This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Crankshaft bolt broke with approx 75,000 miles. Kia issued service bulletin and replaced the bolt. But the motor was destroyed when it broke and continuously overheated and was undrivable. It required a new motor. Not having $ to replace motor & Kia zero accountability. Vehicle sat at a repair shop for 2 years & they filed for an abandoned title. At the time valued at approx $7500. Wasted!!!! thanks Kia!
Rusted brackets posing a dangerous safety risk, 2004 Kia Sorento with 162,000 miles. The entire bracket holding the differential rusted through. The frame rear cross member also rusted through causing the control arms is detached from the rear end also creating a safety hazard. There is a design flaw that allows water to stay inside the hollow cross member that caused the corrosion. Drain or weep holes in the cross member and an anti-corrosion coating would have prevented this. When the bracket(s) breaks the rear axle is no longer held in place there are reports on NHTSA where these brackets have rotted away and failed causing loss of control of the vehicle. This is a known design flaw that has been appearing on the older cars where the entire frame and rear end would have to be replaced. There will eventually be more of these failures and there is a potential for fatal accidents from loss of vehicle control. I am aware that in europe Kia has been repairing Sorentos.
Rusted brackets recalled in europe, refused by Kia to replace even tho they were rusted under warranty, pose a dangerous safety risk to unsuspecting owners. The entire bracket holding the differential rusted through creating a safety hazard. Presented with a small squeak in rear. I asked Kia to send people letters warning and they would not address the request. How Kia is getting away with severe rust, causing safety hazards in all vehicles, is beyond me. I know they are less expensive, is it worth it? can someone please address the issue and at least let the public know it is happening before someone gets severely injured or god forbid dies. There are thousands still on the road. I paid for their diagnostic worthlessness to make sure it was documented.
I was driving our 2004 Kia Sorento with my 3 young children in the car. Driving down a city street at 45 mph the car began to jerk as all the lights flashed on the dashboard. I lost all power, but I was able to cruise to park next to a curb, however the vehicle would not restart. I had it towed to my mechanic. The mechanic found that the crankshaft sprocket, key shaft, damper pulley, and crank bolt all were damaged and needed to be replaced.
- Ontario, CA, USA
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On Monday, August 10th, 2015 I was driving my 2004 Kia Sorento LX and heard a loud bang and then the vehicle began to fishtail. I was traveling at a low speed of around 35 mph. I immediately slowed down and managed to drive the vehicle to a nearby garage. At the garage the vehicle was placed on the lift and it was identified that the drivers side frame rail had completely broken in half and was severely corroded. The passenger side was also severely corroded but not broken all the way through. The cross-member above the rear axle is almost completely gone. I now have an 11 year old vehicle which should have a retail value of around $5K which is now completely worthless. I did some internet research and found I am not the only one experiencing this severe corrosion problem with this year and model Kia. I am surprised there have been no safety recalls for this problem. Had my incident happened at highway speeds the story may be a lot different.
About to get on hwy in nc, red light turned green started driving not even 10 seconds later gas pedal goes straight to floor and sounds like something drops. In the middle of the road car just stops with no warning-right before major hwy. Try to crank the Kia, nothing. Again, nothing. Physically push the car off road while others are speeding by-accidnet waiting to happen thank god it didnt. Get it towed home. Sat in yard ever since. Replaced multiple parts. Still does not run..
I was driving approximately 35-40 mph and my car suddenly lost power with all the dash lights briefly coming on (battery, oil, etc.). fortunately I was close to a side street and was able to make a hard turn and coast to the curb. I waited a minute and was able to restart the vehicle. I drove home and there was one more incident when the car started to lose power (lights dimmed) however I pushed on the gas and it powered up again. I have had the lights dim and the car seemingly lose power several times. Just prior to this the car typically hesitates when you are going full speed and then the dimming occurs. I've had my car idle at stop signs and at train crossings and have not experienced any power loss. It always seems to happen while driving 35-40 mph or more. I've had it happen while driving 60-70 mph on the highway. I had a diagnostic run on the car at the dealership with no concerning results. I've had a mechanic I trust check the alternator, the spark plugs, flush the coolant, put in fuel cleaner, etc. And he cannot locate the problem.
I was on my way to work on Tuesday, March 3, 2015. It was about 7:30/7:40 a.M. I was driving my 2004 Kia Sorento ex. I had just driven through St. Peter, mn on hwy 169 South on my way to mankato and was starting to pick up my speed as the speed limit increases as you leave town. All of a sudden, without warning, my vehicle just shut down. The "dummy lights" all lit up. I had no power steering, no brakes, no accelerator - nothing was working. Thank goodness the vehicle, because there was no power, slowed to a stop within a short period of time. I was able to pull over without a collision and no one was hurt. I put it in park and turned the key to the off position. I tried to see if it would start again and absolutely nothing happened when I turned the key. I called aaa and the Sorento was towed to the nearest mechanic shop. Without investing too much time in it because I didn't want a huge bill, the mechanic told me that it has electrical power - has good power to the starter, but the engine does not rotate. They could not even physically rotate the engine. He told me that regardless of what it was, it would be very expensive to repair it because, at this point, they have no idea what is wrong with it. That's when I got on facebook and started asking if anyone had any ideas of what could be wrong and a friend told me about the Kia Sorento engine defect class action lawsuit. I believe my 2004 Kia Sorento ex is affected by this engine defect. It was dangerous to be driving and I am thankful I was not on a busy freeway. As this just happened 3 days ago, I do not know what I am going to do with this Sorento. I would like to have it fixed, but cannot afford to do it. It is still sitting in the parking lot at the mechanics in St. Peter where aaa towed it to.
