I feel that this warrants a safety recall which I seriously doubt will happen but it needs to. If it causes problems with headlights shutting off at night then this is a safety issue. Who knows what will happen if the headlights shut off on you at night and you couldn’t see where you were going because of it?.
I purchased a new 2024 Hyundai Sonata hybrid limited in may 2024. At about 3500 miles I noticed the low-beam headlights did not adequately illuminate the road. When driving at night, the low-beams don't illuminate the road signs nor do they adequately have any vertical illumination. When pedestrians are walking on the roadway, the low-beams barley light the calf of a person's leg, but there's no indication of the persons body being illuminated. Using the hi-beams, these problems are somewhat resolved. The roadways are better lit, the road signs are better lit and pedestrians are a little more illuminated. I've addressed this with Hyundai, and while there's screw(s) to vertically align the headlamps higher, it seems they are adjusted all the way to the top position. Even if the headlamps could be adjusted vertically, because the headlamps are so recessed under the hood, the hood cuts off any possibility for lights to vertically illuminate people. In my opinion, this is a serious safety issue that's caused by a design flaw and the nthsa should seriously considering deeming this vehicle unfit for road use at night.