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.
When in "auto" mode for headlights, the lights occasionally turn off while driving. I have to switch to "on" to get them to work again. Very dangerous obviously. Also, sometime the lights do not turn off, or turn on in the middle of the night when the vehicle is parked. Again, this is while in "auto" mode.
The stalk appears to be failing, specifically when lights set to auto. The most alarming aspect of this issue is when head (and maybe tail) lights go out entirely while driving [at night]. This has happened several times, at various speeds, drive times, vehicle occupancy, etc. Additionally, the head and tail lamps will turn on randomly when the car is off and locked. This can happen both hours or days after parking and has been the cause of replacing two batteries within two years.
Over the past couple of months my headlight are shutting off while driving at night. They don-??t come on when I start the car some nights. When they shut off it-??s hard to get them to turn back on. I-??m twisting the knob multiple times to get them back on while driving.
I was driving down the highway at night and out of nowhere my head lights turn off. Leaving me and my daughter driving blind going 60 mph. Prior to that on the same night, I picked her up from work I was turning out of the parking lot where she works and the same thing happened but very quickly corrected itself. The area was lit up so it wasn't as noticeable. This is a very dangerous problem.
My 2017 Sorento has been having issues with the headlights for the past 6 months. I keep them on auto mode and half of the time they don't turn on until I click them to "on" and switch them back to auto. There have also been a handful of times where my headlights turn off while driving. This is absolutely unacceptable and extremely unsafe. This needs to become a recall before someone is seriously injured, or dies.
- Vancouver, WA, USA
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Driving 70mph, driving lights completely shut off. I was going straight with a car in the distance nobody behind. If my wife and kids were driving that would have been scary.
While driving after dark with the auto lights engaged, my headlights suddenly turned off. When I turned the knob on the light switch they came back on and I continued to drive. A short while down the road this happened again. At this point I turned the auto lights off and just ran them in manual on mode. No further incident with them in manual. This has now happened on several occasions.
1) The headlights will turn off while driving when the headlight switch is "automatic." 2) The headlights and taillights will illuminate after leaving and locking the vehicle leading to a completely drained battery.
The vehicle just lost power at 75mph on [XXX] heading home to Princeton, ME, started vibrating really bad misfiring then we pulled over the Kia Sorento stalled. Then would not start back up. It-??s been using over a quart a week since we got it from the dealership in Bangor, Maine. We got it towed home our mechanic looked at it and noticed oil on the plugs and said we probably need a new engine. Low beam light keep coming off and on so thinking it-??s something electrical. Time to time the transmission take a min to shift the engine rpms stay up n takes a few extra seconds to shift. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
My headlights, when set to -??auto-?? randomly turn off. Very scary and dangerous at night! Also, illegal. I can get them to come back on by turning the lights off and on multiple times from the left stalk. But can-??t believe Kia hasn-??t addressed this.
Headlights intermittently turn off when set to the "auto" setting while the vehicle is in use. I received a warranty notification from Kia for the issue and attempted to have it fixed through a Kia dealership. Kia dealership did not have the part to fix it and does not know when they will have the part. This issue first started happening in October 2023. Visit to the dealership was November 22, 2023. Issue is still not resolved.
The contact owns a 2017 Kia Sorento. The contact stated while driving at night, the headlights became inoperable. The contact stated that the failure occurred intermittently. The vehicle was taken to the dealer however, the cause of the failure could not be duplicated. The contact later received Kia Extended Warranty notification for a multi-function switch assembly failure. The local dealer and a second dealer, Kia Mall of Georgia (4180 Buford Dr, Buford, GA 30519) were contacted but informed the contact that the part was not yet available. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, but no assistance was provided. The failure mileage was unknown.
The headlights randomly turn on and off while driving and with the switch set to -??Auto-??. This also occurs when the vehicle is shutdown with no key in the ignition and with no one in the vehicle. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request. Having the headlights turn off when driving at night presents a risk of the driver not being able to see the road and for other drivers to not see the vehicle. These risk may lead to an accident causing great harm to life and property, including death. The vehicle is currently with the dealer for diagnosis. There are no warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure. This problem began in the spring of 2023 with less than 60,000 miles on the vehicle.
Sporadically during night driving the headlights will go out. Headlights set to AUTO each time. Most recently while turning right. Had not used right turn signal.
Headlights switch set in Auto position. Headlights turned on spontaneously, two different times while auto was off and locked. This resulted in battery being drained and auto would not start. This has not happened since switch was set to Off position.
Headlights turned off on 3 occasions in the last 2 weeks. first i was driving on an unlit section of a residential thoroughfare, dark night and suddenly, while both hands on steering wheel, not having had any interaction with dashboard/radio controls, smooth section of roads (no obvious bumps) the lights turned off. I immediately fiddled with the steering column mounted light control switch, which did not give me an immediate relief, flipped it to highbeams and they worked. 2nd and 3rd time (yesterday 9/8/23) while on semi lit highway they again shocked me by turning off, i again toggled the light switch, this time highbeam flip did not work, i was doing 65 on a 70 and having lights turn off, with no reason, scary. 80,000 miles. i have had the light switch in automode.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Davis, CA, USA