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.
In December 2022 while driving at various speeds, the vehicle began to overheat. No warning lights illuminated. I pulled over and let the engine cool down. Then coolant was added to the reservoir. I waited before restarting the vehicle. I took the vehicle to an independent mechanic the next day and was informed that the head gasket was blown, and the engine would likely need to be replaced. Kia dealership was contacted and notified. The vehicle was not repaired.
The engine overheated. We were able to get to a place and stop. We continue to have overheating issues. An independent shop believes it is being caused by the issue of stripped head bolts. They advised I take it to the Kia dealer who denies being able to recreate the overheating. No further inspection has taken place. The temp gauge was topping out but no other warning lights or gauges were triggered. After reading numerous other accounts of issues with this engine in this car I was concerned about continuing to drive the vehicle for fear of being stranded or the engine seizing while driving.
I was driving on an interstate coming down a mountain and my car stopped accelerating. The check engine light also began flashing. I glided along the interstate to the nearest exit. I had my car towed to a mechanic who told me my engine blew due to a defect in my engine. Months prior to this incident, my car would not retain oil so I took it to Kia and they replaced my oil gasket thinking that was the issue. However, it turns out the problem was with a defect in my engine. This is a very dangerous issue. Please please recall these cars.
My 2016 Kia Sorento 3.3 L V6 starting over heating and smoking and loss of power and would no start when it was running hot. In January of 2023. We towed the car to Kia and they could not find the problem told us we need to replace the thermostat for $1000 and that would fix the problem we left and had it towed away. We took the car to a radiator shop two days later and they change the water pump and thermostat. The overheating continued we took it back to the radiator shop and they performed a head gasket pressure test and the car failed and they said the head gasket was leaking and we need to get the heads repaired they quoted $6900. We later took the car to a engine rebuilder and they certified that the heads gasket was blown with the same test and the bolts were wore off on the cylinder heads and the engine needed to be rebuilt or replaced. We went to Kia they did not do anything. We had to get the engine totally rebuilt on our cost total cost $4712.04 and it took 3 months to find all the Kia parts. KIA issued a letter to cover the repairs for these engines and this model on Janurary 2, 2024 and it and has not been paid it has been sixty days which was there time frame in the letter to cover the claim they won't answer us at all with a verdict the most terrible car company around.
Car excessively burns oil. Within 1,000 miles burned through about 4qts of oil with no type warning light. Refilled with 4 more quarts then burned within 3 weeks of average driving. Vehicle only has 90k miles wirth no sign of oil being burned or oil stains in normal parking area.
- Stockton, CA, USA
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My 2016 Kia Sorento burns excessive amount of oil and Kia fails to fix the problem regardless of the warranties on the vehicle. The engine was never inspected by the dealer!
My started leaking oil prefusly one day. Started car went down the street 5 mins and came back. My drive way has puddles of oil. Leaking fast. Too it to kwik car they informed me that I have a leak in the turbocharger. It-??s leaking into my exhaust. I got the oil added to the car yesterday and today my oil is already low and almost empty.
Driving on freeway and car suddenly would no longer accelerate over 40mph. Pulled off the freeway and large amounts of white smoke was coming from the exhaust. Turned off engine, looked under the hood and saw engine coolant bubbling. Attempted to restart car and it would no longer start. The car was towed to a Kia dealership and diagnosed as head bolts backing out of cylinder head causing leak and pressure with coolant and oil mixture. I was told my engine would need to be replaced.
My name is [XXX] Owner of KIA SORENTO 2016 V6 At the begging of this year in early January, my automobile starting showing extremely overheating conditions. My wife was taking our kids to school on a cold weather, 15 minutes from home and as she was arriving to the school parking lot she noticed the temperature indicator up to (H) mark, she then notice a loud buzzing sound coming from the engine.She parked the car immediately as she could, shutdown the engine and asked my kids to leave the car immediately. She called me very frightened and worry about my kids safety and hers. She said that she was able to shutdown the engine but the temperature indicator stayed on H mark and the buzzing sound was still on. Then, I remember receiving a latter from Kia Corporate Headquarters, extending the warranty on my car on mid December 2023. The letter states that the warranty has been extended because it's a potential overheating and coolant leaking that it has been related to the cylinder head gasket and head bolts. We reached out to a dealer right after the incident and on [XXX] we took our car for inspection and acknowledge the mechanical problem. All the sings of the fail system of the engine are present in my car. My car has been at the dealer since [XXX] and as of now Kia Corporate has fail to proceed with the approval of the repairs of my car. I have been renting cars all this time and the dealer personal said they can't approve to pay any rental until Kia Corporate Headquarters acknowledge the fail engine. Its absurd that Kia Corporate Headquarters have the knowledge of this dangerous mechanical issues in my car engine but fail to acknowledge repairs. The case it's no longer" to be determine" on their data base, its updated to repair as fallow but yet has not acknowledge that our car has to be fix under their extended warranty and my wife still driving my kids on a rental car. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
While driving the car, the engine temperature started fluctuating and finally reached over temp. The engine failed. I towed the car to my mechanic and initially thought that the head gasket had blown. However, upon inspection, they found that the engine head bolt to the engine block was damaged. The threads were stripped. The only repair option for this problem was to replace the engine block. I believe the engine on this vehicle is a 3.3-liter Lambda II V6. This car only had 87,000 miles on it.
