Sorento has ESC issue, which I am pretty certain is an electrical short, somewhere in the system. My main theory behind it, is because before it became as prevalent, it would only happen briefly, after hitting a bump, or going through the carwash, or driving while it was raining..... ie, shorting something. a day later, problem goes away.

But now it is just constant. So, what happens is the ESC OFF light comes on. This does two main things, first it prevents you from going into 4wd, hi or lo. Second, which is what people notice in their other compaints is that the vehicle goes into "limp" mode. More or less, the RPMs are limited, and it puts the vehicle in 4th gear, even from a dead stop. So you have no acceleration. If it happens when you're not expecting it, then it can be dangerous, when you pull into traffic expecting to move, and your car just puts along taking its sweet ass time.

So, different error codes, I have had the stop lamp switch replaced, the wheel base speed sensors replaced, the ABS module replaced, and the TCS module (under the front passenger carpet by their feet) replaced. Oh, and the transfer case motor replaced. All at the suggestion of different dealerships. None of them fixed it. I don't necessarily blame the dealerships- despite their price gouging, they are trying to fix the problem. But Kia corporation is terrible, won't disseminate information or create service bulletins for them to go off of. And they only use basic error codes. Additionally, the vehicles are wired like they were built in a third world country- last winter, there was a heavy snow, and I turned on my windshield wipers, that caused an overload and burnt the fuse. But that fuse was only for the first "speed" of the wipers, and some- not all- the lights on my center console, and my dash lights, as well as my right brake light..... Talk about the most random assortment of crap. So when there is a short in the ESC system..... where they are supposed to look, I have no clue. The last time I took it in, they wanted me to replace the front transfer case- at half the cost of the vehicles worth. At this point, its just a piece of junk, but it still runs, and gets me from point A to B. But I will NEVER, not even in an apocalypse, own a Kia again.