While I was driving out of my complex my the lights on the dash came on and it seemed as if I lost my brakes (which I cost to the side road as well as no steering. I had the vehicle towed and I was told that the pulley mounting bolt had broken off inside the crankshaft.
Driving on interstate hwy, 70 mph, the harmonic balance bolt and roll pin sheared off leaving broken off stubs in crankshaft. Causing loss of power steering, power brakes, I had dealer replace all fan belts because of squealing for the trip, 300 miles before the failure.
We purchased our Sorento used (approx 65K miles)about 3 years ago. Since then, we've had to replace the gas tank ($1500) among other things. This year has been absurd: Had to replace the radiator, water pump, computer system (2 months, $4700), brakes ($750) and 2 batteries. 2-3 months ago, we noticed a clunking/chunking sound that grew steadily worse. It sounded as if the 4WD was engaging and disengaging every 3 seconds and felt very unsafe at high speeds. I took it to Kia of cobb county and was just given a quote Friday for a new transfer case, drive shaft, "rear end chunk" (all the service rep could tell me) and 4 new tires. Quote for this work ($9767). The transfer case alone was around $5700. This vehicle now has 112K miles and is less than 10 years old. The blue book value is (was) around $5-6000 and we're told it'll take $10,000 to fix it? I called Kia's corporate office to ask if this was to be expected at Kia. I was told that our vehicle was not under warranty. I said, " I'm just asking if there's anyone at Kia headquarters who believes in their product and wants to protect the Kia name and you just keep apologizing." The rep responded, "I'm sorry, sir." We've found multiple complaints online from Kia owners reporting similar issues (chunking, transfer case, etc). When does this become.a recall issue" a safety issue"
Entering I-35 North from access road in san antonio Texas. Time 08:15am (rush hour) loud bang from rear of vehicle speed immediately dropped to 20mph, initially thought I had blown a tire. Pulled off access road to side street. Was having trouble stopping vehicle no brake pressure foot went all the way to floorboard. Checked rear tires, no visible damage to either tire (tires were new)when vehicle was purchased. Again attempted to drive vehicle, rear tires were having trouble rotating? later discovered wheel bearings had failed.
I had the vehicle in the dealership just below 100,000 miles. They didn't bother to tell me the transmission control module was messed up and needed replaced. This seems to be an issue with several people. And then to find out this is a dealer only part and over 900.00! I think this was poor customer service and they should've known something was wrong. The gear shift wasn't sitting in drive and not shifting correctly. I doubt I'd ever buy another Kia because their service sucks! they don't value their customers and that really makes me uneasy.
We have had 4 instances with the same issue in the fixing the pulley crank shaft. June 30, 08, (recall) October 6, 09, Aug 10, 10 and once again Sept 18,12. This is the same issue that causes you to loose steering while driving with apparently no warning. I find this extremely troubling as we have a new driver learning with this car. We are lucky to report that there have been no accidents or deaths but I think it is a very dangerous situation that will soon happen. The dealer wagner Kia of shrewsbury, MA feels that it is not an issue and is just from wear and tear. 4 times for the same problem? obviously Kia has not fixed the problem correctly. It angers me that Kia is not taking this seriously. We drive our children as well as other children in this car and could of had serious to fatal injuries. From this bolt shearing off it has also caused other major damage to the car that we have already had fixed.
Two brackets (one left, one right) that hold the rear upper control arms to the rear axle housing have completely snapped off. This leaves a very dangerous condition which will cause the rear axle of the car to rotate and fall out of the car. If this happens at speed, serious injury and/or death is likely. There are many many posts about this same problem online and Kia refuses to address the problem stating that it's not a flaw or defect. It is if it happens to almost every vehicle of this year and model. Kia does not offer a replacement bracket that can be welded on and they suggest that the entire rear axle housing assembly is replaced at a cost of several thousand dollars per vehicle. Kia motors refuses to acknowledge the problem or assist affected customers in resolving it.
Corrosion of rear differential, both left and right arm completely broke off axle assy, unsafe to drive. Repair shop I've used for the last 4 years gave estimate of $1,300 with possible additional cost of up to $500. They suggested I call Kia regarding my 10 yr. 100,000 mile warranty. Called Kia corporate headquarters for 10 yr. 100,000 mile warranty. Was told I needed to tow it from my repair shop to the nearest Kia dealer which was 48 miles away. Service manager after looking at defect told me warranty denied would cost $2,700 (approximate) and could count on an additional $500 to $1,000 when taken apart. Placed another call to Kia Corp. Headquarters for warranty and was told there is no defect. Damage as a result of salt out of their control, and the service manager had the final say.
Summary: Update to below problem I bought my Sorento in 2004, new. I replaced the coolant reservoir at 61000 miles due to overheating, replaced the low beam headlight bulbs on 4 occasions, tail lights on 2 occasions. My vehicle, 5 speed manual transmission, started to have a roaring noise approx. 6 months ago and the U-joints were replaced. It still roars. It quit running on 2-16-12 while I was driving, but restarted. It finally quit again and would not restart on 2-17-12. Check engine light indicate a fuel pressure sensor problem, but mechanic says this should not cause the problem I presently have. It has been in the shop since 2-18-12. The mechanic said it started for him. I insisted he let it run for a while and see what happens. Sure enough, it quit. Kia mechanic told me it may be a crank or cam sensor issue. Other problems--front dome light off and on at will, rear one works, clock on and off at will, vehicle hums loudly when driving for a while. It has been a reliable vehicle for the most part, but when there is an issue, it is hard to detect. Above work was completed at a cost of 1126,00. But now crankshaft bolt broke while driving costing damage to engine heads. Vehicle went back into shop and is still waiting repairs. Kia owes it customers better service and must pay repair cost and take responsibility for the faulty crankshaft bolts they provide to the mechanics.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Sebastian, FL, USA