The contact owns a 2016 Kia Sorento. The contact stated that the engine was empty of engine oil a week after an oil change. After oil was added, the contact's husband observed that a quart of oil had been consumed in a few days. The vehicle was initially taken to an independent mechanic, and it was discovered that excessive oil sludge and hard carbon build-up was in the valve and stems. The contact was also informed that the piston rings were worn and that there was scoring on the cylinder walls. The contact also stated that while driving at 55 MPH, the engine oil warning light flashed on the instrument panel and the vehicle stalled. Due to the failure, the vehicle was towed to the dealer where it was diagnosed with piston failure and a misfire in cylinder #2. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 142,000.
The Engine failed at 79,000 miles due to the known defect with their 2016 Kia Sorento engines. Kia is unwilling to honor their recall due to not completing what they refer to as a Product Improvement prerequisite. Kia admitted these Product Improvements are only communicated to original owners and not published through any recall so a consumer that purchased a pre owned vehicle would have no way of knowing about this unless they ask for it specifically at a Kia dealership.
Engine failed Kia decided that part is Not covered under warranty and dealer expects us to pay $6500 This car is only 8 years old, 88,500 miles. How can Kia sell faulty engines and still expect someone to pay outrageous price to repair their junk cars?!
turbo feed pipe, high pressure fuel line, oil feedline gaskets, oil return line gaskets, turbo oil feed line. problems started happening in 2016 with turbo. 2020-2024 seem to be having problems with turbo lines and oil lines and nothing seems to be connected. in 2020 something happened and lost oil but no lights came on. also, have had more recalls on this vehicle than any other one i have owned. if there is a problem with this engine or turbo, i just wanted to have my concerns recorded.
It was determined by a local mechanic that the engine was damaged due to a internal rod busting through the block of the engine. This caused an immediate shutdown of the vehicle in the middle of traffic on a cold night with my 7-month old daughter in the vehicle. I suppose it could have been worse if the engine had caught fire or if we were on the highway, thankfully we were barely accelerating from a stop light. The engine has not been inspected by Kia as they claimed it would cost over $300 to just look at it, and it is well known from the original mechanic what the issue was. We did contact Kia about it but they were unwilling to fix the issue. We were quoted over $10000 for a replacement engine but that was all the help we got. Prior to this sudden destruction of our engine all normal oil changes and maintenance had been done and there were no warning lights on the dash.
Driving loud pop and crunch white smoke loss of power vehicle would not start after found prices of head underneath vehicle. Known issue with the 3.3 leaking coolant into engine and failing
The engine of the vehicle and other parts had a problem which had caused the vehicle to not accelerate fast enough. It also made the car shake when it was stopped. The component that is malfunctioning is available for inspection. If the car does not accelerate on the road, then it can cause a crash which can lead to injuries or even death. Especially if the car has to turn left and other cars are incoming, it can lead to serious issues if the car does not go fast enough. It can lead to injuries to the driver and the passengers. The vehicle was initially put for inspection to the manufacturer in Lou Sobh Kia, "fixed", and then was given back in a condition where the effects stated above continued to occur. We then took the vehicle back to the manufacturer where they further reviewed the car. They reviewed it again and did not tell us enough information about the issues going on with the car. Since we did not think they were reviewing the car properly, we took it Rick Case Kia where they were able to spot out the engine problem. It was also reviewed by a Korean service center and Good Year where they both told us that it was an engine and timing belt/chain problem, whereas Lou Sobh Kia weren't able to properly capture the issue. Both the engine light and oil light were on which is why we took it to Kia Lou Sobh, and they first appeared around October-November 2023.
Son's vehicle began overheating, so he took to his mechanic. Determined that the thermostat in the cooling system was bad and replaced it. About a week later (2/2/24), sitting at a stoplight, car began to overheat again. Took back immediately to mechanic and determined that the head gasket needed to be replaced. Waited 17 days only to find out when mechanic went to replace head gasket, discovered the threads in the block were pulled out. Now looking at replacing engine block for a lot more time and money. Seems to be common issue with this model and should be a recall.
I bought this vehicle 2/1/24. I have taken to Valvoline for the past 5 oil changes. On each receipt it showed an engine oil leak. on 2/16/24 I smelled something burning. So I checked the oil level and found that it was almost empty. There was Not an engine oil light warning that the oil is low. I took my vehicle back to Valvoline to have them check it. They told me that they noted on each of the invoices that there was an engine oil leak. I had only driven 2000 miles since my last oil change and the oil level should not be this low. This should not be happening.
We were driving on the [XXX] on [XXX] with a speed of around 70 miles per hour. We started to see a small amount of white smoke coming from under the hood and at the same time the truck started to slow down by itself unexpectedly and then started to jerk back and forth. No indicators showed up on the dashboard. The speed reduced quickly and hitting the gas pedal did nothing to accelerate our speed. The white smoke started to increase and it became difficult to see. We then saw the temperature gauge go all the way up to hot out of nowhere. There were vehicles all around us and the passengers in the car started to yell to try to get to the shoulder. We had to maneuver very quickly through traffic with the car continuing to jerk at a very slow speed, which was very scary and dangerous. We were finally able to slowly get over to the shoulder. We turned off the truck. When we opened the hood, white smoke was everywhere coming from the engine and the coolant in the plastic receptacle was bubbling. The coolant looked like it was about to explode and the driver got burned trying to remove the cap. There was significant heat coming from the engine. The coolant then drained out of the receptacle. When we tried to start the truck again it would not start. We spend hours trying to get a tow to a shop in NJ miles from where we live in NY. Several days later, the mechanic in NJ took a look at the car and he reported this week that the head gasket is blown and that we need a new engine. We plan to tow the truck back to NY to KIA where we have the car serviced normally to have it looked at. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Averill Park, NY, USA